Tag - moisture

physics for beekeepers

Physics for beekeepers: mold in a beehive

March 24, 2017

35 Comments

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

wintering

Moisture quilts should be dry

October 14, 2014

24 Comments

beekeeping equipment • hive placement

Why tip my hive?

October 13, 2012

8 Comments

beekeeping equipment • muddled thinking • wintering

Should my hive tilt forward?

February 7, 2012

14 Comments

Unpainted beehives often do not last as long as painted ones.

beekeeping equipment

An unpainted hive makes for poor and expensive bee...

February 20, 2011

25 Comments

One way to reduce hive moisture in spring is to trap and remove some of the drones. I feed these to my chickens.

beekeeping equipment • honey bee management

The best way to reduce hive moisture in early spring

May 28, 2010

48 Comments

Regardless of dictionaries, we have in entomology a rule for insect common names that can be followed. It says: If the insect is what the name implies, write the two words separately; otherwise run them together. Thus we have such names as house fly, blow fly, and robber fly contrasted with dragonfly, caddicefly, and butterfly, because the latter are not flies, just as an aphislion is not a lion and a silverfish is not a fish. The honey bee is an insect and is preeminently a bee; “honeybee” is equivalent to “Johnsmith.”

—From Anatomy of the Honey Bee by Robert E. Snodgrass

The non-native European Honey Bee is the state insect of:

Arkansas
Georgia
Kansas
Louisiana
Maine
Mississippi
Missouri
Nebraska
New Jersey
North Carolina
Oklahoma
South Dakota
Tennessee
Utah
Vermont
West Virginia
Wisconsin

Not one native bee is a state insect. The closest relative of a North American native bee to make the list is the Tarantula Hawk Wasp, the state insect of New Mexico.

Minnesota now has a state bee as well as a state insect. Bombus affinis, the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee, has been so honored. Good work, Minnesota!

Connecticut’s state insect is the European “praying” mantis. Although they are beneficial insects, they are not native to North America.