Tag - queen cage

absconding

My bees swarmed right after installation

9 years ago

32 Comments

miscellaneous musings

Playing hide and seek with a queen . . . or two

11 years ago

6 Comments

bee stories • beekeepers • miscellaneous musings

Beekeeping and the erosion of English

11 years ago

9 Comments

honey bee myths • queen bees

Monday morning myth: attendants must be removed from...

11 years ago

22 Comments

honey bee management • queen bees

When to unite the queen and a package of bees

12 years ago

34 Comments

honey bee management • how to

How to install a package of bees

12 years ago

50 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.

Update! 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!

Should You Destroy Extra Queen Cells?Yes or No?