Tag - smoke

how to • smoke for bees

How to light a smoker so it stays lit

July 25, 2016

41 Comments

smoke for bees

How often do you smoke your bees?

July 22, 2016

40 Comments

Smoke and bees don't mix well. Smoke interferes with the bees' navigation and pheromones.

honey bee behavior

Smoke and bees: the effect of wildfires on bee...

August 23, 2015

22 Comments

Smoker fuels: A lit moker-filled-with-alfalfa-pellets. © Rusty Burlew.

beekeeping equipment

Many types of smoker fuel: What’s your smoke?

May 23, 2015

64 Comments

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

comb honey • comb honey production

Comb honey and smokers

February 13, 2014

6 Comments

beekeeping equipment

Smoker fuels are as varied as beekeepers

May 5, 2010

16 Comments

beekeeping equipment • comb honey production • infrequently asked questions

Do beekeepers smoke bees with marijuana?

March 17, 2010

19 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.