Todd Smith, a Michigan beekeeper, wants to know my favorite beekeeping footwear. He is trying to decide on a gift for a 77-year-old female beekeeping friend, and he was thinking of footwear for the bee yard. Well, I have news for you, Todd. Women do not own footwear. Women buy shoes, boots, sandals, or even […] Read more
Editor’s note: Sometimes having a website seems like having hundreds of pen friends. The pen friends are the ones who keep writing, year after year, even though many months may pass between communications. Email addresses tend to stick in my mind, so when one of these lands in my inbox, I’m always pleased. Renaldo Raymond […] Read more
Last evening Dizzykin wanted to go out at 10 pm. His little sister, Minikin, followed fifteen minutes later. I was elated at the prospect of spending an entire night without cats lounging all over me, grooming incessantly, and leaving pieces of themselves all over the blankets. I looked forward to a stretch of tranquility. But […] Read more
Yesterday I got my first sting of the season. That would not be remarkable except for one detail: the culprit was a mason bee. A mason bee! I have never before been stung by such a creature. I’ve been keeping mason bees for about seven years, and during early spring the area around my patio […] Read more
Don’t be confused. Today’s post has nothing to do with science or facts; it has only to do with an inkling I get about wintertime honey bees. After years of first-hand observation, it seems to me that the stings of winter bees are worse than the stings of summer bees. Yesterday provided a perfect example. […] Read more
I just got stung three times on the butt. How is that possible? How can you face your bees and get attacked from the rear? Well, it has to do with my favorite pants. My brown and grungy cargo pants are perfect for working around the yard. I fill the pockets with screwdrivers, trowels, hive […] Read more
Someday I’m going to quit beekeeping so I can have clothes without propolis. I’m serious. Luckily, clothes have never been very important to me—jeans and a tee and I’m good to go. But once in awhile I’d like them to be clean enough so people in the shops wouldn’t squint at me and try to […] Read more