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Hive stands that defy the wind

After last week’s post about wind-toppled bee hives, lots of beekeepers explained how they managed to reinforced their hive stands, and a few sent photographs. I’ve gathered the photos together below so you can take a look and “bee” inspired. Nancy Baker This is my summer set up. During hurricane season and through the winter […] Read more

Freakish wind topples bee hives

Elena Campbell protected her colonies from just about everything. She installed electric bear fencing, robbing screens, insulating wraps, candy boards, ant moats, weights, and tie-downs. She thought she had everything covered until an unexpected Eastern Washington wind laid them flat. Elena explained that her day started out a crisp 20°F. Although the forecast called for […] Read more

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Bee Wise
Go to the bee, thou poet: consider her ways and be wise.

—George Bernard Shaw
Bee-yond Bees
Bees are more than a hobby; they are a life study, in many respects a mirror of our own society.

—William Longgood
Why Honey Bee is Two Words

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
State Insects
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!
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