I am sitting at my desk eating “project food.” The red spatters on my computer look like blood, although they’re merely the crimson juice of a pomegranate. I can’t figure out how to peel a pomegranate without painting a crime scene. But no matter, I only do it at Christmas. Did you know that bees […] Read more
When we were undergraduate students in Corvallis, Oregon, my husband and I used to invite random people over for Thanksgiving dinner. Whoever didn’t have a place to go for the holiday was welcome to share the meal and join the small talk. As nearly penniless students far from our families, it was one of the […] Read more
This is a rant about plurals and capital letters and how they apply to bees. Fascinating! But if you don’t care to read about English, please go no further. More than one bee? If you are writing about a single bee, the word “bee” works just fine. But if you happen to be writing about […] Read more
Christmas Day 2015 marks the sixth anniversary of Honey Bee Suite. I don’t know how I feel about that. In some ways it seems like I’ve been writing posts for decades, and in other ways it seems like I just started. Then too, on some days I have endless ideas, and on other days the […] Read more
Last week I was notified by a friend that a post of mine was sent to the membership of his local beekeeping club after the title, source, and author name were stripped. Legally, there is a name for this behavior: it’s called “theft.” Taking something that belongs to another without permission is stealing. This bee […] Read more
Honey Bee Suite was born on Christmas Day 2009. I had registered the domain name about six months earlier, just in case I decided to write a blog. The name came to me out of nowhere. I wanted to write mainly about honey bees, but also about closely related subjects such as beekeeping, wild bees, […] Read more
So what is “the better way to bee?” I now think of it as logic-based beekeeping—beekeeping built on science, experimentation, and reasoning—not on myth, wives’ tales, or hyperbole. Where I was raised in rural Pennsylvania, a high value was placed on “horse sense.” Also known as common sense, horse sense is the talent to apply […] Read more