As 2019 draws to a close, let’s look back at some of the year’s beekeeping stories. Honey prices were lower again in 2019, forcing some beekeepers out of the business. Still, many countries now have more honey bees than anytime in history, although other bee species are disappearing.  2019 was the year that we became aware of the insect apocalypse. We also learned that, unlike Jack Sprat, varroa eats fat. And nearly half of the honey exhibited by beekeepers at Apimondia contained some chemical contaminants. Finally, we note the passing of research scientist Tibor Szabo, who had spent 70 years studying bees  – and was awarded the prestigious Order of Canada for his work.

Well, 2019 is over. This year, I managed to publish 73 blog posts (about 40,000 words). Read them all, if you have time. But if time is your enemy, here were the ten most visited posts on the Bad Beekeeping Blog during 2019:

1) How many honey bees are there?  (About two trillion.)

2) Comb on demand (Manufacturing artificial, fully- draw wax comb.)

3) Apimondia 2019: Wednesday (And a scandal) (40% of honey entries were chemically contaminated.)

4) Good Neighbour Beekeeping  (How to be a good beekeeping neighbour.)

5) Ulee Jackson has died    (Actor Peter Fonda was Ulee Jackson.)

6) Have you ever seen a queen like this?  (A strangely-pale queen and her drones.)

7) The Death of Sylvia Plath  (The greatest bee-poet of her generation.)

8) If it looks like a bee, it’s a wasp  (Wasp, bee – what’s the diff?)

9) At least one of these bees is a laying worker  (Laying workers are a lot more common than we thought.)

10) Winter’s coming – are you insulated?   (Button up!)