Author Archives: Ron Miksha
World Apitherapy Day
On March 30, we usually celebrate World Apitherapy Day at our house by eating fried drone brood seasoned with dandelion pollen and buckwheat honey while receiving a few intentional bee stings on our finger tips. What a fun day! I … Continue reading
Posted in Apitherapy, History, Hive Products, People, Stings
Tagged Apitherapy, Apitherapy Day, bee stings, Filip Terč
6 Comments
Beekeepers Come; Beekeepers Go
Between 45% and 75% of British beekeepers are newbies – in their first four years. Only 10% have been at it for more than ten years. I guess it’s similar in Canada, Australia, and the USA. I saw the UK … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Culture, or lack thereof, Humour, Outreach, Save the Bees
Tagged beekeeping, learning
14 Comments
Black ‘Pollen’ in March
A friend sent this great picture of a honey bee trucking home some very dark pollen today. Since flowers are not yet blooming here in Calgary, I’m pretty sure that the ‘pollen’ is coffee. Bees have been known to gather … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged Calgary, coffee, pollen, pollen substitutes
14 Comments
A Cold Canadian Wedding
I’ve been preoccupied. My oldest son’s wedding was on the weekend. I’m sharing a couple of pictures. The bride’s family came from Colombia. Because of work, they were only able to visit for a week. I was disappointed that we … Continue reading
Eating the Vomit of Slaves?
This headline showed up in my beekeeping news feed this morning. It’s a disgrace to the cause of fighting against the abuse of animals and it shows total stupidity of the subject on the part of the PETA writer responsible. … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Outreach, Save the Bees
Tagged animal abuse, PETA, slavery
7 Comments
International (Bee-)Women’s Day
Today (Wednesday, March 8) is International Women’s Day. Women have always played an important role in beekeeping. In developing parts of the world, it is usually women who tend hives and produce honey for their families’ food and cash. In … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Culture, or lack thereof, History, Outreach
Tagged bee blogs, Calgary Bee Club, Eva Crane, women in beekeeping
9 Comments
Golf Magazine Calls Bee Study “Frivolous”
A magazine dedicated to knocking a ball into a hole in the ground is calling a bee study frivolous. I can imagine no greater authority on frivolity than a magazine called Golf Digest. Here’s a link to their flippancy. While … Continue reading
Maple Syrup is Dark
It’s February. Maple syrup time in Quebec. The saps are flowing! I live in western Canada (no maple syrup trees here on the windy prairies) so I don’t think a lot about the sugar tapping going on at the moment … Continue reading
The Place to Pair (and pair and pair) with a Bee?
Maybe I should have written this blog in Latin. When I was a kid, I saw a bee biology book where the author switched to Latin when he got to the part about how queens and drones get together to make … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Biology, History, Queens, Science
Tagged Cornell University, drones, eb white, Lawrence Connor, Norman Gary, queen breeding, Wicwas Press
7 Comments
Bee My Valentine
(Adapted from my 2015 Valentine post . . .) Beekeepers are not sentimental. For most of us, Saint Valentine’s Day is a day of intense panic when male beekeepers rush out to buy something special for some darling or pigsney. … Continue reading
Bad Beekeeping Blog 