Author Archives: Ron Miksha

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About Ron Miksha

Ron Miksha is a bee ecologist working at the University of Calgary. He is also a geophysicist and does a bit of science writing and blogging. Ron has worked as a radio broadcaster, a beekeeper, and Earth scientist. (Ask him about seismic waves.) He's based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

The Center (of beekeeping)

In the 1800s, states tried to place their county seats near the county center. The county seat usually hosted the county government, the county court, and (conveniently) the county jail. Being equidistant from all villages, it seemed fair. In my … Continue reading

Posted in Commercial Beekeeping, Culture, or lack thereof, History | Tagged | 3 Comments

Bees That Watch Bees

Picture this. A bee with her tiny face pressed against a window, spying on other bees so she can see where the treasure is hidden. Sounds ridiculous to me, but it turns out to be true. The experiment In 2013, … Continue reading

Posted in Bee Biology, Science, Strange, Odd Stuff | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

2016 in Bee Review

2016 was a year for the bees. Honey bees were in recovery. Colony collapse hadn’t been reported in five years and (in Canada, at least) there were record numbers of kept hives – there were more bees than anytime in … Continue reading

Posted in History, Outreach | Tagged | 6 Comments

The Bee Movie, Altered

Blending humor, tech prowess, and blatant disregard for the sacrosanct, youngsters have satirized Bee Movie on YouTube. Since it’s still winter break, and you may be looking for pointless online entertainment, here are some of the Bee Movies recently damaged … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Humour | Tagged | 2 Comments

Langstroth, the Christmas Gift

I’m repeating a blog which I posted on Christmas Day last year. It’s about the inventor of modern beekeeping, L.L. Langstroth. Enjoy! He invented modern beekeeping, making it easier, more productive, and less stressful for bees. However, Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth … Continue reading

Posted in Beekeeping, Books, History, Hives and Combs, People | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Don’t throw good money after bad beekeeping

Originally posted on Bees with eeb:
Continuing with the winter theme, another recent read was Ron Miksha’s book Bad Beekeeping. Miksha maintains a blog of a similar name for sharing his thoughts on the world of bees and beekeeping. He mentioned…

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Non-science Brains as Scientists

It seems that youngsters who are not particularly gifted in science and math are more likely to want a science job later in life. Kids who excel in science are less likely to want to be scientists. At least, that’s … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Outreach, Strange, Odd Stuff | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

National I Love Honey Day

Today – December 18 – is National “I Love Honey Day”. I’m not sure whose idea this one is, but it’s a good one. America should have a national honey day – it’s the world’s largest honey customer. Maybe it … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Honey, Humour | Tagged , | 2 Comments

A Century of Honey Songs

It’s Sunday morning, just a week before Christmas. I’m hoping that your bee work is done and you have some time to listen to a few tunes from honey-throated singers and sticky-fingered musicians. Our first gift to you is Flight … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Movies, Strange, Odd Stuff | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Meet the Family Caste

Yesterday, I vented about honey bees and honeybees – the former being correct, the latter wrong. Today’s a new day, so here’s a new vocab issue. In today’s interesting world of blended boundaries, I thought I’d write a few words … Continue reading

Posted in Bee Biology, Books, Queens | Tagged , , | 5 Comments