Author Archives: Ron Miksha
Clipped and Marked? Part 1
If you live north of the equator, you’ve noticed the days getting longer. Your bees have noticed, too. Maybe you’ve already had your first late-winter inspection. Hopefully, you are not peering into hollow tombs, but instead you’re seeing bustling little … Continue reading
Bees are Meaner if Childhood is Miserable
Some aggressive honey bees were raised to be mean. Some bees, it seems, grow up on the wrong side of the honeycomb. Or, as one experiment shows, in the wrong sort of hive. Illinois and Pennsylvania researchers conducted a brilliant … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Biology, Genetics, Science
Tagged aggressive bees, epigenetics, experiment, nutrition
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Bumper Crop
The numbers are in and the prize goes to Alberta. Alberta, a province in western Canada, has once again won the prestigious honey production award. For those of us who learnt beekeeping where 50-pound crops are the norm (in my case, … Continue reading
Groundhog Day Again
When I was a kid growing up in western Pennsylvania, Groundhog Day was a big deal. It didn’t hurt that it was also our elementary school principal’s birthday. We didn’t get the whole day off (unless Feb 2 was on … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Ecology, Humour, Strange, Odd Stuff, Swarms
Tagged bee legends, Calgary, groundhog day, winter
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Ozone and the Bees
Sitting in traffic, smelling everyone else’s exhaust (you know yours doesn’t stink), you begin to worry about the bees out there. They smell the fumes, too. But if you look closely, you won’t see them gasping or coughing. That’s only … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Biology, Ecology, Honey Plants
Tagged Brassica nigra, mustard seed, Ozone, pollution
3 Comments
Resistance is Futile
The Hive Mind, the idea that an entire colony operates like a single organism with one mind, is a notion that’s been picked up by people who don’t usually wear bee veils. Some of these folks are screenplay writers while … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Biology, Science, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged Borg, collective wisdom, hive mind, Tom Seeley, Wadey
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Putin Likes Organic Food
Russia’s Vladimir Putin has suggested that anyone who sells or grows genetically modified foods on his turf should face a few years farming in Siberia. He has proclaimed Russia will be GMO-free and he’d like to see his farmers raise … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Ecology, Genetics, History, Pesticides, Save the Bees, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged Charles Darwin, epigenetics, GMOs, Putin, Russia
2 Comments
The Honey Threshers
A century ago, threshing crews worked their away across the American and Canadian prairies, harvesting farmers’ grains. When I was rather young (not quite a century ago) one of my Saskatchewan buddies signed up for a threshing crew job. Maurice … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Yards, Beekeeping, Commercial Beekeeping, Honey, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged mobile extracting, pulling honey, robbing bees
10 Comments
Winter Wonderland
Every month I try to meet friends in a village called Bragg Creek. It’s just a half hour drive from my home in Calgary. It gets me out of town and up close to the mountains. When I get there, … Continue reading
Sherlock Holmes’ Birthday
Today, January 6, is the fictional characters’ birthday. He would 162 years old, had he bothered to live so lived. In celebration of the great fictional detective’s fictional birthday, here’s a repeat of the piece I wrote to honour Sherlock … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Movies, People
Tagged Ian McKellen, Mr Holmes, Sherlock Holmes, Ulee's Gold
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