Author Archives: Ron Miksha
Stinging Science
I wrote about this fellow last year. He likes to get stung for science. Below, I’ve repeated my blog, The Worst Place to Get Stung, from September, 2014. The big news is that the research scientist – intent on finding … Continue reading
Every Day is Labour Day
In Canada and the USA, a lot of people get a day off from work today. Unless your job is in a store, hospital, police station, prison, theatre, restaurant, hotel, airport, the military, or nuclear power plant. Or if you … Continue reading
Posted in Commercial Beekeeping, Culture, or lack thereof, History, Honey, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged Labor Day, Labour Day, value of honey
1 Comment
English lady with bad teeth reportedly steals honey
From the Manchester Police Twitter feed: Police in Manchester, England, are looking for a woman with big-hooped earrings and bad teeth. They say she may have stolen three jars of honey. The honey jars were priced at £46 each – … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Honey, Humour, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged black teeth, sugar, tooth whitener
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Foulbrood – Still Smelling Foul
With so much attention on varroa destructors and nicotine-flavoured pesticides, we sometimes forget some of the other scourges of modern beekeeping. Not long ago, American Foulbrood (AFB) was the worst thing that could happen to your bees. If you were … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Commercial Beekeeping, Diseases and Pests, Genetics
Tagged American Foulbrood, evolution, South Africa
5 Comments
Smoky Bees
My home town – Calgary – is under a smoke advisory. The sky is hazy with smelly gray smoke from the trees, grass, and homes that are on fire down in Washington state. Those fires are about 700 kilometres (500 … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Honey
Tagged Alberta, bee smoker, Calgary, forest fires, pheromones, smoke
5 Comments
Thistle Bumblebees
Although I have mentioned many times that honey bees are not going extinct (there are actually more kept hives of honey bees today than 10 years ago), I am concerned about wild and native species of bees. Loss of habitat, … Continue reading
Fair Honey
As a beekeeper, I have always been troubled with the disposal of honey. Invariably, we produced more than we could eat, especially since I ran as many as 2,000 hives. We had to get rid of the excess. Some went … Continue reading
Honey Bee Highways
Norway – the 2nd most liveable country in the world* – has yet another feather in its woolly cap. Or super on its hive, if you will. The Norwegians have a Honey Bee Highway. That’s a trail of flower pots … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Ecology, Friends, Honey Plants, Humour, Save the Bees
Tagged Earl Emde, Norway, Oslo, planting for bees, Polli the Pollinator
2 Comments
How Honey Bees Discovered Vaccines
Last week, the popular press was claiming that honey bees discovered vaccines millions of years before humans did. It makes great lead paragraphs for news stories, but the tale is slightly off the mark. Honey bees don’t have scientists. They … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Biology, Diseases and Pests
Tagged AFB, American Foulbrood, honey bees, immunization, vaccines, vitellogenin
3 Comments
Uncommon Ancestory
Creatures change with time. You might believe that God controls, guides, or designs those changes or you may have the opinion that random acts in the environment create mutations which change a species. The former idea is accepted by the … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Biology, Genetics, Science
Tagged bumblebees, common ancestry, DNA, evolution, honey bees
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Bad Beekeeping Blog 