Author Archives: Ron Miksha
What are these bees thinking?!?
A beekeeper in Winnipeg sent some photos of her hives. Her bees are misbeehaving. They broke cluster at minus 8 degrees (around 20 F), masses of bees are hanging out at the entrance, and she wants to know why. Sadly, … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Climate, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged bad beehaviour, Winnipeg, wintering
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Can Bees Smell Cancer?
This is an intriguing idea. A Portuguese designer has invented a novel system that might detect various illnesses, including tuberculosis, diabetes, and lung cancer. Susana Soares has built a lovely contraption – a glass bubble inside another bubble which holds … Continue reading
Posted in Apitherapy, Bee Biology, Science, Tools and Gadgets
Tagged bee senses, cancer, odors
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Deadly Truck Crash
One of the thousands of loads of bees heading south after the summer harvest didn’t make it. On Sunday morning, November 3, a tire blow-out on a tractor-trailer caused this crash in Georgia that killed millions. Of bees, that is. … Continue reading
Bees Delivering Pesticides
This sounds so bizarre. At first. Canadian researchers have found an odd way to potentially deliver benevolent viruses, fungi, and bacteria to greenhouse vegetables. Before some lucky bees are allowed to fly inside glasshouses to pollinate peppers and cukes, they … Continue reading
Posted in Ecology, Pesticides, Pollination, Science, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged Beauveria bassiana, bee vectors, genetic modification
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Should Prince Charles be king? Or should he be a beekeeper?
I am one of the few people I know who has taken a personal public vow of allegiance to the Queen. And all her heirs. I take my duties seriously. It is my job to offer helpful life skills to … Continue reading
Estonian Choco-propolis
Friends bought a chocolate bar for me. Not just any bit of chocolate, of course. They were in eastern Europe and the stuff they found was really interesting. It contained propolis. And tasted like it. Eating chocolate-propolis is not for … Continue reading
Posted in Apitherapy, Culture, or lack thereof, Hive Products
Tagged candy, chocolate, Estonia, patents, propolis
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Knowing what we don’t know
It’s easy to know a lot these days. But being smart is quite another thing. It can’t be bought or taught. Not the way facts are. The internet is the reason knowing things is all rather easy. I research for … Continue reading
The Perfect Honey Jar
Forget Steve Jobs and all that i-stuff. If you want to talk about design that trumps utility, then look at what Tamara Mihajlović and her co-designer Njegos Lakic Tajsic have created. This is magic. A brilliant honey container like none … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Honey
Tagged honey containers, marketing honey, Serbia
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Keeping ahead of the sheep
Democracies often work better than dictatorships. Democracy is based on crowd decisions, or, in the trendy new parlance, crowd sourcing. Crowd sourcing really came of age with the internet – put your question, issue, project, or some politician’s dirty laundry … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, History, Swarms
Tagged crowd sourcing, Henry David Thoreau, Honey Bee Democracy, Tom Seeley
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Talking about bee science
Ted talks and so do bee scientists. Maybe you know Ted. TED, actually with capital letters, stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and the TED Talks are a series of conferences with great (entertaining) speakers. The talks are filmed and then … Continue reading
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