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.

Windshield bees

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Ron Miksha

Road kill. In this case, it’s bees. I was out of the city yesterday, cruising the Alberta back roads at 110. (The posted speed limit was 100, so maybe that was really my speed.) I passed a few bee yards … Continue reading →

Posted in Beekeeping, Humour | Tagged | 1 Comment

Chinook Honey Festival

Posted on August 24, 2013 by Ron Miksha

Chinook Honey Farm’s Honey Harvest Festival was today, near Okotoks, just south of Calgary. As always, Art and Cherie entertained their hundreds of guests with lots of games, demonstrations, and programs. The farm has a great meadery with a wide … Continue reading →

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CBC discovers CCD

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Ron Miksha

CBC Evening News Blames Neonics for Colony Collapse… In a touching – and sad – news program from CBC’s National, we see the story of an Ontario beekeeper who is losing his bees. View the complete video on YouTube. CBC … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Pesticides, Save the Bees | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Time to say goodbye – or maybe not

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Ron Miksha

Bees have made the cover of Time. Missing bees, that is. The cover announces “A World without Bees” and promises to disclose “the price we’ll pay” if we can’t stop the bee losses. I’m not sure exactly what triggered this … Continue reading →

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Movies

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Ron Miksha

Another movie about honey bee deaths? Why not? It appears the public isn’t tired of hearing about dead bees yet. The latest installment is “More than Honey” which was filmed on location inside a beehive studio somewhere in Switzerland. Last … Continue reading →

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Flooded

Posted on June 27, 2013 by Ron Miksha

My home town has been hit by a flood. We would call it the “once in a century flood” but we had that back in 2005. We are told, however, that this flood beat all records for high-water levels over … Continue reading →

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Teaching Bees

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Ron Miksha

I presented beekeeping to my daughter’s Grade 1 class today. It worked really well. I have two kids at the same elementary school, the older already in Grade 5. So he helped carry in the materials we used, and both … Continue reading →

Posted in Friends, Outreach | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Death of a Young Beekeeper

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Ron Miksha

I heard today, rather belatedly, of the death of a young beekeeper. Jason Escapule was only 39. He lived south of us, down in Idaho, where he ran one of the largest round comb honey bee farms in North America. … Continue reading →

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80 Years in the Bees

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Ron Miksha

What would it be like to keep bees for 80 years? You could ask 92-year-old George Birks, who started back in the 1920s. The price of a loaf of bread was 9 cents; a pound of sugar was 7 cents; … Continue reading →

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Fire in the Shop

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Ron Miksha

A couple of weeks ago, a warehouse fire destroyed a bee outfit’s shop at an old kibbutz in Israel. A dozen hives were lost, along with processing equipment and supers. The kibbutz was founded in 1934 by progressives from Poland … Continue reading →

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