Author Archives: Ron Miksha
Jacques and the Bees
Our friend Jacques died today. I hadn’t seen him in a few months – I had been recovering from back surgery gone seriously wrong and Jacques was in poor very health himself. So our repeated plans to meet up, to … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Culture, or lack thereof, Friends, Outreach, People
Tagged Jacques
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John’s Locusts and Honey
Yummy. The on-line feeder blog, The Daily Meal, has a provocative article this month: Beekeeping Out; Locust-Keeping In. The short article extols the virtues of chewy bugs as alternative food sources for desperate folks in Saharan Africa. It does not … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Hive Products, Honey, Humour, People, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged carob, honey in religion, locusts
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Backyard Fireweed
We had some lovely fireweed growing beside the deck this month. And we didn’t even need to burn any grass to get it. I’m not sure why this lover of scorched earth decided to sprout gratuitously in our undisturbed backyard, … Continue reading
Posted in Honey, Honey Plants
Tagged Calgary, fireweed, Honey Plants of North America, John Lovell
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Bee Stings and Bathtubs
Well, the bees are getting a bad rap in Britain. Here’s a headline from a Herald Sun newspaper this month that shouts, “BEE stings kill as many people in the UK as terrorist attacks do”. We don’t doubt the veracity … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Humour, Stings, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged bee stings
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May Swarming
A friend sent this to me: “Spring has sprung, But the bees are not swarming… Could this be due to global warming?” I like this little ditty – it works on so many levels. It’s May. Here in Calgary, finally, … Continue reading
Package Bee Express
In my meagre effort to stay informed about bees, beekeeping, and beekeepers, I occasionally creep around the internet, stalking new ideas, and sometimes marveling at the bad beekeeping I find in cyberville. Here is an amazing statement from a hobby … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Culture, or lack thereof, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged Mazda RX7, package bees, wastefulness
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Apitherapy Day
On March 30, we usually celebrate World Apitherapy Day at our house by eating fried drone brood seasoned with dandelion pollen and buckwheat honey, while receiving a few intentional bee stings on our finger tips. What a fun day! World … Continue reading
Posted in Apitherapy, Comb Honey, History, People
Tagged Chinook Honey Farm, Filip Terč, Slovenia
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February Bee Blues
Got the mid-winter missin’ messin’ with them bees blues? Me too. So, here’s a link to a great video, Beekeepers of Kenya, that should help you survive this dismal season. The film shows beekeepers using western-style hives, keeping bees in … Continue reading
Zombie Bees
More bad news: a deadly fly parasite was spotted for the first time on honey bees, reported researchers at San Francisco State University in 2012. The fly, Apocephalus borealis, deposits its eggs into a bee’s abdomen. After the honey bee … Continue reading
Mexico
To get through our frigid Canadian winter, we usually slip down to Mexico for a few days. This year, we ended up in Acumel, north of the Belize border. When I was young, I knew a gentleman in Florida who … Continue reading
Bad Beekeeping Blog 