Category Archives: Bee Yards
Nuisance-free beekeeping
Tired of irritating your neighbours with your pesky bees? Help is on the way. A very bright professor at Oregon State, Andony Melathopoulos, has co-authored a guide which you should read: Residential Beekeeping: Best-practice guidelines for nuisance-free beekeeping in Oregon. … Continue reading
Keeping the Cougars out of your Bee Yard
Ever been chased by a mountain lion? How about a cougar, panther, or puma? Me neither, but I’ve probably passed within metres of all four. (I’m told that they’re all the same species – Puma concolor.) A new study from … Continue reading
Urban Beekeeping Mug
Yesterday, Father’s Day, my family surprised me with this homemade mug. They had conspired to co-create this bit of art for the past few days. I heard the hushed tones and I saw people and things quickly disappear when I … Continue reading
Ending the Senseless Roadside Carnage (of bugs)
Bugs impact windshields from time to time. You’ve scraped off the gooey result. A lovely dégustation if there’s ever been one. Placing a bee yard near a busy road makes you an accessory to the beeslaughter of millions. You are … Continue reading
The Synthetic Apiary
Well, this is weird. The video at the end of this link is great, but the whole concept is weird. It’s an artificial, synthetic apiary. I’ll rank it with the Flow(TM)Hive for a reason that will become apparent in a … Continue reading
Brood in Front of the Hive?!?
I’m continuing with the series of questions which I overheard at a bee meeting a few days ago. Today, it’s dead brood. Here are those questions: My honey isn’t capped. What should I do with it? (I heard that one … Continue reading
Bee Vandals
I’ll never understand vandalism. Theft I understand. I don’t like it, I don’t condone it, I’ve been victimized by it. But I can understand how it might sometimes happen. Vandalism, however, is strange. And stupid. Vandalism is nothing new. The … Continue reading
Rooftop Bees
There’s a jolly fat man up on the roof. With a smoker and hive tool. Rooftop beekeeping seems modern, trendy, and new, but it’s been happening for generations. Ever since homes had rooftops. I’m surprised there isn’t a Rooftop Beekeepers … Continue reading
Dead bee, in the middle of the ‘shield…
A few days ago, I had a road trip that took me two hours from my home in Calgary. Flying low at 130 kph, I expected to whack a lot of bees on the forehead of my van, but I … Continue reading
Bees Do Do-Do
Diapers for bees? Some folks stopped me when I was leaving an apiary that I once had in a Florida orange grove. They didn’t own the grove, but their house was within fifty yards. They told me that my bees … Continue reading