Category Archives: Beekeeping

Ducks in a row

Posted on October 8, 2022 by Ron Miksha

We’ve had unusually mild weather for September and October in Calgary. The heat gave us a chance to clean up some odd bits of beeswax – and turn them into ducks. I bought this melter, built by Uncle Lee’s Bees … Continue reading →

Posted in Beekeeping, Climate, Tools and Gadgets | Tagged , | 1 Comment

CBC’s 2022 Nonfiction: Advice to a new beekeeper

Posted on September 30, 2022 by Ron Miksha

“Do not keep bees. . . “Keep cattle, or chickens or dogs. Their emotions are recognizable, their ailments familiar. Their speech, though foreign, is in a language we understand.” Thus begins Susan Cormier’s seasoned advice to beekeeping wanna-bees. There are sufficient … Continue reading →

Posted in Beekeeping, Books, Culture, or lack thereof | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Keeping the Bees: Netflix

Posted on April 10, 2022 by Ron Miksha

It’s great to know a lot about bees, although it sometimes comes between you and a good time. I enjoyed Keeping the Bees, a Turkish-language drama (2019; 93minutes), but some bee-science was forgotten in the lab and the jars of … Continue reading →

Posted in Bee Yards, Beekeeping, Culture, or lack thereof, Movies | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

April 7: Day in the bees

Posted on April 7, 2022 by Ron Miksha

April 7. Our backyard hives are collecting real pollen! Last week, I showed you some fake pollen coming into the colonies. Nothing beats the real stuff. Although desperate honey bees will carry worthless sawdust as a pollen supplement, nothing inspires … Continue reading →

Posted in Bee Biology, Beekeeping, Ecology, Native Bees, Personal | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

The invisible hive tool

Posted on April 5, 2022 by Ron Miksha

At last! A hive tool I can see! I am severely colourblind, which generally means that the difference between red and green makes little sense to me. I have been told (by enough people) that grass is green, so I … Continue reading →

Posted in Beekeeping, Personal, Queens, Tools and Gadgets | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

What does that extra apiary cost you?

Posted on April 3, 2022 by Ron Miksha

With fuel prices going scary high, I thought that a few comments on bee yards away from the home fortress might be timely. My father, an early migratory beekeeper, had about 800 hives and trucked them into apple pollination in … Continue reading →

Posted in Bee Yards, Beekeeping, Personal | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

Bye ’21: Don’t let the door hit you. . .

Posted on December 31, 2021 by Ron Miksha

This was the year that my motor neuron (ALS variant) advanced more than anyone would like, but I’ll especially remember 2021 as the year I had an unexpected heart attack! (Three, actually, but who’s counting?) I am still plodding along … Continue reading →

Posted in Beekeeping, Culture, or lack thereof, Personal | Tagged | 4 Comments

Langstroth’s Christmas Present

Posted on December 25, 2021 by Ron Miksha

I’ve been posting this piece every Christmas for a while. If you’ve read it before, read it again. Or not. Christmas Day is L.L. Langstroth’s birthday. He’d be 211 years old, if he hadn’t been struck down in his 85th … Continue reading →

Posted in Beekeeping, Books, History, Hives and Combs, People, Tools and Gadgets | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Bees in the Snow

Posted on December 24, 2021 by Ron Miksha

New beekeepers (and some of us old ones) worry when we see ‘lots’ of bees in the snow during winter. The black dots (above) are frozen stiffs – bees that left their hive and didn’t make it back. To me, … Continue reading →

Posted in Beekeeping | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

The Bees are Fine

Posted on December 10, 2021 by Ron Miksha

My favourite line from one of my favourite movies was spoken by Peter Fonda, playing Ulee Jackson in a film about a Florida beekeeper. When Ulee visits his son, who is in prison for robbery, the son asks about the … Continue reading →

Posted in Beekeeping, Commercial Beekeeping, Honey, Movies | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments