Category Archives: Beekeeping
The Kentucky Bee Man
When you are the 8-year-old child of beekeepers and you’re helping stick foundation into frames, your pay is the soft translucent paper that keeps the wax sheets from sticking together. It was the closest thing to tracing paper that I’d … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Culture, or lack thereof, History, People
Tagged bee equipment, Clarkson, Kelley Beekeeping, Kentucky, The Bee Man, Walter T. Kelley, wax foundation
4 Comments
Foulbrood – Still Smelling Foul
With so much attention on varroa destructors and nicotine-flavoured pesticides, we sometimes forget some of the other scourges of modern beekeeping. Not long ago, American Foulbrood (AFB) was the worst thing that could happen to your bees. If you were … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Commercial Beekeeping, Diseases and Pests, Genetics
Tagged American Foulbrood, evolution, South Africa
5 Comments
Smoky Bees
My home town – Calgary – is under a smoke advisory. The sky is hazy with smelly gray smoke from the trees, grass, and homes that are on fire down in Washington state. Those fires are about 700 kilometres (500 … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Honey
Tagged Alberta, bee smoker, Calgary, forest fires, pheromones, smoke
5 Comments
A Bee Won’t Hurt You If . . .
The city of Edmonton, Alberta, is telling its citizens that bees are good. People sometimes forget. Not long ago, Obama was trying to calm screaming kids on the White House lawn when one child spotted a bee and dozens panicked. … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Ecology, Outreach, Stings
Tagged Edmonton, Medhat Nasr, Oneil Carlier, urban beekeeping, wasps
1 Comment
Some Mountain Beekeeping
A month ago, friends invited me to see some bees at a ranch up in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. Beekeeper Stephen, a fellow geophysicist, guided us as we meandered the secondary roads west of Calgary. We gradually gained … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Yards, Beekeeping, Friends
Tagged Alberta, Calgary, foothills beekeeping, package bees
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The Long Road to Saskatoon
I am heading off to Saskatoon today. It has been 20 years since I was last there. Rather shameful delay, actually, since I earned my geophysics badge in Saskatoon and was treated really well by all the professors at the … Continue reading
Solving the World’s Problems
Closing in on the Rockies, near Bragg Creek, Alberta For the past short while I’ve enjoyed meeting some beekeeping friends each month. We have a two-hour coffee and try to figure out how we can fix the world. Well, actually, … Continue reading
Beekeepers’ Problems Solved
A publisher sent a new beekeeping book to me. As usual, I promised to read and review it – but warned the publisher that I am an awfully slow reader, and even worse – I can be awkwardly honest. (As … Continue reading
“The bees are coming!” said the hotel.
If you have been a beekeeper for a long time, you will remember the days when you had to hide your nasty habits (and your nasty bees) from the public. Bees were once very uncool. The Africanized bees terrorized America. … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged Butchart Gardens, Chateau Victoria, Victoria
2 Comments
Knowing Nothing
When I wrote my book Bad Beekeeping, the title came to me as a response to meeting a pompous, self-absorbed beekeeper. You know the sort – the person with a year or two experience who has an undeservedly inflated ego. … Continue reading
Bad Beekeeping Blog 