Category Archives: Beekeeping
Bee Spill
Glad I’ve never had one of these. This looks bad. The 460 double-story colonies being carried from south Florida to Maine’s blueberries for pollination were spewed after the driver rolled over on an I-95 exit ramp in Delaware. The 55-year-old … Continue reading
Bee Meetings
Best Bee Club in the World? Attended the Calgary & District Beekeepers Association monthly meeting last night, and as I drove home in the ten o’clock twilight, my mind recycled some of what I had learned. There was an absolutely … Continue reading
Rise of the Bee Thieves
Hive theft has been around ever since there were beehives and beekeepers. For example, the classic watercolour of Cupid, the Honey Thief, by Dürer was painted in 1514. Jumping ahead just a little, during the early 1980s, when I bee-kept … Continue reading
Dead and Dying
California almond pollination season is finished. And so are many of the bees which made the trip to the west coast to participate in the largest honey bee mosh pit ever in the history of beekeeping. (For those of you … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Ecology, Pesticides, Pollination
Tagged almond pollination, EPA, lawsuits, migratory beekeeping, neonicotinoids
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What are these bees thinking?!?
A beekeeper in Winnipeg sent some photos of her hives. Her bees are misbeehaving. They broke cluster at minus 8 degrees (around 20 F), masses of bees are hanging out at the entrance, and she wants to know why. Sadly, … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Climate, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged bad beehaviour, Winnipeg, wintering
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Deadly Truck Crash
One of the thousands of loads of bees heading south after the summer harvest didn’t make it. On Sunday morning, November 3, a tire blow-out on a tractor-trailer caused this crash in Georgia that killed millions. Of bees, that is. … Continue reading
Talking about bee science
Ted talks and so do bee scientists. Maybe you know Ted. TED, actually with capital letters, stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and the TED Talks are a series of conferences with great (entertaining) speakers. The talks are filmed and then … Continue reading
The economist’s bees
You can be one of the smartest economists in the world, and still not realize beekeeping is a lousy investment. The celebrated author and public speaker, Gary Shilling, who writes for The New York Times, Forbes, and The Wall Street … Continue reading
Getting away with murder
A bee-kill decision in Florida. According to The Ledger, beekeepers Barry Hart and Randall Foti lost $390,000 worth of bees and honey production when one of Florida’s largest citrus producers sprayed pesticides. (The loss does not seem exaggerated. For example, … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Culture, or lack thereof, People, Pesticides, Save the Bees
Tagged Ben Hill Griffin, citrus, Florida, Florida's Natural, imidacloprid, insecticide, lawsuits
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Windshield bees
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
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