Category Archives: Culture, or lack thereof
It’s Canada Day
It’s Canada Day. I moved to Canada in the 70s to keep bees. It was a good move for me. Yesterday, I noticed that the conservative news magazine, US News and World Report, has placed Canada as number one (for … Continue reading
Pollinator Week 2019
In the past three or four years, I began to notice that honey bees aren’t the only bees in the world. What a surprise! There are over 20,000 other versions. Some as big as elephants, some as small as pin … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Ecology, Outreach, Pollination
Tagged bumblebees, National Pollination Week, Pollination, pollinators
2 Comments
Comb honey euphoria?
Three million people have watched this 12-minute video of a person eating honey comb and fried chicken. Every nuance of the first stage of digestion is clearly visible and audible. Microphones focus on noisy chewing and slurping sounds. Why would … Continue reading
Posted in Comb Honey, Culture, or lack thereof, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged ASMR, Comb Honey
8 Comments
March 30: World Apitherapy Day
Today is World Apitherapy Day. And it’s my birthday.ย Coincidence? Maybe. Apitherapy, which means using bee stuff for health, can include eating pollen, propolis, wax, royal jelly, bee larvae, and honey – or rubbing them on your face. But for … Continue reading
Posted in Apitherapy, Culture, or lack thereof, Outreach, People, Stings, Uncategorized
Tagged anaphylactic shock, Apitherapy, Apitherapy Day, bee stings, Filip Terฤ, rheumatism
9 Comments
If it looks like a bee, it’s a wasp
A few of us got together last night for coffee to discuss something about the United Beekeepers of Alberta. After that, one of the folks mentioned that she was preparing to meet a group in a couple of weeks to … Continue reading
Bee A Valentine
Beekeepers are not sentimental. For most of us, Saint Valentine’s Day is a day of intense panic when male beekeepers rush out to buy something special for some darling or pigsney. (It’s not like we didn’t know February 14 was … Continue reading
Posted in Comb Honey, Culture, or lack thereof, History, Hives and Combs
Tagged Valentine
3 Comments
The Death of Sylvia Plath
Instead of a birthday anniversary, it’s a memorial for the poet Sylvia Plath. She was 30 when she made her final suicide attempt. Did she want it to succeed? Some of her biographers say no. But her preparations were elaborate … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, People, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged poetry, Sylvia Plath
12 Comments
Nuns of honey
I bumped into this photo a few days ago when I was writing an article for Deutches Bienen Journal, Germany’s beekeeping magazine. I was trying to picture sisters at a convent in Quebec, tending their hives in the 1920s. This … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Yards, Beekeeping, Culture, or lack thereof, History, People
Tagged Hungary, monks, nuns, Quebec
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Turner’s (belated) Birthday
I can’t believe that I missed reminding you yesterday that it was Charles Turner’s birthday. Here’s the story of the man who figured out that honey bees can think. ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ You probably know that Karl von Frisch … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Biology, Books, Culture, or lack thereof, History, People, Science
Tagged bee brains, Charles Henry Turner
1 Comment
The $3 Billion Vacation
I’ve heard ‘three billion dollars’ as the ‘permanent’ cost of giving 700,000 US government workers an unexpected 35-day vacation. There were also thousands of consultants furloughed because of the federal shutdown.ย According to economists, who mostly look at lost income … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Diseases and Pests, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged government shutdown, research, USDA
2 Comments
Bad Beekeeping Blog 