Category Archives: Ecology

Plight of the Bumblebees

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Ron Miksha

Forty years ago, near Florida’s Ocala National Forest, I took the photos seen in today’s blog. This is a bumblebee nest, accidentally uncovered and exposed on the forest floor, in the winter of 1974 in central Florida. You can see … Continue reading →

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Dandy Season

Posted on May 25, 2015 by Ron Miksha

A few weeks ago, I wrote that spring had arrived and pollen (plus a little nectar) was coming into the hives – mostly from willow and crocus. I also wrote that the main spring flow here in western Canada (along … Continue reading →

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What’s wrong with this picture?

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Ron Miksha

To celebrate spring, Google’s Doodle uses an artsy little bumblebee disturbing some pretty flowers. As a beekeeper I am always happy to see bee thingies, but I wish that such artists would consider a wee dab of natural science in … Continue reading →

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Beehives vs Drunken Elephants

Posted on December 10, 2014 by Ron Miksha

Drunken elephants have been a problem for as long as I can remember. Elephants are known to booze-up, get rowdy, and attack farmers – sometimes even entire villages. A herd of elephants got drunk on rice beer in Assam, India, … Continue reading →

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Sterile Radioactive Bugs Arrive in Croatia

Posted on December 8, 2014 by Ron Miksha

  Why did a kibbutz in Israel ship 380 million sterile, radioactive fruit flies to Croatia? That might be the most unusual introduction this blog has ever used. Here’s the backstory… Ceratitis capitata – the lovely but insidious Mediterranean Fruit … Continue reading →

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Buzzing Out-of-Sync

Posted on November 22, 2014 by Ron Miksha

If flowers bloom a month earlier than usual – as they reportedly did last year in Maryland – what does that mean for bees? According to Will Plants and Pollinators Get Out of Sync? it could mean trouble. The story … Continue reading →

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The Tired Honey Man

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Ron Miksha

Friends just back from Uzbekistan shared this photo with me. The gentleman is selling honey and he doesn’t seem too happy about it. We’ll get to that in a moment. First, what is Uzbekistan? It’s a place on the other … Continue reading →

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Who is the Saint?

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Ron Miksha

On this day in 1970, Norman Borlaug accepted his Nobel Peace Prize. You probably never heard of him. A few days ago, I read an interesting piece in an old New York Times column, written by author/philosopher Steven Pinker. He … Continue reading →

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Happy Dusty Anniversary

Posted on August 3, 2014 by Ron Miksha

You know what they say about new technology – someone always finds a way to put it to nasty use. Combine airplanes and chemicals, and what could possibly go wrong? Let’s fly back to 1921 and visit a grove of … Continue reading →

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Our Bees, Ourselves

Posted on July 27, 2014 by Ron Miksha

Interesting Op-Ed column in the New York Times. Mark Winston, a senior prof at British Columbia’s Simon Fraser, wrote about the widespread collapse of honey bees. Winston is one of those super-brains who studied bees and entomology for years and … Continue reading →

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