Category Archives: Friends

The Greatest Show on Earth

My home town – Calgary, Alberta, Canada – hosts an annual 10-day cowpoke fest called the Calgary Stampede, aka, “The Greatest Show on Earth”. I’m not a cowboy, but I’ve been lucky enough to help friends with spring branding and … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Friends, Outreach | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Dropping into Sunshine Valley

My hometown – Calgary, Alberta, Canada – is having a much needed wet spell. In fact, there has been some ghastly local flooding which I’ll cover in a future blog. Lucky for me, I am a few hundred kilometres farther … Continue reading

Posted in Bee Yards, Beekeeping, Ecology, Friends, Save the Bees | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Calgary’s ALS Fundraiser

This is a beekeeping blog, I know. But I sometimes write non-bee stuff. Once a year I go entirely off-topic and write a bit about our annual Calgary ALS fundraiser, Betty’s Run. Thank you for indulging my digressions. I have … Continue reading

Posted in Friends, Outreach | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Friends Among the Bees

I spent a few hours in the bees today. This was part of our bee club’s beginner beekeeping course and I was one of the instructors, showing 50 new beekeepers the mysterious inner workings of our club president’s hives. The … Continue reading

Posted in Friends, Outreach | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Bumblebee Honey For Sale?

My brother was at a farmer’s market in North Carolina this weekend. A vendor was selling a thimble-full of honey for $10. Maybe slightly more than a thimble. The seller told my brother that you wouldn’t smother a pancake with … Continue reading

Posted in Apitherapy, Bee Biology, Ecology, Friends, Honey, Save the Bees | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

Packages Arrive in Calgary!

Calgary has a hyper-active bee club. Members help members with all manner of thing. Equipment exchanges, educational programs, disease control. The latest big event was the arrival of 160 packages of bees from New Zealand. By the way, 160 packages … Continue reading

Posted in Beekeeping, Friends, Outreach, Queens | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Cher Justin Trudeau…

Regular readers of this bee blog know that I avoid politics with as much self-discipline as most people avoid lounging on sunny days on a south-facing deck. This is a bee blog, not a political blog. If I ever mention … Continue reading

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Too much to do…

During the past two weeks, I flew from Calgary to Cincinnati (and back again); organized, prepared, and co-presented a day-long beekeeping economics program; ran a 2-hour ecology school at the neighbourhood elementary; was an invited “expert” at ask-an-expert night at … Continue reading

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Alberta is Beekeeping

Last night, the Calgary and District Beekeepers Association hosted its monthly general meeting. About 150 people showed up. To accommodate the growing membership and big turnout, our club’s president found an affordable and spacious new meeting hall near the Bow … Continue reading

Posted in Beekeeping, Friends, Outreach, Save the Bees | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

TV Bee Outreach

How does your bee club reach the public? TV interviews are difficult, nerve-racking, and can go seriously wrong. But when Liz Goldie of the Calgary Bee Club took to the air with a local station, everything went seriously right. From … Continue reading

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