Category Archives: History

Goodbye, 2019

Posted on December 31, 2019 by Ron Miksha

As 2019 draws to a close, let’s look back at some of the year’s beekeeping stories. Honey prices were lower again in 2019, forcing some beekeepers out of the business. Still, many countries now have more honey bees than anytime … Continue reading →

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Langstroth’s Christmas Present

Posted on December 25, 2019 by Ron Miksha

I’ve been posting this piece every Christmas for a while. If you’ve read it before, read it again. Or not. Christmas Day is L.L. Langstroth’s birthday. He’d be 219 years old, if he hadn’t been struck down in his 85th … Continue reading →

Posted in Beekeeping, Books, History, Hives and Combs, People, Tools and Gadgets | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Ulee Jackson has died

Posted on August 16, 2019 by Ron Miksha

Peter Fonda died today. Most accolades will mention his starring role in 1969’s Easy Rider. I won’t. Instead, I’ll talk about his performance in Ulee’s Gold. That movie gave Fonda his only Oscar nomination (he lost to his friend Jack … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Beekeeping, Culture, or lack thereof, History, Movies, People | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Bees in Space

Posted on July 21, 2019 by Ron Miksha

Fifty years ago, I was a kid, glued to the TV, fascinated by man’s first frolic on the moon. Grainy black and white images from the moon filled our grainy black and white television. It was a signal from the … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Queens, Science, Strange, Odd Stuff | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Remembering Eva Crane: Beekeeper and Physicist

Posted on June 12, 2019 by Ron Miksha

June 12th. I have an excuse to write a bit about the amazing Ethel Eva Widdowson, born in London on June 12th, 1912. By age 30, she had defended her doctorate in nuclear physics, begun to teach at Sheffield University, … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, History, People | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Can we learn old tricks?

Posted on June 10, 2019 by Ron Miksha

I have a small collection of old bee books, and I like searching them for new ideas. (If you can’t get new ideas from old books, what’s the point of history?) My favourite beekeeping books are the ones that tell … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, History, People | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

World Bee Day 2019

Posted on May 20, 2019 by Ron Miksha

World Bee Day, May 20 of each year,  is not just about honey bees. Although the idea arose in Slovenia, a little country that’s really big on honey-bee keeping, it’s also a celebration of all the world’s bees. About 20,000 … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecology, History, Native Bees, Outreach, Save the Bees | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Century-old beekeeping equipment

Posted on February 14, 2019 by Ron Miksha

Image courtesy of: The Photography of Coley Ogg circa. 1919, Beekeeping Demonstration at Berea College, Kentucky. This picture is from 100 years ago. It was late winter, 1919. An agriculture agent came to this Kentucky Appalachian farm to teach modern … Continue reading →

Posted in Beekeeping, History, Hives and Combs | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Bee A Valentine

Posted on February 14, 2019 by Ron Miksha

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 | 3 Comments

Nuns of honey

Posted on February 7, 2019 by Ron Miksha

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 →

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