Category Archives: People
Should Prince Charles be king? Or should he be a beekeeper?
I am one of the few people I know who has taken a personal public vow of allegiance to the Queen. And all her heirs. I take my duties seriously. It is my job to offer helpful life skills to … 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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80 Years in the Bees
What would it be like to keep bees for 80 years? You could ask 92-year-old George Birks, who started back in the 1920s. The price of a loaf of bread was 9 cents; a pound of sugar was 7 cents; … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, History, People
Tagged Adamson, England, George Birks
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Mount Everest’s Beekeeper
Today is the 60th Anniversary of The Conquest of Everest. It was 1953, Queen Elizabeth was just about to begin her first day on the job as queen of the world’s imperial empire. In 1953, a typical TV was a … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Commercial Beekeeping, History, People, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged Mount Everest, New Zealand, Sir Edmund Hillary, Tenzing Norgay
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Rattled Flowers
Charles Darwin was a famous geologist before he published his revolutionary evolutionary treatise. He was also a well-rounded naturalist. It was Charles Darwin who discovered that some bumblebee species gnaw into the side of deep-throated flowers, cheating their pollination obligation. … Continue reading
Posted in History, People, Pollination, Science
Tagged Charles Darwin, evolution, yellow rattle
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Jacques and the Bees
Our friend Jacques died today. I hadn’t seen him in a few months – I had been recovering from back surgery gone seriously wrong and Jacques was in poor very health himself. So our repeated plans to meet up, to … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Culture, or lack thereof, Friends, Outreach, People
Tagged Jacques
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John’s Locusts and Honey
Yummy. The on-line feeder blog, The Daily Meal, has a provocative article this month: Beekeeping Out; Locust-Keeping In. The short article extols the virtues of chewy bugs as alternative food sources for desperate folks in Saharan Africa. It does not … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Hive Products, Honey, Humour, People, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged carob, honey in religion, locusts
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Apitherapy Day
On March 30, we usually celebrate World Apitherapy Day at our house by eating fried drone brood seasoned with dandelion pollen and buckwheat honey, while receiving a few intentional bee stings on our finger tips. What a fun day! World … Continue reading
Posted in Apitherapy, Comb Honey, History, People
Tagged Chinook Honey Farm, Filip Terč, Slovenia
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Bad Beekeeping Blog 