Category Archives: Personal
Podcast: from Beyonce to bee forage and beyond
Season 1 Episode 5: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Some Bee Buzz In today’s podcast episode, we jump from moving bees between Alberta and British Columbia to examining a recent paper about the ecology of disappearing bee species. … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Biology, Culture, or lack thereof, Ecology, Native Bees, Personal, Podcasts, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged Alberta, beekeeping, Calgary, honey bees, Native Bees, urban beekeeping
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Podcasting about bees
I considered launching a podcast several times over the past few years. However, I had been a guest on half a dozen shows, so I recognized the enormous amount of effort and time that hosting a podcast entails. It’s a … Continue reading
Bees flying high
Almost every time I teach a beginning beekeeping course, a student or two comes forward to whisper: “If I move my bees to a patch of cannabis, will I get weedy honey?” I tell them that cannabis buds don’t secrete … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Culture, or lack thereof, Ecology, History, Honey, Honey Plants, People, Personal, Podcasts, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged Books, cannabis, Charles Butler, Eva Crane, hallucinogenic honey, honey, Joe Rogan, mad honey, Michael Pollen, Nepal, psychedelics, rhododendrons
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The heat is up
My badbeekeeping blog has largely avoided the topic of global climate change. It’s contentious. Some insist it’s happening; other insist that it ain’t. I have purposefully tried to limit my conversation on the topic because I didn’t want to alienate … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Climate, Culture, or lack thereof, Personal
Tagged beekeeping, Calgary, climate change, environment, Exxon, fossil-fuels, global-warming, New Year
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The Native and Non-Native Bee Debate
A few days ago, I sat down with the folks at Beekeeping Today Podcast to talk about how our non-native honey bees may affect native bees. Jeff Ott and Becky Masterman were informed, sympathetic interviewers. I had a great time … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Culture, or lack thereof, Ecology, Native Bees, Outreach, Personal, Podcasts, Save the Bees
Tagged Calgary, Native Bees, podcast, urban beekeeping
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April 7: Day in the bees
April 7. Our backyard hives are collecting real pollen! Last week, I showed you some fake pollen coming into the colonies. Nothing beats the real stuff. Although desperate honey bees will carry worthless sawdust as a pollen supplement, nothing inspires … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Biology, Beekeeping, Ecology, Native Bees, Personal
Tagged Alberta, Calgary, honey bees, pollen, pollen substitutes, urban beekeeping
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The invisible hive tool
At last! A hive tool I can see! I am severely colourblind, which generally means that the difference between red and green makes little sense to me. I have been told (by enough people) that grass is green, so I … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Personal, Queens, Tools and Gadgets
Tagged colourblind, hive tool, queen bees
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What does that extra apiary cost you?
With fuel prices going scary high, I thought that a few comments on bee yards away from the home fortress might be timely. My father, an early migratory beekeeper, had about 800 hives and trucked them into apple pollination in … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Yards, Beekeeping, Personal
Tagged Bee Yards, expenses, honey bees, management, urban beekeeping
10 Comments
Bye ’21: Don’t let the door hit you. . .
This was the year that my motor neuron (ALS variant) advanced more than anyone would like, but I’ll especially remember 2021 as the year I had an unexpected heart attack! (Three, actually, but who’s counting?) I am still plodding along … Continue reading
The Story of my Life (in less than two hours)
I had a wonderful interview with Sylvia and Luca from Vitamina Bee, an Italian videography/website. We touched on everything from veganism to bee-on-bee competition, the history of beekeeping, my Master’s research, and my early life on a farm with nine … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Books, Commercial Beekeeping, Ecology, History, Personal
Tagged Bad Beekeeping, beekeeping in Italy, honey bees, Saskatchewan, video, Vitamina Bee
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Bad Beekeeping Blog 