Category Archives: Queens
Clipped and Marked? Part 2
I’m not going to suggest how you should hold a queen and a paint bucket when you mark your monarch. For that, I added a video, which you’ll find below. Instead, when your favourite queen supplier gives you a choice … Continue reading
Clipped and Marked? Part 1
If you live north of the equator, you’ve noticed the days getting longer. Your bees have noticed, too. Maybe you’ve already had your first late-winter inspection. Hopefully, you are not peering into hollow tombs, but instead you’re seeing bustling little … Continue reading
Does Royal Jelly Make Royal Queens?
The kids in the Grade 5 classroom knew all about royal jelly. “The bees feed it to their babies and they turn into queens.” And so it is. We think. Royal jelly – countless journal articles (and Wikipedia) tell us … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Biology, Genetics, Queens
Tagged DNA, epigenetics, May Berenbaum, queen breeding, royal jelly
7 Comments
What Do a Million Bees Look Like?
I hate to sound prickly and petulant, but the news media has done it again. Today, say the news folks, ONE MILLION BEES were removed from an Austin church. That’s a stupid statement. Someone working at the scene must have … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Biology, Culture, or lack thereof, Queens, Strange, Odd Stuff, Swarms
Tagged Austin, church, dumb newspapers, super swarms
1 Comment
Your Dead Bees are in the Mail
Well, this is pretty sad. Canada Post killed some bees. Queen bees are in short supply in Canada. Because of our late springs and short seasons, most queen bees are imported from warmer climates – Hawaii, New Zealand, and … Continue reading
Mother’s Day at the Hive
Biologists have been debating the role that mixed genetic heritage plays in your beehive. As children, we learned that there are three castes of honey bees – queen, workers, and drones. [That’s wrong – it’s two castes (queen/worker) and two … Continue reading
Here Comes the Sun
If you are in the far north, your bees are not quite at mid-point in their winter marathon. But days are getting longer. It is amazing how bees – and flowering plants – recognize even a few minutes of extra … Continue reading
Glow-in-the-dark bees
Finally! Glow-in-the-dark honey bees! We’ve all been waiting for these glow bugs to complement our glow-in-the-dark radium-painted wristwatches and glow-in-the-dark jelly bean collections. Now you can have the complete set of things you probably didn’t know existed. Researchers at Germany’s … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Biology, Culture, or lack thereof, Humour, Queens, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged bee genome, Christina Schulte
4 Comments
Bad Beekeeping Blog 