Category Archives: Save the Bees
Cuba’s Organic Honey
Long before the embargo and before the Castro brothers, Cuba was a beekeeper’s paradise North American gringos operating Cuban honey farms. Spain ruled Cuba for almost 400 years, but the United States took it as a trophy after the Spanish-American … Continue reading
Posted in Commercial Beekeeping, Ecology, History, Honey, Pesticides, Save the Bees
Tagged Cuba, organic honey, Pesticides
13 Comments
Putin Likes Organic Food
Russia’s Vladimir Putin has suggested that anyone who sells or grows genetically modified foods on his turf should face a few years farming in Siberia. He has proclaimed Russia will be GMO-free and he’d like to see his farmers raise … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Ecology, Genetics, History, Pesticides, Save the Bees, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged Charles Darwin, epigenetics, GMOs, Putin, Russia
2 Comments
Bees, Beer, and Dead Mites
Can beer save the bees? No, but with enough beer, bees may not care that mites are crawling all over them. There have been headlines over the past month suggesting that beer will save the honey bees, but that’s not … Continue reading
Posted in Diseases and Pests, Save the Bees
Tagged beer, Carl Hayden Bee Lab, EPA, hops, varroa mites
7 Comments
Naturally Imperfect
This might be old stuff to you, but our local grocer has started selling imperfect apples. It’s about time. My kids, who are properly brain-washed, love the smallish bruised apples and understand that these specially priced (Cheaper!) fruits are better … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Ecology, Pesticides, Save the Bees
Tagged apples, imperfection, perfection
1 Comment
Thistle Bumblebees
Although I have mentioned many times that honey bees are not going extinct (there are actually more kept hives of honey bees today than 10 years ago), I am concerned about wild and native species of bees. Loss of habitat, … Continue reading
Honey Bee Highways
Norway – the 2nd most liveable country in the world* – has yet another feather in its woolly cap. Or super on its hive, if you will. The Norwegians have a Honey Bee Highway. That’s a trail of flower pots … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Ecology, Friends, Honey Plants, Humour, Save the Bees
Tagged Earl Emde, Norway, Oslo, planting for bees, Polli the Pollinator
2 Comments
Bees Prey at Church
In one of the most clever news headlines I have ever seen, editor Darcy Cheek of Ontario’s Recorder.ca writes: Honey bees go to Lyn church to prey. Any editor/reporter who can come up with a lede-line like that deserves mention. … Continue reading
Plight of the Bumblebees
Forty years ago, near Florida’s Ocala National Forest, I took the photos seen in today’s blog. This is a bumblebee nest, accidentally uncovered and exposed on the forest floor, in the winter of 1974 in central Florida. You can see … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Biology, Climate, Ecology, Save the Bees
Tagged bumblebee, bumblebees, climate change, Florida, habitat loss, migration
4 Comments
Caught in the middle
Are they staying or are they going? The Globe and Mail, “Canada’s newspaper,” has an editorial written by Margaret Wente. She calls her piece “Caught in the Middle of the Bee War” and it is about the vanishing honey bees. … Continue reading
Posted in Pesticides, Save the Bees
Tagged Bayer, colony collapse disorder, Margaret Wente, neonicotinoids
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Bees Back Up on their Knees?
In today’s unlikely Op-Ed article in the New York Times: Are Bees Back up on their Knees? beekeeper Noah Wilson-Rich makes the case that the worst of the mysterious colony collapse syndrome may be over. He reviews what many of … Continue reading
