Category Archives: Science
Shake, Rattle, Roll: Our Little Earthquake
I live in one of the less shaky parts of the world. I don’t think that Calgary has ever had a damaging earthquake. (Granted, the city isn’t much over a hundred years old, so it’s a short history.) When the … Continue reading
Posted in Friends, Honey, Queens, Science, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged beekeeping, Chile, earthquake
3 Comments
Fishing Bait That Eats Plastic
Hundreds of diseases and pests attack honey bees. One of the oldest known hive invaders is the wax moth. Aristotle had trouble keeping them out of his hives so maybe you do, too. Wax moths come in two flavours – … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Biology, Beekeeping, Diseases and Pests, Science, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged beeswax, environment, plastics, wax moths
7 Comments
Have These Kids Found a Way to Kill Varroa?
I am a skeptic when it comes to ‘miracle’ cures to fight varroa. I think that the various expensive heat/sauna systems are a waste of time and money. A lot of natural treatments (icing/powdered sugar; essential oils; screened bottoms) are … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Diseases and Pests, Save the Bees, Science, Tools and Gadgets
Tagged crowd-funding, First Lego Competition, varroa mites
12 Comments
March for Science (revisited)
So, how’d the March for Science go? I’ll admit that it went better than I expected. My fear (expressed in Friday’s blog) that the effort to support science would be hijacked by a political agenda was only about one-third true. … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Friends, Outreach, Save the Bees, Science
Tagged beekeeping, March for Science
5 Comments
March on Down?
This weekend, we celebrate Earth Day. And why not? There are official days for glazed spiral ham (April 15), chocolate covered cashews (April 21!), and bee sting enthusiasts (March 30). So, Earth should have a day of celebration. As a … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Outreach, Science
Tagged bumblebees, Earth Day, endangered species, March for Science
3 Comments
World’s Sweetest Honey
The April 2017 issue of the world’s best bee magazine (American Bee Journal) published a piece written by your favourite bee-blogger (me). My article is called America’s Sweetest Honey. In it, I describe why honey from different flowers tastes different. … Continue reading
The Place to Pair (and pair and pair) with a Bee?
Maybe I should have written this blog in Latin. When I was a kid, I saw a bee biology book where the author switched to Latin when he got to the part about how queens and drones get together to make … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Biology, History, Queens, Science
Tagged Cornell University, drones, eb white, Lawrence Connor, Norman Gary, queen breeding, Wicwas Press
7 Comments
One more thing about Chinese honey. . .
Occasionally, we take honey from the hive too early. It’s bad honey – some beekeepers call it “green”. High in moisture, and maybe not fully enzymatically converted by the bees. Nectar is ‘wet’ – sometimes 90% water and just 10% … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Hive Products, Honey, Science
Tagged adulteration, China, extracting, processing honey, wet honey
13 Comments
Bees That Watch Bees
Picture this. A bee with her tiny face pressed against a window, spying on other bees so she can see where the treasure is hidden. Sounds ridiculous to me, but it turns out to be true. The experiment In 2013, … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Biology, Science, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged almond pollination, bee brains, bee foraging
2 Comments
Ending the Senseless Roadside Carnage (of bugs)
Bugs impact windshields from time to time. You’ve scraped off the gooey result. A lovely dégustation if there’s ever been one. Placing a bee yard near a busy road makes you an accessory to the beeslaughter of millions. You are … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Yards, Ecology, Humour, Science, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged Ontario, roadkill, Vietnam
3 Comments
