Category Archives: Strange, Odd Stuff
Have you ever seen a queen like this?
A friend of mine, Jessie, who works the bees at Chinook Honey near Calgary, spotted this unusual queen. Jessie took the pictures on this page. As you can see, the queen has very little colour. What might cause this apparent … Continue reading
Do you know the queen colours?
If you mark your queens, you should follow the international queen-colour code: White in 2016 and 2021, Yellow in 2017 and 2022, etc. This system has been around for decades because it’s uniform, consistent, and lets a beekeeper know the … Continue reading
Bees learn to drive tiny cars
I wouldn’t believe this if I had seen it with my own eyes! Sam Droege, bee scientist extraordinaire, has a USGS Flickr website populated with great bee photographs. Last week, somewhere around April first, Sam posted the results of some … Continue reading
Posted in Humour, Native Bees, Science, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged bee photography, bumblebees, Sam Droege
4 Comments
Comb on demand
Here’s something that I never thought anyone would manufacture. It’s fully-drawn comb, just the way bees would make it, if bees were machines. I’m impressed with the technology, but I’m not sure how marketable these manufactured combs will be. Perhaps … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Hives and Combs, Strange, Odd Stuff, Tools and Gadgets
Tagged beeswax
11 Comments
Comb honey euphoria?
Three million people have watched this 12-minute video of a person eating honey comb and fried chicken. Every nuance of the first stage of digestion is clearly visible and audible. Microphones focus on noisy chewing and slurping sounds. Why would … Continue reading
Posted in Comb Honey, Culture, or lack thereof, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged ASMR, Comb Honey
8 Comments
Polar Vortex Insurance: Extended to Beekeepers!
Our local Auto Club (Alberta Motor Association) is offering Polar Vortex Insurance. This is a great new feature (for members only) – if the temperature stays at -25C, or colder, for any 14 consecutive days, each paid-up member gets to … Continue reading
Posted in Climate, Humour, Save the Bees, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged Alberta, cold weather, insurance, wintering bees
3 Comments
Bitten by the cold
Alberta beekeepers had smooth sailing through January. It was so mild in southern Alberta that one beekeeper wrote to ask if bees could be swarming. Swarming to the toilet, yes. Literally swarming with queen in tow, no. But the activity … Continue reading
The Death of Sylvia Plath
Instead of a birthday anniversary, it’s a memorial for the poet Sylvia Plath. She was 30 when she made her final suicide attempt. Did she want it to succeed? Some of her biographers say no. But her preparations were elaborate … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, People, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged poetry, Sylvia Plath
12 Comments
The $3 Billion Vacation
I’ve heard ‘three billion dollars’ as the ‘permanent’ cost of giving 700,000 US government workers an unexpected 35-day vacation. There were also thousands of consultants furloughed because of the federal shutdown. According to economists, who mostly look at lost income … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, Diseases and Pests, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged government shutdown, research, USDA
2 Comments
