Archives for May 2020

Apis Information Resource News Special Edition!Beekeeping Books Giveaway Dear Subscribers: Those subscribed to this newsletter/blog will remember that one of the recurring themes has been to look at the history and sales of the now second edition of Storey’s Guide to Keeping Honey Bees.   Readers will no doubt recall the basics of this book linked to […]

February 27, 2019 Dear Subscribers: The cold spell reported last month for this neck of the woods metamorphosed into record heat the third week of February. Gainesville experienced an eleven degree above normal average, topping out whopping 91 degrees F. on February 23.  As of this date, 49 record highs has been reported across the […]

Dear Subscribers: The cold is holding on here in North Florida as I reported last year at this time, but it appears to be more extreme with temperatures expected to be up to 50 below zero in some northern parts of the country in the next few days  It’s only expected to be in the […]

There’s been lots of talk about genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) recently.  It’s getting easier to develop these with what is known as crispr technology.  The wikipedia page on this subject is a trial to read, but worth the effort; it shows, if nothing else, how fiendishly complex this topic is. The page itself confesses that it […]

Dear Subscribers: I’m heading to Los Angeles in a couple of days, flying out on Christmas day.  Ironically, that’s expected to be the slowest travel day of this year’s season.  And a frightening number of people are traveling, probably because the economy seems in good shape and  the employment level is extremely high.   Reports […]

                                          Dear Subscribers: Thanksgiving proved to be a welcoming time for all here in Gainesville,  Florida.  We had a long-awaited-for taste of the cold weather that much  of the eastern U.S. experienced. In retrospect, this looks to be an  understatement for the actual conditions in much of the rest of the  country, which were […]

Dear Subscribers: The midterm elections are here.  I trust everyone is voting.  This is a trying time for democracies in general and they can only be preserved through active participation of a responsible and educated public.  As a response, I have created a free patreon post looking at the difference between human and honey bee […]

Human democracy appears to be in trouble.  That’s the message of the October 2018 issue of The Atlantic magazine.  Careful readers will notice that the Atlantic’s treatment of this subject is somewhat different than noted here.  The word “human” is missing.  This “anthropocentric” concept is worth examining further.   The Rights of Nature by Jeremy […]

September 24, 2018 Dear Subscribers: As part of the presentations in Hampton, Virginia, Dr. Tom Rinderer, retired from the USDA Baton Rouge Bee Laboratory, took a deep dive into how Russian (Primorsky) honey bees tolerate Varroa.  He ticked off a significant number of “mechanisms” promoting resistance to the mite that research has teased out over […]

Did you know that beekeeping is becoming part of a therapeutic solution to post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)?  According to its wikipedia page, Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that can develop after a person is exposed to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, or other threats on a […]