Archives for 2020

Dear Subscribers: Our drought is back with a vengeance.  And the heat that’s been promised has also arrived for a record Memorial day forecast to be in the dreaded “triple digits.”   These conditions reveal themselves in the suffering of plants turning brown in the Florida sun.  Time to get the watering devices out or […]

April 24, 2019 Dear Subscribers: The drought we were in last month appears to have come to an end with a bang!  Good Friday produced what many were calling a “tornado.”  In retrospect, that seems to have been overblown, but no matter with 55-mile-per-hour straight line winds it’s “katy bar the door”  as “the trees come […]

Dear Subscribers: We are in a mini drought of sorts in northeast Florida. No rain for a long period, then some spotty showers have showed up and more are expected this weekend. However, we are not as dry as the southern part of the state.  Florida’s dry season usually begins in November and continues through […]

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 […]