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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Dear Subscribers, I’m back in the honey bee business with another partner.  We are “experimenting” with some “additional  beekeeping strategies,” which include ideas from two beekeeping traditions becoming more prominent in this country.  The first is the top-bar design and the second is that associated the horizontal (or long) hive often used in Europe, perhaps […]

“So since today is Memorial Day, this blog post is dedicated to the idea of sacrifice. The sacrifice our troops make for the good of our society, and the sacrifice each bee makes for the good of their colony. For those who don’t know, Memorial Day is celebrated on the last Monday in May. The […]

Dear Subscribers: It’s Memorial Day.  I have created a Patreon post in the digest for this special occasion.  My new partner is full of “innovative” ideas concerning the long hive he built, in which we installed two colonies of bees side by side, separated by a divider board.  It is interesting to see how his […]

                                          Dear Subscribers,  The rains continue here in North Central Florida. We are now into June,  when showers come regularly in the p.m., and are concerned that whatever  nectar might have been left to forage for in May got washed away in the  daily deluge of that record rainfall  month.  The temperature is more […]

Dr. Medhat Nasr, Alberta Provincial Apiculturist has helped produce a winner of a computer application:  Alberta has a vibrant beekeeping industry. It houses 283 000 honey bee colonies, representing approximately 43% of the bees in Canada. Alberta’s beekeeping industry contributes $75 million a year to the agricultural economy. This revenue is produced from honey sales, pollination […]

Neonicotinoids are back in the news.  Risks to bees are pretty much confirmed according to one report: “Most uses of neonicotinoid pesticides represent a risk to wild bees and honeybees, according to assessments published by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) . The Authority has updated its risk assessments of three neonicotinoids – clothianidin, imidacloprid […]

February 24, 2018                     Dear Subscribers:  Our small apiary is history for this season.  Hard to know exactly what  happened.  Unseasonably cold weather early forced us to postpone  examining the colonies longer than I wanted to.  My partner also  recently had some health challenges making it impossible to visit the  bee yard at his […]