Honeybees are everyone’s favorite. After all, they pollinate our crops, make wax and honey, their language is a dance and they are the perfect model of a socialist society. They toil tirelessly gathering nectar and pollen, cleaning and building their home, and tending to the needs of the queen, who in turn produces eggs which […]
honeybees
Posted inLife + Outdoors
HumBug: Autumnal Potpourri
As the days get shorter and the nights colder, many insect species have attained their adult phases. With one important exception, it is only in the adult phase that winged species get their fully developed wings and can reproduce. After spending a year or two as water breathing larvae, mayflies (order Ephemeroptera) make their way […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
HumBug: Mystery Markings
I can’t say how long it’s been since I first noticed many of the honeybees in my backyard appeared to have been marked. Their thoraxes looked white and dusty on top. At first I thought they might have been branded by the owner of their hive. A tiny brush near the entrance to the hive […]
Posted inNews
HumBug: In the Key of Bee
We’ve finally had three days of warmish weather and the garden is abuzz with the sounds of busy bees. If you listen carefully, you can hear each species with its own pitch and rhythm. There is, of course, the familiar drone of the honeybee and the heavy bass of the yellow faced bumble bee (Bombus […]
Posted inNews
HumBug: Don’t Worry, Bee Happy
With great alarm, many articles have informed us that honeybees are dying out in record numbers. The phenomenon is called Colony Collapse Disorder. There are numerous theories from over use of neo-nicitonieoids insecticides, GMO crops, mites, climatological stress and a combination of all of the above. Like a plague, it has wiped out many hives […]