Shows
About Bees, Culture & CuriosityBees, Greenhouses, and 18-hour Work DaysSeason 5 Episode 4: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Bees, Greenhouses, and 18-hour Work Days It takes 18-hour workdays to keep a greenhouse that produces 3 million plants a year, and to keep a dozen hives of bees on the side to pollinate a10-acre pumpkin patch. Our guest is Joe McShaw, of Honeymoon Acres in Wisconsin. Joe is Ron's youngest brother, so we have a lot of fun on this episode. We do bees, wintering (or not), raising plants to retail, and we answer that old question, "Why be good?" Visit Honeymoon Acres: https://honeymoonacres.com/2025-07-261h 41About Bees, Culture & CuriosityAsk Me Anything for July 2025Season 5 Episode 3: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Ask Me Anything for July 2025 Ask me anything. I start off with a powerful phrase you can always use when a pesky new beekeeper wants advice with their bees. Keep this phrase in your toolkit. Also, just a bit about putting supers on and taking supers off. Summer management questions, answered in this AMA. This episode was recorded in July 2025. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site2025-07-2141 minAbout Bees, Culture & CuriosityJuly's Best Honey PlantSeason 5 Episode 2: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – July's Best Honey Plant What's July's best honey plant? In much of the northern hemisphere, if the soil is sweet alkali, the answer is sweet clover. It's a spectacular honey plant, one of the best in the world, but it originated far away from the western plains. It's invasive. Wild. Part of today's episode considers what this means - native, invasive; old, new; wanted, unwanted. This episode was recorded in July 2025. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. ...2025-07-1351 minAbout Bees, Culture & CuriosityBeekeeping on Canada DaySeason 5 Episode 1: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Beekeeping on Canada Day It's Canada Day, up Canada way, on the first day of July. We talk bees, sunshine, swarms that refuse to be retrieved, and of course Stompin' Tom Connors. Enjoy, eh? This episode was recorded in July 2025. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/ Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst: ron@aboutbees.net2025-07-0349 minAbout Bees, Culture & CuriositySlovenia, the Country that BuzzesSeason 4 Episode 9: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Slovenia, the Country that Buzzes In preparation for a trip to central Europe, I have been learning about beekeeping in the small country of Slovenia. I always learn a lot about beekeeping by looking at beekeeping in other parts of the world. It’s amazing how many good ideas, and a few bad ones, I pick up this way. Anyway, I wrote a bit about beekeeping in the quaint country of Slovenia, and today I am reading my story to you. One of the first things I discovered during m...2025-06-2927 minAbout Bees, Culture & CuriosityLate Spring BeekeepingSeason 4 Episode 8: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Late Spring Beekeeping Rain brings flowers, flowers bring nectar, nectar brings bees, beekeepers make honey. We are getting heavy rains here, so, of course Ron is predicting a big honey flow. This gets Bidzina’s attention. He is thinking about making comb honey with upside-down glass jars, but Ron throws cold water on the idea. Find out why. We discuss the four things to avoid or reduce granulation, before removing the honey as well as after it’s been extracted. These include the fructose/glucose ration, which depends on nectar...2025-06-2559 minAbout Bees, Culture & CuriosityJudging your HoneySeason 4 Episode 7: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Judging your Honey Today we judge your honey. Not by flavour, but by the tiniest nuances of bottle fill and floating specks of bee smoker ash. Our guide is the accomplished Calgary honey judge, Linda Symmes. If you have ever considered participating in the fine art of preparing for a honey competition, we spill some secrets from the hidden, anonymized world of the judge: what do judges actually look for when they consider your jar for the top prize? Does it pay to bribe the judge? These and othe...2025-06-1552 minAbout Bees, Culture & CuriositySpring Honey BeesSeason 4 Episode 6: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Spring Honey Bees Bidzina and Ron talk about the status of their hives, leading to a discussion about dandelion honey, which Ron’s colonies produced in abundance this year. An intense early flow can lead to swarming, which happened to some of Bidzina’s hives. Two migratory beekeeping mishaps are mentioned – one in Oregon, the other in Washington state. Pretty messy. Finally, should you register your bees with the government? And related - do people every level shotguns at bee inspectors? This episode was recorded i...2025-06-1241 minAbout Bees, Culture & CuriosityAlberta Native Bees in TroubleSeason 4 Episode 5: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Alberta Native Bees in Trouble We chat about the troubles facing native bees with Alberta Native Bee Council (ANBC) Executive Director Megan Evans. Pollinators of all sorts are essential to the health and success of our environment. Understanding the habitats and lifecycles of the 371 known species of bees in Alberta is the first step towards ensuring the prosperity of these pollinators. This is part of ANBC's work. Learning about the issues that hinder bee success is necessary before remedies can be found. Megan discusses climate change (bees can’t surv...2025-06-101h 04About Bees, Culture & CuriosityThousands and Thousands and Thousands of QueensSeason 4 Episode 4: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Thousands and Thousands and Thousands of Queens Dedicated to the memory of Florida queen breeder David Miksa This episode was recorded two days before David Miksa passed away. His son Ted and I chat about this remarkable beekeeping family and about queen breeding in general. We jump right into our conversation, catching up with Ted at the end of a long day of his work on the farm. Among the topics covered are running mating nucs through the hot Florida summer; banking queens in Florida (and how th...2025-06-0355 minAbout Bees, Culture & CuriosityBee ThieverySeason 4 Episode 3: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Bee Thievery Pay close attention and you may pick up a few clues to reduce honey bee hive thefts. Listen even more closely and you may pick up tips on how to steal colonies. But please don't. It's not worth time in the big house. We also chat about the apiary in a box (BeeCube), Apimondia's upcoming conference in Denmark, Ron's queen-rearing presentation for Western Apicultural Society, a scheme to raise queens from one single colony (Ron is a skeptic), and ideas around swapping Canadian bees for southern hemi...2025-05-251h 00About Bees, Culture & CuriosityA Rose among the Bees Season 4 Episode 2: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – A Rose among the Bees With Rose, our conversation starts with a bee walking on Ron's neck, progresses to a stash of wax, some bee work, civilization, parasites, and beeswax, beeswax church candles, bees coming to America, mead, monks, America's first pauper (who was a beekeeper), tomato pollination, Rose's training of dogs to find foulbrood, and so much more. This episode was recorded in April, 2025. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/5...2025-05-0854 minAbout Bees, Culture & CuriosityPhilosophy of Bee Happiness Season 4 Episode 1: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Philosophy of Bee Happiness With Daniel Miksha, we try to unravel the philosophy of happiness. We barely touch on our intended theme (Can bees be happy?), but we lay some of the essential groundwork. This episode was recorded in April, 2025. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/ Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst: ron@aboutbees.net 2025-04-1655 minAbout Bees, Culture & CuriositySeason 4 TrailerSeason 4 Trailer: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Season 4 Trailer A quick preview of Season 4! How will we treat for mites? Is spring honey any good in the north? (Ron doesn't think so.) And Bidzina muses about building a cabin where paying customers can enjoy the air exhausted by honey bee colonies. This episode was recorded in March, 2025. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/ Finally: email your q...2025-04-0121 minAbout Bees, Culture & CuriosityArizona's Monica KingSeason 3 Episode 11: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Arizona's Monica King Our best podcast so far. We chat with Monica King, who rescues Africanized Honey Bees and teaches beekeepers in Tucson, Arizona. Monica's bee rescue web page: Monica King - Contact & Bee Removals This episode was recorded in March, 2025. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/ Finally: email your questions, comments, and existential angst: ron@aboutbe...2025-04-011h 12About Bees, Culture & CuriositySpring feedingSeason 3 Episode 10: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Spring feeding Before we look at spring feeding strategies in the northern part of the northern hemisphere, we take a detour through a few important news stories, including the effect tariffs might have on honey sent from Canada to the USA, Apimondia in Denmark, the death of Gene Hackman, and a trial chemical treatment that might help bees withstand pesticide poisoning. In our main theme, we critique a half dozen popular spring feeding methods. How does your favourite feeding technique stack up? Bonus link: Apimondia 2025 2025-03-271h 04About Bees, Culture & CuriosityPackages or Overwintered Colonies?Season 3 Episode 9: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Packages or Overwintered Colonies? We begin this episode – which is mostly about honey production using package bees – with a quick look at gloomy Denmark, where this year’s big international bee fest is being held. That, of course, leads us to a discussion about the wealth of nations (not to be confused with Adam Smith’s book), before finally circling back to packages of honey bees. What works better – packages or overwintered honey bee colonies? It depends on location, but we come out in favour of packages here in Calgary...2025-03-221h 01About Bees, Culture & CuriosityThe Bee Shop Season 3 Episode 8: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The Bee Shop We visit Robert McBane and his brilliant beautiful bee supply shop in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Discussion flows from helping new beekeepers choose the right equipment to the establishment of a large retail beekeeping supply company, with lots of stops in between. Worker and Hive: https://workerandhive.com/ This episode was recorded in February, 2025. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site About Ron Miksha: https...2025-03-0247 minAbout Bees, Culture & CuriosityThe Bees are Still DyingSeason 3 Episode 7: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The Bees are Still Dying The bees are still dying. It's looking really bad for the survival of bees and beekeepers. This episode was recorded in February, 2025. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/ Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst: ron@aboutbees.net2025-02-1755 minAbout Bees, Culture & CuriosityThe Bees are Dying Part 2Season 3 Episode 6: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The Bees are Dying Part 2 The bees are dying. In part 2 of this 2-part podcast, we look at how devasting honey bees losses have been the during past year and we look at the enormous loss of wild (native) bee species. It's not good out there. This episode was recorded in February, 2025. Some links mentioned in this podcast: https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/native_pollinators/pdfs/Pollinators_in_Peril.pdf https://capabees.com/shared/CAPA-Statement-on-Colony-Losses-2023-2024_FV.pdf https://www...2025-02-1644 minAbout Bees, Culture & CuriosityThe Bees are Dying - Part 1Season 3 Episode 5: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The Bees are Dying Part 1 The bees are dying. In part 1 of this 2-part podcast, we look at how devasting honey bees losses have been the during past year and we look at the enormous loss of wild (native) bee species. It's not good out there. This episode was recorded in February, 2025. Some links mentioned in this podcast: https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/native_pollinators/pdfs/Pollinators_in_Peril.pdf https://capabees.com/shared/CAPA-Statement-on-Colony-Losses-2023-2024_FV.pdf https://www...2025-02-1241 minAbout Bees, Culture & CuriosityWinter Bee News RoundupSeason 3 Episode 4: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Winter Bee News Roundup This episode covers some recent papers and news, including the discovery of a new bees species in France, native bees used for crop pollination, a Tropilaelaps (Tropy) Mite invasion in Georgia (Europe), and a robot-bee designed to scatter pollen. As usual, we blunder far off topic and that might be the best part of today's podcast. This episode was recorded in January, 2025. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. Podcast website: https://sites.libs...2025-02-031h 08About Bees, Culture & CuriosityGrowing up on a Bee FarmSeason 3 Episode 3: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Growing up on a Bee Farm We talk with Monica King, who captures wayward Africanized Honey Bees in Arizona, and her brother Ted Miksa, manager of a Florida queen-breeding outfit. They talk about being the children of pioneering commercial migratory beekeeping parents, Linda and David Miksa. We chat about migrating with the bees, keeping kids safe from bee-sting allergies, and learning the beekeeping trade. This episode was recorded in January, 2025. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. Pod...2025-01-271h 06About Bees, Culture & CuriosityWinter Beekeeping in AlbertaSeason 3 Episode 2: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Winter Beekeeping in Alberta Ah, winter in the near-Arctic! It's amazing that honey bees can survive here in Alberta, Canada, but they sometimes do. In this episode, we look at some tips and tricks that cold-climate beekeepers should know. Warm-climate beekeepers may pick up a few useful ideas, too. This episode was recorded in January, 2025. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/...2025-01-191h 01About Bees, Culture & CuriosityWaxing with JessieSeason 3 Episode 1: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Waxing with Jessie We meet Jessie Smulders at Worker and Hive to learn about beeswax, candles, wax crayons, food wraps, and lip balms. We cover it all - from the honey bee to the match stick. And yes, folks, we learn that size really does matter. Jess's website: Green Box Bees: https://www.greenboxbees.com/ Worker and Hive Bee Supplies:: https://workerandhive.com/ This episode was recorded in January, 2025. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your ad...2025-01-131h 41About Bees, Culture & CuriositySeason 3: TrailerSeason 3 Episode 0: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Season 3 Trailer The start of a new year and a new podcast season! We take a quick look at the episodes lined up for the year ahead - and we learn what some older beekeepers think of some newer beekeepers. This episode was recorded in January, 2025. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/ Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst: ron@a...2025-01-0624 minAbout Bees, Culture & CuriosityStarting the New Year Right!Season 2 Episode 12: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Starting the New Year Right! We bring in the 2025 beekeeping year with Bill Rayment, an Alberta legend among beekeepers. Bill recounts getting started with bees (and some advice for all new beekeepers), then catches us up on some of his retirement projects: mentoring Calgary beekeepers, working with the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society's Land of Dreams, supplying queen bees for Alberta beekeepers, and making brilliant specialized beekeeping equipment with his 3-D printer. This episode was recorded in December, 2024. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or...2025-01-021h 13About Bees, Culture & CuriosityBye bye '24Season 2 Episode 11: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Bye Bye '24 Our penultimate 2024 episode involves two very big 2024 news stories (Murder Hornets and Importing USA packages into Canada) and a look at Real Deal Honey, Bidzina's label that sponsors Mixed Martial Arts fighters. Definitely an eclectic podcast episode. Enjoy! This episode was recorded in December, 2024. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/ Finally: email your questions, comments, and ang...2025-01-011h 24About Bees, Culture & CuriosityThe Christmas GiftSeason 2 Episode 10: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The Christmas Gift Thanks to Langstroth's Mom's Christmas gift to the world, we celebrate L.L. Langstroth in this special Christmas episode. Langstroth, born on Christmas Day in 1810, discovered bee space and invented a pragmatic hive with moveable frames. His story is froth with trials, lawsuits, rejection, and especially his profound suffering from a mental illness that gave little respite. But his story is also inspirational. Enjoy this and have a nice Christmas holiday season. This episode was recorded in December, 2024. Please subscribe, like, love, an...2024-12-251h 15About Bees, Culture & CuriosityThe Shortest DaySeason 2 Episode 9: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The Shortest Day What do bees do on the shortest day of the year? We take a quick look at the state of affairs of bumble bees, after turning their blood into antifreeze and entering a suspended animation under the snow, and then honey bees, clustered up tightly in a snug bug ball, vibrating their detatched wing muscles. Honey bee wintering capped brood map This episode was recorded in December, 2024. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation....2024-12-2323 minAbout Bees, Culture & CuriosityGranulated HoneySeason 2 Episode 8: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Granulated Honey This episode focuses on granulation, with special attention to four keys for prevention of crystallization in the comb. Some floral types (canola, manzanita, mesquite, cotton) can granulate before beekeepers have a chance to remove and extract the frames. We cover this, some ecology side-issues, and catch the sniffles and growls of a little white dog named Misty. This episode was recorded in September, 2024. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.co...2024-12-171h 10About Bees, Culture & CuriosityAbout Bees MailboxSeason 2 Episode 7: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – About Bees Podcast We begin with a bit of talk about road trips and especially an eleven-hour drive that Ron was preparing to take in September to Val Marie, Saskatchewan, from Calgary, Alberta. Then, we open the mailbox to answer these questions: Can a hive of honey bees be too good for winter? Do I have to wrap hives with insolation for winter? What about beewashing? Beewashing is not my friend. Can honey cure tuberculosis, cancer, and hairloss? ...2024-12-091h 30About Bees, Culture & CuriosityWhat would Plato do with Drones?Season 2 Episode 6: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – What would Plato do with Drones? Ah, yes. Our philosopher-contributor is back. Daniel Miksha shows us how Plato abuses bees by making them into an allegory for the ruthless (but ultimately justified) murder of unproductive members of society. After a brief detour into the early history of Greece and the nation of Georgia, we focus on Plato's Republic and the ancient Greek philosopher's five forms of government, of which (in Plato's mind), democracy is one of the worst. Why? Because of the drones, of course. Aristotle says wor...2024-12-031h 04About Bees, Culture & CuriosityHiveIQ: A Smart Hive from AustraliaSeason 2 Episode 5: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – HiveIQ: A Smart Hive from Australia In this episode, we welcome Victor Croker of Australia’s HiveIQ. Victor is a third-generation beekeeper (his grandmother started the business), with 1500 colonies. The bees motivated him and his partners to design a better hive. They wanted something to help honey bees survive Australia’s heat as well as the cold on other continents. The result is a modular hive of a smart and attractive design. Our conversation ranges from an overview of Australia’s honey sources, beekeeping history, native bees, and the arriva...2024-11-251h 06About Bees, Culture & CuriositySaskatchewan Honey Crops & Westcoast Canadian Queen Rearing with Steve CliffordSeason 2 Episode 4: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Saskatchewan Honey Crops & Westcoast Canadian Queen Rearing with Steve Clifford Steve Clifford's lifetime among the bees has taken him from North Dakota bee inspector to managing 1800 colonies in Saskatchewan, at the edge of agriculture. He kept bees there for decades, producing two or three-hundred pound crop averages of beautiful white Canadian honey. He saw the transition away from package-beekeeping in Canada to nearly universal over-wintering in the far north. Recently, Steve has moved to the mild Canadian westcoast and set up a queen and nuc business. In th...2024-11-241h 19About Bees, Culture & CuriosityBee Cube: An Apiary in a BoxSeason 2 Episode 3: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – BeeCube: An Apiary in a Box with Herman van Reekum We discuss an unusual housing concept for honey bees. Our guest, Herman van Reekum, has designed a BeeCube, which can house about 32 colonies of honey bees in standard Langstroth frames. The unit somewhat resembles bee houses used in parts of the Alps but has technology and electronics similar to the BeeWise Technology units developed in Israel. We discuss these types of honey bee houses and look at applications relevant to Canada. Herman's attractive BeeCube is almost entirely nat...2024-11-141h 30About Bees, Culture & CuriosityBumble Bees 101 with Mathias FentonSeason 2 Episode 2: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Bumble Bees 101 with Mathias Fenton We welcome biology instructor Mathias Fenton of Mount Royal University. He tells us about big bumbling bumble bees. Our chat touches on the relationship between wasps, ants, honey bees and bumble bees. Mathias mentions some of his interesting wild bee observations and we give a shoutout to iNaturalist, a great public resource that all naturalists, regardless their experience level, can appreciate and enjoy. In this episode, we focus on the bumble bee lifecycle and best places to position empty nest boxes. In the...2024-11-0547 minAbout Bees, Culture & CuriosityChief Crowchild and the BeesSeason 2 Episode 1: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Chief Crowchild and the Bees Chief Lee Crowchild of Tsuut'ina Nation is a member of a family designated as the Keepers of the Bees. He tells us of childhood summers spent sleeping in a tent that carried the symbol of the bee. But it was not until later in life that he tasted honey from a hive behind his house when he realized how deeply bees were embedded in his life. In this episode, we learn a bit about the culture of the Tsuut'ina people and the Chief...2024-10-281h 01About Bees, Culture & CuriositySeason 2: TrailerSeason 2 Trailer: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Season 2 Season 2 of About Bees opens today! We look ahead at the next 12 episodes that has guests talking about 300-pound honey crops, helping bumble bees find a home, controlling granulation, beekeeping at Tsuu'tina Nation with Chief Crowchild, raising queen cells on Canada's westcoast, amazing BeeCube technology, and, of course Plato. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/ Watch the podcast: https://www.youtube.com...2024-10-2129 minAbout Bees, Culture & CuriosityBees by the NumberSeason 1 Episode 12: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Bees by the Number In this episode, we manage to jump around the bee world by using the numbers 1, 2, 2-3, 26, 500, 20,000, 45,000, and 50,000. That’s a wealthy range of handsome numbers! One queen? Not always. What about zero queens plus laying workers? Or more than one queen? Did you know that some beekeepers quit running two-queen colonies because their hives made so much honey that they became impractical to add supers on top? We're talking 600 pounds per hive. Two words. Please folks, it is honey bee, not honeybee. Two w...2024-10-141h 27About Bees, Culture & CuriosityMoving Bees, part 2Season 1 Episode 11: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Moving Bees 2 We begin this podcast with the capture of a swarm, with details described in real time. The subject of Hutterites, a Christian religious group, came up when similarities between Hutterite colonies and bee colonies 'splitting' was discussed. Since we are again talking about moving hives of bees this episode, Ron has a neat trick to help you pick up a single-storey colony (such as a swarm) and move it inside the trunk of a car or back of a van. Simple, fast, cheap, and the bees don...2024-10-071h 19About Bees, Culture & CuriosityMoving Bees, part 1 Season 1 Episode 10: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Moving Bees, part 1 Part 1 of Moving Honey Bees. We look at the ways beekeepers have carted their hives on the backs of humans, donkeys, horse-drawn wagons, boats, flat-bed trucks, semi-rigs, and aircraft. We don’t neglect to acknowledge the inventors of the palletized migratory beekeeping system, the native bees who became displaced refugees, California almond growers, and a very special shoutout the President Eisenhower who promoted the amazing highway systems just so American beekeepers don’t get caught at a red light in Mayberry, North Carolina. It's...2024-09-301h 03About Bees, Culture & CuriosityHoney Harvest TimeSeason 1 Episode 9: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Honey Harvest Time After a few minutes pondering how some carpenter ants in Florida choose the profession of surgeon (sawing off sick comrades wounded legs), Bidzina and Ron settle into a honey harvest discussion. This episode is packed with ideas and suggestions that describe four legal ways to harvest honey and one illegal way. Then it wraps up with talk about amazingly big crops and the three disastrous ones that helped persuade Ron to move on to a new life. It's a wild ride, so let's go! 2024-09-231h 32About Bees, Culture & CuriosityDogs That Smell BeesSeason 1 Episode 8: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast - Dogs That Smell We talk with Rose-Anne Bouffard, a bee enthusiast who trains dogs to find and rescue wayward bumblebee nests and to locate colonies with American Foulbrood (AFB). Dog breeds and their amazing scent sensitivity are discussed. Bloodhounds are best for sniffing out bumblebee nests and honeybee diseases, but that's not what Rose uses. Humans have million scent receptors and can smell AFB, but dogs have thirty million receptors. Dogs also use their floppy ears to stir up scents. The bee-rescuing dogs were trained through fin...2024-09-161h 24About Bees, Culture & CuriosityCameroon to Canada - Patrick's Bee JourneySeason 1 Episode 7: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Cameroon to Canada - Patrick's Bee Journey In this episode of About Bees, we are joined by Patrick Tefouet Tonlio, who was an agriculture community organizer and teacher in the African nation of Cameroon. Patrick now lives in Calgary where he keeps honey bees and has been working on farm and bee projects with the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society’s Land of Dreams (https://ccisab.ca/land-of-dreams/). During his last year of high school, Patrick learned to work with bees from his grandfather when Patrick moved from the ca...2024-09-091h 37About Bees, Culture & CuriositySweet Clover: America's other weedSeason 1 Episode 6: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast - Sweet Clover: America’s other weed Legal. Illegal. Legal. Illegal again. Sweet clover has quite a history. Introduced into North America from Europe about 300 years ago, farmers were once fined for having it in their fields. It can be used to feed cattle, but improperly stored, it can become a blood thinner and kill cows. On the other hand, the state of Kentucky was saved from bankruptcy by sweet clover. And so were some beekeepers. Every acre of sweet clover yields as much as one-thousand pounds of ho...2024-09-021h 26About Bees, Culture & CuriositySome Bee BuzzSeason 1 Episode 5: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Some Bee Buzz In this episode, we jump from moving bees from Alberta to British Columbia to examining a recent paper about the ecology of disappearing bee species. Then, of course, we chat about Beyonce and Hex Art. Bidzina describes conditions in British Columbia and why he avoided going farther into the mountains to make fireweed honey but instead split his colonies, doubling their number. He tells us a little about moving his bees back to Alberta, driving through the night with a trailer through the Rocky Mountains. In...2024-08-261h 20About Bees, Culture & CuriosityThe Bees' EarsSeason 1 Episode 4: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The Bees’ Ears In this episode, we discover that insects, including bees, can hear. They have three ways of picking up sound – through their antennae, their feet, and through their armour (exoskeleton). Since bees can hear, does music calm the bees and reduce stings? And since bees can hear, does the old tradition of “Telling the Bees” make sense? Is that why, upon Queen Elizabeth’s death, the royal bees were told about her passing by the royal beekeeper? Why? How do bees buzz? Do they hear their own buzzing? I...2024-08-131h 04About Bees, Culture & CuriosityDo Bees Feel Pain?Season 1 Episode 3: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast - Do Bees Feel Pain? We often expect to be on the receiving end of pain - whether from a broken elbow or from the tail-end of a bee. But what about bees? Do small creatures feel pain? Is it just a matter of defining pain in a way that we can claim bees feel no pain - or that they do, indeed feel pain? Or is the sensation of feeling pain so complicated that it defies a definition? Do bees simply react without actually 'feeling' anything? Or are they...2024-07-311h 15About Bees, Culture & CuriosityTolstoy and the Robber BeesSeason 1 Episode 2: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast - Tolstoy and the Robber Bees Leo Tolstoy was a beekeeping fanatic. He even managed to work his bees into Anna Karenina, as well as War and Peace. In this episode of About Bees, Culture & Curiosity, we take a shallow dive into deep Russian literature, and look at the conflicted life and death of Tolstoy. Our main focus is the passage from War And Peace after Napoleon enters Moscow and finds, according to Tolstoy, a city defeated and empty. Defeated and empty in the way that a robbed colony of bee...2024-07-311h 24About Bees, Culture & CuriosityMyths and LegendsSeason 1 Episode 1: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast - Myths and Legends What we think we know might not be true. Did you know that Einstein once warned us that without bees, humans would go extinct in four years? Did you know that honey bees are going extinct? That archeologists found 3000-year-old honey that was as good as new? That you can survive on a diet of nothing but honey? That when bees smell smoke, they get ready to fly away from their hive? Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong again. In this episode, we look...2024-07-291h 17About Bees, Culture & CuriosityAbout Bees, Culture & Curiosity IntroductionThe About Bees, Culture & Curiosity podcast explores the world of bees (and their entomological cousins) with ample attention to culture and the curiosities of the entire insect world. Bidzina Mosiashvili is a young beekeeper facing the challenges of managing a few colonies and growing a business of bees. He brings fresh, thoughtful insights and questions to our podcast while Ron Miksha is phasing out of bees and life. Ron learned beekeeping during the 1960s. As a boomer, he is stuck with some old ideas, but has had a lot of years on the road. This e...2024-07-291h 09