Long ago (about 1975), there was an amazing beekeeper, now a legend, in northeast Saskatchewan. He consistently had 300-pound/hive crops. This was Dr. Don Peer (PhD, 1955, U Wisconsin). Peer once told us “If I were king of the world, I’d make a law that every beekeeper had to own one more super for each hive of bees“. This photo, taken in Wisconsin by my brother David, shows the extreme production from well-managed colonies. Unfortunately, the picture shows neither Dr Peer, who did much to promote expert beekeeping in Wisconsin, nor my brother. Maybe another day for that. The point, of cours ..read more

Hi, Everyone! Chief Lee Crowchild and I have been asked to present at the Calgary Science Centre for an upcoming Indigenous Science Night. Attendance will be up to about 1700 people and the event is just a few weeks away, so I thought that I would reach out to readers for a little help. The way the science program works, a ‘mainstream western scientist’ (me) is teamed up with an Elder (a Knowledge Keeper) from a nearby Nation. Fortunately, I was able to select my own presentation partner, Chief Crowchild, whom I have worked with for years – and who is a beekeeper on Tsuut’ina Nation. (We have ..read more

Almost every time I teach a beginning beekeeping course, a student or two comes forward to whisper: “If I move my bees to a patch of cannabis, will I get weedy honey?” I tell them that cannabis buds don’t secrete nectar. Then their balloons of enthusiasm deflate. “But the weed store. . . it sells weed-infused honey.” There’s a big difference between nectar that carries psychedelics and psychedelics carried by honey. I direct my beginning beekeeping students to one of the many webpages that tells how to dry, crush, and infuse – such as here, here, and here. By the way, I was really impress ..read more

My badbeekeeping blog has largely avoided the topic of global climate change. It’s contentious. Some insist it’s happening; other insist that it ain’t. I have purposefully tried to limit my conversation on the topic because I didn’t want to alienate any readers who have deep convictions on the subject. But opinions – and deep convictions – sometimes change. Especially when facts are staring at us. Should a beekeeping blog discuss climate change? Of course it should. If climate change is really happening, it can have an enormous effect on our honey bees’ survival, production, and pollination ..read more

Mid-70s is too young to pass over to the other side. But that was the fate for Kim Flottum, 76, who passed away Sunday, December 10, 2023, after a short battle with cancer. The bright and adventurous bee master, editor, and author was based in Medina, Ohio. Kim was the editor of Bee Culture magazine for 33 years, retiring in 2019. He was originally from central Wisconsin. It followed easily that he would earn his bachelor’s degree in horticulture from the University of Wisconsin. Following graduation, he worked as a researcher at the USDA Honey Bee Research Lab in Madison. His work focused o ..read more

A few days ago, I sat down with the folks at Beekeeping Today Podcast to talk about how our non-native honey bees may affect native bees. Jeff Ott and Becky Masterman were informed, sympathetic interviewers. I had a great time talking to them. Their notes for the episode are below. These notes capture our discussion really well. I hope you have a chance to listen to the podcast. We cover a lot of information, especially regarding my research at the University of Calgary. In this episode, we talk with Ron Miksha, a former commercial beekeeper now living in Calgary, Alberta. Ron was on the pod ..read more

Revisiting Richard Taylor on his 104th birthday. He died 20 years ago. But Richard Taylor is interesting enough to remember, at least every November 5th when a small part of the world stands to salute the practical beekeeper and philosopher. Here’s my tribute, dusted off for today’s post. As I continue to plod along with a myriad of misadventures, I feel obligated to apologize for the infrequency of these bad beekeeping posts. Sorry. But I’m not going to apologize for occasionally repeating a posting from the past – especially this one, which celebrates the great commercial beekeeper, writer ..read more

We’ve had unusually mild weather for September and October in Calgary. The heat gave us a chance to clean up some odd bits of beeswax – and turn them into ducks. I bought this melter, built by Uncle Lee’s Bees in Calgary, a couple of years ago. It quickly builds a high temperature. It is easy to load and clean. Very light to move. Easy to store over winter. I find it hard to believe that it was designed, produced, and sold for just a few hundred dollars. (You can buy one from Worker and Hive in Calgary.) On the other hand, it would take a hobby beekeeper a few years of wax sales to earn the ..read more

Susan Cormier, author: “Advice to a new beekeeper” (credit: CBC) “Do not keep bees. . . “Keep cattle, or chickens or dogs. Their emotions are recognizable, their ailments familiar. Their speech, though foreign, is in a language we understand.” Thus begins Susan Cormier’s seasoned advice to beekeeping wanna-bees. There are sufficient reasons to refrain from beekeeping, but I hadn’t thought of the communication gap – the bees’ foreign speech. We relish the knowledge (with a bit of pride) that a human among us was able to decipher the code, the language, of scout bees who tell forager bees ..read more

The Synthetic Apiary. (Image: MIT Media Lab) I posted this piece a couple of years ago, but it’s timeless. I was reminded of this blog post when my WordPress splash alarm went off – someone was linking to this page on their own blog. That’s OK, of course. The idea here is to throw ideas out into the ether and see who can make use of them. Since my story describes a dystopian apiary, it feels appropriate to have it included in this piece on Artificial Intelligence at a Vancouver art gallery. Enjoy my piece, below, then hop on over to Mad, bad, and dangerous to know. for a cool look at modern ar ..read more