Explore every episode of the podcast About Bees, Culture & Curiosity

Season 6 Episode 1: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Apimondia 2025  

Ron is back from Apimondia Scandinavia 2025. If you missed this world bee event, listen up as we walk through the Global Honey Bar, hundreds of posters, the mega-exhibition hall, and the heart of the conference - the presentations. This is not an exhaustive review, but this overview will give you a sense for the dizzying amount of bee knowledge on display in Copenhagen at Apimondia 2025.  

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in October 2025.

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Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site
About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/

Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst:  miksha@gmail.com

Season 5 Episode 12: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The Autumn Flower: Goldenrod. Plus a bonus - the end of human civilization  

Goldenrod is the keystone species for plant, animal, and ecological survival in a huge part of North America. It is also suffering from an unexpected problem, which is hurting bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. That's this episode's bonus - the collapse of human civilzation. 

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in October 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:  miksha@gmail.com

Season 5 Episode 11: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Bright Shiny Bees  

Our guest today is Ilan Domnich of the Alberta Native Bee Council. We dig deeply into the care and appreciation of native bees in North America. 

Bright green bees, yellow-faced bees, bees that make cellophane (sort of), mine into the sand, plus tiny, tiny bees. Bees that turn their blood into wine? This episode is a trip. We talk about taking care of native, wild bees and helping them help us. Bee hotels? Maybe they do more harm than good. Sticks and leaves? Your excuse to let your garden go wild in the fall. Build your own bumble bee nests? We chat about that, too. 

Learn more about wild bees:  Alberta Native Bee Council

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Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site
About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/

Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst:  miksha@gmail.com

Season 5 Episode 10: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Apimondia: The World's Bee Meeting    

This short introduction to Apimondia will be of interest to all beekeepers, whether attending Apimondia 2025 in Copenhagen or not.  I hope you are among those going to the conference!

Apimondia 2025: https://apimondia2025.com/

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:  miksha@gmail.com

Season 5 Episode 9: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Beekeeping along Canada's Sunshine Coast     

Canada has a sunshine coast. That's where I met up with my friend Steve Clifford. Steve is a honey producer (mostly Himalayan blackberry honey) and he produces and sells queens and nucs. It's a really different part of Canada - a rainforest where it seldom snows, but summers can get hot and sunny. 

This episode was recorded in Halfmoon Bay, British Columbia, in September 2025. 

See Steve Clifford interviewed by Coast Magazine

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:  miksha@gmail.com

Season 5 Episode 8: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Chile for Avocado Pollination, Queen Production, and Adventure     

Today's guest is Francisco Rey, a Chilean beekeeper and avocado farmer. We talk about the country of Chile, Francisco's 43 years of beekeeping, queen breeding, Francisco's friendship with researcher John Kefuss, Francisco's family-run bee farm, avocado pollination, avocado honey, exporting queens, and we talk about why you should visit Francisco in South America..

This episode was recorded in August 2025. 

Francisco Rey's Chilean Bee Farm:  www.pacificqueens.com

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:  miksha@gmail.com

Season 5 Episode 7: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Buckwheat: Our Favourite August Honey Plant     

Buckwheat is quirky. Both the pland and the honey. We look at both - plant and honey - in today's podcast. Especially the black, chokingly-strong honey.

Buckwheat, though often mistaken for a cereal grain, is actually a member of the Polygonaceae family, kin to rhubarb and sorrel. First cultivated in China more than 6,000 years ago, it spread westward along trade routes and became a staple in Eastern Europe for its short growing season, tolerance of poor soils, and high-protein, gluten-free grain. Farmers turned it into groats, roasted kasha, soba noodles, dumplings, pancakes, and beer.

In North America, buckwheat once covered millions of acres, especially in Pennsylvania, New York, and later Manitoba. Today, only about 50,000 acres remain in the U.S., with North Dakota as the largest producer. Farmers planted it as a rescue crop when other fields failed, and its continuous bloom provided nectar during mid-summer gaps.

For bees and beekeepers, buckwheat is both boon and bane. Yields could soar to 200 pounds per hive in good years, but hot, dry weather can shut nectar off completely. The honey is almost black, rich in minerals and antioxidants, with a flavor that people either cherish or despise. Folks often describe it as barnyard-like, molasses-like, or medicinal.

Culturally, buckwheat honey was prized by Eastern European immigrants and Jewish communities, especially for Rosh Hashanah. Today, production is rare, but the memory and distinct taste linger. I know. I made a few thousand pounds of buckwheat years ago in Pennsylvania and I spill some memories here today.

This episode was recorded in August 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:  miksha@gmail.com

Season 5 Episode 6: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Laura Sends us Deep into the Beekeeping Groove     

This wide-ranging beekeeping podcast takes us from Wales to New Zealand and then Alberta, Canada, with beekeeper Laura Barritt. We look at commercial beekeeping in New Zealand and touch on Sir Edmund Hillary, manuka honey, queen breeding, package shaking, honey producing by under supering, migratory beekeeping, favourite honeys, the Bee Cube®, viral 13-year-old harvesting honey in his house, maintaining queen bee lines, aging of beekeepers, fireweed honey production, honey bee adaptaions to new crops, and becoming a commercial beekeeper.

Links from this episode:

Rata honey in New Zealand

Bee Cube® 

13-year-old beekeeper Oliver Taylor

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:  miksha@gmail.com

Season 5 Episode 5: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – World's Most Interesting Bee Museum - and more...      

I am just back from a quick trip to central Europe, where I visited bees in Slovenia and family in Hungary. You don't want to miss what this curious beekeeper has to say about what he saw!

Among other things,, I explored the world's most interesting beekeeping museum. What would you put into the museum if it were yours?

This episode was recorded in August 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:  miksha@gmail.com

Season 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/

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:  miksha@gmail.com

Season 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/site
About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/

Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst:  miksha@gmail.com

Season 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. 

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

Season 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.net

Season 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 my research, is that the two million people in Slovenia are almost all beekeepers. Or they know a beekeeper. Or they know where to buy good local honey from a beekeeper. With ten thousand beekeepers, that’s a lot more than the number of people keeping bees in many much larger and more populous countries.

The country of Slovenia borders on Austria, Hungary, Croatia, and Italy. What a mix! And the scenery goes from ice-capped Alps to Mediterranean seaside. We have a lot of history, culture, and beekeeping to do – so, let’s get going!

This episode was recorded in June 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

Season 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 source. We talk a lot about this and the other factors that contribute to granulation. Listen for number four, you won’t believe it!

Bidzina backtracks away from the inverted jars idea and begins to consider comb honey. Marketing an interesting and unusual product, like comb honey, can be difficult so we consider places that he might go with the honey. Bidzina describes a mixed-martial arts competition coming up in Calgary where he will be selling some honey.

Conversation shifts to bees, with reference to hives that have multiple swarms and after-swarms, and the potential for a big honey crop in the Calgary area.

Next, we consider that most outreach bee presentations are for children. However, Ron spoke to elderly folks this week at two retirement homes. Maybe we are focusing on the wrong groups? Kids don’t vote and few send letters to the government to beg for morsels of help for the bees. The seniors might. Maybe we're not involving them enough.

In discussing how senior citizen beekeepers can help, we acknowledge that some old advice doesn’t stand the test of time but other ideas may be forgotten gems. This includes something that Ron learned 50 years ago about treating European Foulbrood.

Next, Bidzina shows some craft work. He has been experimenting with attractive wraps that surround a hive all year round, partly as camouflage, partly as a work of art. He wants to put lights on the decorations around the hives. I suggest that he use red light, otherwise bees may be attracted out of the hives at night. This obviously leads right into a discussion about parasites that turn honey bees into light-seeking zombies.

This episode was recorded in June 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

Season 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 other hints and suggestions are on today’s  episode.

This episode was recorded in June 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

Season 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 in June 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

Season 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 survive if flowers finish blooming before the bees have raised their brood); habitat loss (due to human encroachment and invasive plant species expanding into native vegetation); invasive species spreading diseases; and the impact of pesticides. To help native bees, there also needs to be enhanced awareness of the difference between wild native bees and managed bees.

Among many projects, ANBC is developing a Living Lawns App to help homeowners create or restore native bee habitats – starting with a goal of one square meter (or one square yard) of landscape for the bees. A million homes following this model would add a million square meters (or yards) of living space and floral resources for native bees.

We also look at calls to action that everyone can implement: learn the difference between native and managed bees; work on ecological literacy; create habitats for native bees; and get excited (bee watching is an actual event)!

Finally, it was reassuring to learn that Megan, who dedicates her work to helping native bees, wasn’t always comfortable around bees. She overcame her reluctance (fear) of bee encounters by becoming curious about pollinators. Listen to this episode to see how that happened!

Visit Alberta Native Bees Council to learn more. https://www.albertanativebeecouncil.ca/

This episode was recorded in June 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

Season 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 that might work in Canada); queen importation into Canada; the way that inbreeding stock can yield unfortunate surprise results. We note that about 10% of all the managed honey bee colonies in America have queens (or queen cells) that originated at Miksa honey farm in Lake County, Florida - so we talk about the logistics of producing and selling all those queens, the nine stock lines involved and strategies to keep Africanized stock out of those queens.

We wrap up noting the importance of nutrition, especially for nurse bees that are feeding developing queen larvae. And the sage advice: “Take care of the bees and they’ll take care of you.”

This episode was recorded in May, 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

Season 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 hemisphere bees once a year. But mostly we talk about a honey bee heist that happened here in Alberta, Canada.

This episode was recorded in May, 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

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/540327/site
About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/

Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst:  ron@aboutbees.net

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

Season 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 questions, comments, and existential angst:  ron@aboutbees.net

Season 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@aboutbees.net

Season 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

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 angst:  ron@aboutbees.net

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, Alberta, Canada. Find out why. 

Bonus link: Apimondia 2025

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 angst:  ron@aboutbees.net

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://about-bees.org/about-ron/

Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst:  ron@aboutbees.net

Season 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.net

Season 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.beeculture.com/national-survey-indicates-highest-bee-colony-losses-in-14-years/

https://www.ontario.ca/document/annual-apiculture-winter-loss-reports/2023-apiculture-winter-loss-report

https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/discover-our-research/environment/sustainable-society-and-policy/nz-colony-loss-survey/2023-colony-loss-survey/

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

Season 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.beeculture.com/national-survey-indicates-highest-bee-colony-losses-in-14-years/

https://www.ontario.ca/document/annual-apiculture-winter-loss-reports/2023-apiculture-winter-loss-report

https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/discover-our-research/environment/sustainable-society-and-policy/nz-colony-loss-survey/2023-colony-loss-survey/

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

Season 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.

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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

Season 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.

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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

Season 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.

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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

Season 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.

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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

Season 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.

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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

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.

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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

Season 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.

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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

Season 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.

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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

Season 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.

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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

Season 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.

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Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site
About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/
Watch the podcast:  https://www.youtube.com/@ABCCPodcast

Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst:  ron@aboutbees.net

Season 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?

What are the logistics of cleaning up a bee spill off a truck on a highway?

Why should I use chemicals if my bees will build resistance to mites and diseases if I leave them alone?

              Will it help my honey bees if I plant ten acres of flowers on my property?

This episode was recorded in September, 2024.

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Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site
About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/
Watch the podcast:  https://www.youtube.com/@ABCCPodcast

Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst:  ron@aboutbees.net

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 worker bees must be males

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Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site
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Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst:  ron@aboutbees.net

Season 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. 

HiveIQ Link

Worker and Hive Link

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Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site
About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/
Watch the podcast:  https://www.youtube.com/@ABCCPodcast

Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst:  ron@aboutbees.net

Season 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 this episode, we walk, step-by-step, through Steve's queen cell production system. We get a great view of honey production and queen breeding from a real expert!

Steve's YouTube video: raising queen cells, start to finish

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Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site
About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/
Watch the podcast:  https://www.youtube.com/@ABCCPodcast

Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst:  ron@aboutbees.net

Season 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 natural, recyclable wood and can be moved as a unit, making it possible to slide the cube, packed with over a million bees, on and off a 6-wheeled flatbed farmtruck or trailer. Electronic sensors add to the utility, allowing remote hive monitoring.

BeeCube website.

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Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site
About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/
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Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst:  ron@aboutbees.net

Season 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 spring, these cool-weather insects start a nest with just a single queen. She mated the previous fall, then waited under snowdrifts for the new season. Then she begins with a search for a suitable nesting site. Mathias explains how the Alberta Native Bee Council surveyed the nesting success of 400 empty wooden boxes placed in back yards by citizen-scientists. Success varied statistically depending on how far above ground the empty boxes were placed, direction of box entrances, colour of paint, and amount of sunlight hitting the bees' wooden homes. Anyone hoping to attract bumble bee pollinators by setting up backyard boxes will find Mathias Fenton's results interesting and helpful.

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Bumble bee box assembly instructions can be found on this page.

Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site
About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/
Watch the podcast:  https://www.youtube.com/@ABCCPodcast

Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst:  ron@aboutbees.net

Season 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's honey bee apiary that helped build respect for the bees and skills, knowledge, and self-esteem for people at Tsuut'ina. You will also hear about a bee-welcoming smudge ceremony that still fills Ron with wonder.

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Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site
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Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst:  ron@aboutbees.net

Season 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.

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Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site
About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/
Watch the podcast:  https://www.youtube.com/@ABCCPodcast

Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst:  ron@aboutbees.net

Season 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 words. Beehive, one word. Bee yard, two words. We explore why it’s important to use words correctly, including ‘robbing’ the bees and all the baggage that the word ‘robbing’ carries. Then we naturally start talking about witches.

Why 2-3 and the numbers 26 and 500? And why those big numbers – 20,000, 45,000 and 50,000? You’ll have to listen to find out what those are about. Curious? Let's go!

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Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site
About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/
Watch the podcast:  https://www.youtube.com/@ABCCPodcast

Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst:  ron@aboutbees.net

Season 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’t get out and get lost.

Later in the episode, Ron describes a couple of harrowing bee-moving incidents that involved truck malfunctions – brake failure on a steep mountain road and then an accelerator jamming on a busy toll road. Luckily, no one was hurt.

We talk about the Tesla truck, which probably wouldn’t be much good for hauling bees, then Elon Musk, Twitter, and the future of the planet.

We wrap up with an inside look at a large-scale commercial honey farm, Scandia Honey, and talk shop about the operation of 15,000 colonies of bees on the western Canadian prairies. So, let's go!

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Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site
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Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst:  ron@aboutbees.net