About Bees, Culture & Curiosity

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...

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...

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 h...

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...

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...

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 a...

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 que...

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 foulb...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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), befor...

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 w...

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/abou...

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...

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....

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 par...

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...

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,...

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:...

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. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. Podcast w...

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 Soc...

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. Please subscribe,...

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...