About Bees, Culture & Curiosity

Season 9 Episode 4: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Too Hot for Bees? Arizona Heat, Drought, and Rescuing Bees

Southern Arizona is beautiful bee country, but it's tough on bees and beekeepers. Temperatures climb above 100°F, water becomes critical, drought can shut down forage, and the ground itself becomes dangerously hot.

In this episode of About Bees, Culture, and Curiosity, Ron talks with Arizona beekeeper and Monica King about keeping honey bees alive and productive in extreme desert conditions. Monica describes bees foraging before sunrise, using water for colony cooling, providing water inside weak colonies, modifying hive ventilation, using robbing screens, and waiting for monsoon rains to bring mesquite and other desert plants back into bloom.

We talk Africanized bees, nucs, bee removals, a sensational "100,000 killer bees" news story, and the uneasy relationship between managed honey bees and native pollinators. Monica also tells us about a beekeeper tour of a Bayer agricultural research greenhouse in Arizona.

It is a wide-ranging conversation about bees, desert ecology, agriculture—and what changes when beekeeping gets too hot to handle.

Enjoy this episode of obscene heat, killer bees, weed whackers, and GMOs.

Links:

Monica King Bee Rescue: https://www.monicamking.com/#/

American Honey Queen Delanie Craighead: https://abfnet.org/american-honey-queen-program/

Monica mentioned the documentary Kiss the Ground about soil, climate and carbon. Here's a trailer, you can find the film on line: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3-V1j-zMZw

100,000 Bees and the Weed Whacker: https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/articles/arizona-man-swarmed-100-000-021300567.html

This podcast was

Recorded August 2026 in Calgary.

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: [email protected]

Season 9 Episode 3: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Sweet Clover: The Best Honey Plant?

Sweet clover is the best nectar-producing plant. Best honey quality; best for making lots of water-white mild honey. But not everywhere. Here's its story.

This podcast was

Recorded July 2025 and August 2026 in Calgary.

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: [email protected]

Season 9 Episode 2: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – No Bugs on the Windshield. Is it the Insect Apocalypse?

A summer drive from Calgary to Banff used to leave my windshield covered with insects. A few days ago, the same 250-kilometre round trip left just three bug splatters. Three. It used to be dozens. Is this simply better automobile design, or is it ssigns of an insect apocalypse?

In this episode of About Bees, Culture, and Curiosity, I explore the science behind what researchers call the windshield phenomenon. Beginning with observations from the Rocky Mountains, we examine decades of insect monitoring, including the famous Krefeld study from Germany, Britain's Bugs Matter citizen science project, and recent research on long-term insect declines across Europe.

Along the way we check on alpine wildflowers, bumble bees, hoverflies masquerading as bees, Marilyn Monroe in Banff, and even a look back at my 2016 Bad Beekeeping Blog proposing some rather unorthodox solutions to insect roadkill.

Are insects really disappearing? What does science actually say? And why should beekeepers, birdwatchers, and anyone who enjoys the outdoors care?

Links

1. Original Krefeld Study (PLOS ONE, 2017)

Hallmann, C.A. et al. (2017) More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185809

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185809

2. Krefeld Statistical Rebuttal (Nature, 2025)

Hallmann, C.A. et al. (2025) Weather anomalies cannot explain insect decline

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08528-0

This is the response to the statistical reanalysis that argued weather explained much of the observed decline.

3. Bugs Matter (United Kingdom)

Official website:

https://www.buglife.org.uk/bugs-matter/

Survey information:

https://www.buglife.org.uk/get-involved/surveys/bugs-matter/

This includes:

• annual reports
• the smartphone app
• methods
• volunteer instructions
• published results

4. Swiss 90-Year Study (Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2026)

Neff, F. et al. (2026)

Twentieth-century insect declines and partial recoveries driven by changes in land use and climate

Abstract (PubMed):

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42231010/

A freely available PDF (author repository):

https://digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/437414/1/Ninety-year_trends_reveal_sharpest_insect.pdf

Dave Goulson

Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/677807/silent-earth-by-dave-goulson/

One of the best popular science books on insect decline.

Brooke Jarvis

The Insect Apocalypse Is Here

The New York Times Magazine (2018)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/27/magazine/insect-apocalypse.html

Probably the best long-form magazine article introducing the subject to the general public.

This podcast was

Recorded August 2026 in Calgary.

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: [email protected]

Season 9 Episode 1: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – What if a Part of Canada Leaves? Who gets the bees?

What if part of Canada separates from the rest of the country? I take a deep dive into this subject because the province of Alberta has a hearty band of separatists who have been arguing for Alberta to leave Canada and either be a separate country, or more likely, become part of the USA. Mostly, I look at what this would mean for beekeeping and beekeepers in Alberta.

But the first half of today's podcast looks at a few recent bee news stories, a recap about my backyard colonies, and then a look at the effects that becoming the 51st American state would mean for Alberta.

Recorded July 2026 in Calgary.

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: [email protected]

Season 8 Episode 12: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The 3-in-1 Bee Tree: Linden, Lime, and Basswood

Discover why linden, lime, and basswood trees have been used and abused for centuries by beekeepers, herbalists, and woodworkers in this About Bees episode.

The basswood (aka linden and lime) is one of the world's finest honey trees. Join me, Ron Miksha, as we explore the tree's weird little flowers, fragrant honey, soothing sleepy-time herbal tea, fascinating history, and the surprising myth of the basswood. Along the way we bump into legendary beekeeper C.C. Miller, visit Scotland and Berlin, talk to the basswood growing in my front lawn in Calgary, uncover the truth behind dead bees under basswood trees, and discover why planting a basswood is what you can do for people you will never meet.

Recorded July 2026 in Calgary.

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: [email protected]

Season 8 Episode 11: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Joe's Greenhouse and Bees Philosophy

Today we visit Ron's brother Joe McShaw at Honeymoon Acres in New Holstein, Wisconsin. We'll explore his management philosophy, running a business with family, selling 3,000,000 plants, and working with 14 colonies of honey bees that live beside his 15-acre pumpkin garden.

Honeymoon Acres Greenhouses

Dark Horse Hive Mind Episode

Recorded June 2026 in Calgary.

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: [email protected]

Season 8 Episode 10: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Left Behind: After the Honey Bee Rapture

What happens inside a honey bee hive after a swarm leaves?

In this episode of About Bees, Culture, and Curiosity, Ron Miksha follows the parent colony after half the bees depart with the old queen. The story explores why bees swarm, how many bees leave, what remains behind, why swarm queen cells often produce excellent queens, and how new research on queen-cell architecture suggests that bees do more than feed queens royal jelly - they build specialized royal nurseries.

The episode also examines virgin queen piping, queen fights, afterswarms, mating flights, genetic turnover, honey crop losses, and the remarkable resilience of the old hive. Swarming may frustrate beekeepers, but for honey bees it is colony-level reproduction - one of nature's oldest and most successful survival strategies.

Recorded in Calgary, June 2026

· Fang, Y. et al. Queen cell architecture shapes honey bee queen development. Nature. 2026. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10534-3. PubMed record: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42236932/

· UC Riverside News. "How honeybees really crown their queens." June 3, 2026.

· Chemical & Engineering News. "Queen bees emerge from special wax chambers." June 3, 2026.

· University of Florida IFAS Extension. "Swarm Control for Managed Beehives." ENY-160/IN970.

· Jim Tew, Bee Culture. "General Honey Bee Swarm Biology and Management (Part 1)."

· Thomas D. Seeley and Martin Lindauer traditions on swarm decision-making and nest-site selection, especially as discussed in Seeley's Honeybee Democracy and related American Scientist coverage.

· E.O. Wilson's Pulitzer Prize books: On Human Nature (1979); The Ants (with Bert Hölldobler, 1991)

· Tom Wenseleers. "Superorganism Revisited." BioScience 59(8), 2009, noting William Morton Wheeler's early use of the superorganism concept.

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: [email protected]

Season 8 Episode 9: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Scotland through a Beekeeper's Eyes

Join me on a journey through Scotland as I explore Edinburgh, Inverness, the Highlands, Loch Ness, and the famous Scottish heather moors. What began as a visit with my daughter, who studies at the University of Edinburgh, quickly became an opportunity to see Scotland through the eyes of a beekeeper.

Along the way, I discover why Scotland's landscapes are so different from those of western Canada, learn about the country's history and culture, sample authentic heather honey, travel by train through the Highlands, and reflect on the people, language, food, and scenery that make Scotland unique.

We'll talk about heather, honey bees, canola, bramble, Gaelic place names, Dolly the cloned sheep, haggis, and even a surprising Scottish heat wave.

Whether you're interested in bees, travel, history, or simply curious about Scotland, I think you'll enjoy coming along for the ride.

Recorded in Scotland, May 2026

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: [email protected]

Season 8 Episode 8: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Black Locust: Appalachia's Gift to World Beekeeping

One of Europe's most famous honey trees actually came from the Appalachian Mountains of North America.

In this episode of About Bees, Culture, and Curiosity, we follow the remarkable story of Robinia pseudoacacia, black locust, also known across Europe as "acacia." Originally a minor honey plant of disturbed Appalachian forests, this fast-growing legume escaped its native range and became one of the most widely planted trees on Earth.

We explore how black locust spread through France, Hungary, Korea, Japan, and beyond; why beekeepers prize its short but spectacular nectar flow; and how its pale, mild, slow-crystallizing honey became one of Europe's best-known honey types.

Along the way, we look at:

the confusion between true acacias and false acacia why black locust often performs better outside North America its use for fence posts, mine reclamation, and erosion control the tree's role in carbon capture, and the controversy over how this bee tree is also an invasive ecological threat

Recorded in Calgary, May 2026

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: [email protected]

Season 8 Episode 7: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – World Bee Day, No Mow May, and Do Bees Dream?

It's No Mow May, World Bee Day is coming up, so, of course, I was wondering if bees dream.

Recorded in Calgary, May 2026

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: [email protected]