About Bees, Culture & Curiosity

Season 8 Episode 2: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Dandelion: The Bee Plant That Doesn't Need Bees

Dandelions show up early. In many places, they're the first thing people notice in spring. Bright yellow, everywhere at once, and full of bees. It's easy to assume they are the first and best food source for honey bees.

They aren't.

Before dandelions bloom, bees are already working. Alders, maples, willows, elms, and even skunk cabbage come first. These plants provide much of the early pollen that gets colonies moving again after winter. Dandelions arrive a bit later, and by then, the colony is already expanding.

Even then, dandelion pollen is not ideal food. It is abundant and easy to collect, but it lacks a complete balance of essential amino acids. Bees can use it, but they do better when it's mixed with pollen from other plants. In a diverse landscape, that happens naturally. In a simple landscape, it matters more.

There's another twist. Dandelions don't need bees at all.

Recorded in Calgary during April 2026

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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: [email protected]

Season 8 Episode 1: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Apitherapy and the Joy of Bee Stings

Happy World Apitherapy Day, March 30, marked on the birthday of the founder of apitherapy, Filip Terč.

Oh, and I heard that it's also Ron Miksha's birthday.

Recorded in Calgary during March 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 0: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Spring 2026 Trailer and News Briefs

Starting off Spring 2026 with a preview of the season ahead plus some chat about 12 recent bee news stories.

From the United Kingdom, Bee brain model offers insights into next-gen AI.

https://www.theengineer.co.uk/content/news/bee-brain-study-offers-insights-into-next-gen-ai/

Social encapsulation of parasite eggs by honeybee colonies

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-40183-5

In Sweden, the trade association Beekeeping Entrepreneurs collected honey from Swedish grocery stores, sent samples to Estonia for analysis using new DNA method.

https://www.landlantbruk.se/dna-test-av-importhonung-visar-omfattande-fusk

From Spain: New traps at Palma Port aim to detect deadly invasive hornets before they spread across Mallorca https://www.majorcadailybulletin.com/news/local/2026/03/05/140661/new-traps-palma-port-aim-detect-deadly-invasive-hornets-before-they-spread-across-mallorca.html

From the NYTimes: A Study Is Retracted, Renewing Concerns About the Weedkiller Roundup

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/climate/glyphosate-roundup-retracted-study.html

March 8, NYTimes: A Trump Order Protected a Weedkiller

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/08/climate/bayer-white-phosphate-glyphosate-roundup-trump-executive-order-munition.html

Canada's population declined by more than 100,000 people in 2025

Canada reports first annual population decline on record - The Globe and Mail

Pascarella's 2024 paper on bee diversity

Bombs versus bees: bee diversity on military bases and preserves in Texas, USA

Wild populations of Apis mellifera have now been classified as endangered in the European Union following a recent reassessment for the IUCN Red List.

Wild honeybees now officially listed as endangered in the EU

Bees Kneez Apiaries: Beechina emergency-level bushfire destroyed 50 hives, kills about three million bees

https://www.perthnow.com.au/wa/bees-kneez-apiaries-beechina-emergency-level-bushfire-destroyed-50-hives-kills-about-three-million-bees-c-21933066

From CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation making butter.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/how-to-churn-butter-while-running-9.7127209

From Taipei Times, Beehive tech could help boost fruit production

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2026/03/16/2003853892

USDA American beekeeping statistics

https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Todays_Reports/reports/hony0326.pdf

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 7 Episode 12: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – March is Orange Blossom Month

Orange Groves, Honey Bees, and a Vanishing Industry

Orange blossom honey begins in the groves—but those groves are disappearing.

In this episode, beekeeper and writer Ron Miksha explores the history, biology, and quiet decline of North America's citrus landscape. From Florida's once-million acres of orange trees to today's shrinking groves, this is the story of bees, nectar, and a changing agricultural world.

We begin with a simple question: why do oranges grow in groves, not orchards? From there, the episode moves into the ecology of citrus flowers—how they produce nectar, how bees detect scent compounds like linalool and geraniol, and how entire colonies mobilize during bloom.

Along the way, we examine the numbers behind orange blossom honey production, including how a single acre can produce enormous nectar potential—but rarely does. We also look at the realities facing modern citrus: urban expansion, climate pressures, and the devastating effects of citrus greening disease spread by the Asian citrus psyllid.

This episode blends personal experience, ecology, and history—from 1970s Florida bee yards to today's fragmented groves.

It's a story about honey, yes—but also about landscape change, risk, and the uncertain future of beekeeping in citrus country.

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in March 2026.

• orange blossom honey
• citrus groves Florida
• honey bees citrus pollination
• how orange blossom honey is made
• citrus bloom beekeeping

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 7 Episode 11: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Bee Poop, Yellow Rain, and the Bee Gut

Honey bees refuse to defecate inside their hive all winter—and when the first warm day arrives, thousands of bees take a sudden cleansing flight. In this episode, we explore one of the stranger realities of beekeeping: the honey bee digestive system and the dramatic spring event known as the cleansing flight.

From my snowy backyard apiary in Calgary, Alberta, we begin with the subtle signs of early spring. The sun is higher, the hive entrance warms, and a few brave bees take flight—even when temperatures hover just above freezing.

Honey bees spend the entire winter confined inside the hive, eating stored honey but refusing to defecate indoors. Instead, they store waste in their hindgut until a warm day finally arrives. When it does, thousands of bees launch into the air to relieve themselves in spectacular cleansing flights.

Today, we'll explore the biology of the bee gut, why hive hygiene is critical to colony health, and what happens when digestion goes wrong through dysentery or Nosema infection.

We even take a detour into Cold War history, when mysterious "Yellow Rain" falling over Southeast Asia was eventually linked to mass defecation flights of giant Asian honey bees.

Yes, really.

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in March 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 7 Episode 10: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – February means Almonds

Most California almond pollination takes place in late February and earlier March. In this episode, we look at the world's largest mass migration of livestock and the problems honey bees encounter during pollination season. We also examine how almonds are pollinated (looking closely at the flowers) and why honey bees remain essential to get the job done.

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in February 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 7 Episode 9: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The Apiary in a Box

I had a great chat with Herman van Reekum of Beekeeping Innovations and BeeCube. BeeCube is what it sounds like, a cube of bees, an apiary in a box. We discuss the advantages of the BeeCube as well as new developments that Herman is involved in - a beekeeper's app (Bee the Bee) for recording and analyzing bee colony health and management, and also Global Bee, Digest a Substack newsletter that aggrandizes current news and research in bees and beekeeping.

Links for Herman

Beekeeping Innovations: https://www.beekeepinginnovations.ca/

BeeCube: https://www.beecube.io/

The Global Beekeeping Digest: https://globalmobility.substack.com/

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in February 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 7 Episode 8: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Wintering at minus 50 in Singles!!

Let's go way up north to the Yukon with beekeeper Etienne Tardif. He experiments with wintering - in single storey hives - through minus 50 temperatures. His secrets, which he is happy to talk about, include carbon dioxide control guided by sophisticated monitoring. If you don't know how important tight space and excess CO2 can be to success wintering, you need to listen to this podcast.

Etienne's North of 60 Beekeeping: https://www.northof60beekeeping.com/

Hypoxia-Controlled Winter Metabolism in Honeybees https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0300962996000825

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in February 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 7 Episode 7: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Sylvia Plath, the Beekeeper's Poet

Today's podcast is more about Bees and Culture, less about Beekeeping Curiosity. Today, February 11, is the anniversary of the death of a great poet, Sylvia Plath. The daughter of a bee scientist, Sylvia led a short life spent writing about love, loss, disappointment, and nature. Don't skip this episode. You will be surprised.

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in February 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 7 Episode 6: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Organic Beekeeping on the Prairies

Tracey Smith, Executive Director of Organic Alberta, tells us about building up her beautiful Alberta honey farm, starting from two packages, and creating a sustainable farm and business over a ten-year period. Then, in three devastating years, viruses crashed all her colonies. We talk about how she built that bee farm, marketed the honey, and then moved on to research honey bees at the University of Alberta. Today, Tracey helps farmers (including beekeepers) produce organic food. She has quite a story to share!

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in February 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]