About Bees, Culture & Curiosity

Season 7 Episode 4: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Arizona is Swarming

It's been a bit wetter than last year in Arizona and the bees are swarming. I know that because I chatted with my niece, Monica King, who is based just outside Tucson. We talk about swarming, some serious pesticide damage, swimming pools, and bee rescue work.

Southern Arizona Beekeepers Association https://www.southernazbeekeepers.org/

Monica's YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkWNgs-ghd17D-QfKMIQbqw

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in January 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 3: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – What's Blooming in January?

What's Blooming in January? Not much. Unless you're in the deep south, west coast, or Hawaii. We look at these places and we look at how to feed bees in colder areas.

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in January 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 2: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – 139 Ways your Bees Can Die

Enjoy this quick overview of 139 honey bee pathogens and pests that should be keeping you awake at night. Have fun!

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in January 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 1: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Ten bee predictions for 2026

Here we go. I might be wrong more than right, but it's still worth a think.

1. I expect more bees declines, but not kept honey bees.

2. Honey bee colony numbers will surprise researchers.

3. Climate-driven phenological mismatches will dominate ecology news.

4. In the USA, lax rules will allow easier registration of agriculture chemicals, resulting in more pollinator deaths.

5. I predict pollinator restoration projects will be big.

6. I expect a new pathogen jump from honey bees to wild bees.

7. In 2026, I think that there will be bee stories regarding extreme weather.

8. I expect at least one article titled something like "Tiny robots are replacing bees as pollinators."

9. Not a wild prediction, but I think bees will be less common on social media in 2026.

10. Robotic androids will not replace beekeepers in the field during 2026.

In 2026, I don't expect to see:

• Robots lighting smokers
• Robots reading brood patterns
• Robots making judgement calls about nectar flows, weather, and beekeeper intuition
• Or even Robots carrying deep honey supers to the truck

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in January 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 0: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – 2026 Short Trailer

This trailer, our introduction to Season 7, sets the stage for season 7, the About Bees podcast's next 12 episodes. Our winter season. A great time to get caught up. Enjoy.

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in January 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 6 Episode 12 About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – 2025: Ten Bee News Stories

Links to our ten featured news stories from 2025:

62% Bee Losses Honey Bee Health https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/survey-reveals-over-1-1-million-honey-bee-colonies-lost-raising-alarm-for-pollination-and-agriculture/

Washington State study on colony losses https://news.wsu.edu/news/2025/03/25/honey-bee-colony-declines-grow-as-wsu-researchers-work-to-fight-losses

USDA pinpoints reason for colony collapse https://www.dvm360.com/view/usda-pinpoints-cause-of-recent-mass-honeybee-collapse

Michigan State https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/reports-of-high-honey-bee-colony-losses-and-how-farmers-and-growers-can-support-honey-bees

USDA study shows virus magnification via mites https://www.ars.usda.gov/news-events/news/research-news/2025/usda-researchers-find-viruses-from-miticide-resistant-parasitic-mites-are-cause-of-recent-honey-bee-colony-collapses/

UBC Pheromone signalling reduced by viruses, leading to supercedure https://www.med.ubc.ca/news/ubc-research-reveals-why-honey-bees-overthrow-their-queen/

Developmental and Caste Regulation (weak queen resistance to pesticides) https://d197for5662m48.cloudfront.net/documents/publicationstatus/241858/preprint_pdf/b569fa5471ba21b61111b60552fd7aa0.pdf

California Almond Growers PDF https://www.almonds.org/sites/default/files/2021-07/Cover%20Crops%20Best%20Management%20Practices%20BMPs_0.pdf

Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems – natural mix of pollens leads to better bee success https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2025.1555238/full

Engineered yeast provides rare but essential pollen sterols for honeybees. Nature https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09431-y

First continent-wide bee strategy (Canada and USA) plan to protect bees https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/NABS/

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in December 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: [email protected]

Season 6 Episode 11: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Bees or Greenhouses?

Bees or Greenhouses? Which would make more money as a business? Ron chats with his brother Joe of Honeymoon Acres, a Wisconsin greenhouse business. We engage in a race to the bottom. I make the case that beekeeping is definitely the less profitable business.

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in December 2025.

Ricky Nelson's Garden Party: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60XTeHM9iLQ

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 6 Episode 10: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – A Langstroth Christmas

Let's look at the inventor of the modern North American beehive. It's Christmas and it's L.L. Langstroth's birthday. Hope you enjoy this!

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in December 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: [email protected]

Season 6 Episode 9: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – A Candid Chat with Alberta's (former) Agriculture Minister

In this episode, I enjoy a conversation with the Honorable Oneil Carlier, former Agriculture Minister of Alberta. Alberta is cowboys and ranching and enormous forests and wheat fields and wide-open spaces. Alberta, where I live, is also the biggest honey-producer in Canada. All of this is handled through the Agriculture Ministry which was directed by Oneil Carlier.

We touch on Oneil's experiences growing up in the cowboy town of Val Marie, Saskatchewan, working in geosciences, helping workers through collective bargaining, and enabling agriculture in Alberta. Mr. Carlier is candid about his life and his job as the Honorable Minister. Hope you enjoy this!

Stompin' Tom's Bud the Spud song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtySGSuKZe8

Ian Tyson's Will James song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u4vzZ4gO_w

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in December 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: [email protected]

Season 6 Episode 8: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Buzz Pollination in the Greenhouse

I was looking around for something in bloom here in December to talk about on this podcast, but I didn't feel like stepping outside into the deep snow and arctic temperatures. Then I realized that greenhouses are full of blooming plants – pollinated by bumble bees, mostly. So, that's what we're doing on this short episode. We talk about the risks and benefits of bumble bee pollination inside greenhouses.

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in December 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: [email protected]