The Buzz About Bees

What's it like to keep Africanized bees?

Is it still fun working with bees when they're so aggressive?

Can you cross-breed Africanized bees with European bees to get a more docile bee?

I wanted to take a break from the science of bees and beekeeping and share with you the story of one of the most well known and influential writers about beekeeping, Eva Crane.

The Eva Crane story starts at 21:45.

"Beekeeping! Let's give it a try." That's what a lot of people said when COVID-19 forced a lot of people into quarantine. 

I'm not dissing beginner beekeepers, but its causing problems for current beekeepers.

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The worker bee does most of the work in the hive.

She makes up about 99% or more of the hive population.

She takes care of the baby bees, gathers nectar, turns nectar into honey, and is the only one who stings.

So what exactly are the drones and queen doing? We'll find the answers to these questions and more in this episode.

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Most people have been stung by a honey bee. That's why Schmidt uses the honey bee as his basis for the Schmidt Pain Index where he rates how painful different insects' bites and stings are. We go into the most and least painful insects he has been stung by as well as where the honey bee ranks on this scale. 

Getting stung doesn't just end with a little bit of pain. Did you know the honey bee dies after she stings you? We get into why insects sting and why bees die after stinging. 

Another scientist also indexed the pain from getting stung, but was more specific. This man stung himself specifically with bees to figure out where the most painful places to be stung were.

We discuss the most painful places we have been stung and why you should ALWAYS wear underwear when beekeeping.

And finally, what exactly are killer bees and have they actually killed anyone? You might be surprised to hear that killer bees are smaller than European honeybees and so have less venom in their stinger. We go into how they got their name and if their nickname is well-deserved or not.

The queen bee is very unique to the hive. She is the mother of all the bees in the hive. There is only one and she has an important job to do. 

In this episode we will discuss exactly how much power over the hive the queen has, what happens if a queen dies, how a new queen is made and how to spot a queen bee.