About Bees, Culture & Curiosity

Ron Miksha
  • 4.0 (6)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Weekly

Bees of all sorts are the engines of agriculture and the glue of ecology. Join us as we explore everything About Bees, Culture, and Curiosity.

  1. 3d ago

    Helicopters, Varroa, Tech Transfer, and a Life with Bees

    Season 9 Episode 9:  About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Helicopters, Varroa, Tech Transfer, and a Life with Bees     In today's episode, we interview Matthew Polinsky, Manitoba's Bee Technology Transfer lead. Matthew grew up around commercial beekeeping in Saskatchewan. His father kept bees, his brother keeps bees, and his grandfather Derek Alen was part of an earlier generation of Prairie beekeepers. But Matthew's own route through beekeeping has been anything but ordinary.  In this episode of About Bees, Culture, and Curiosity, we follow Matthew from the honey house in Saskatchewan to commercial bee operations in New Zealand and Western Australia—including the remarkable experience of moving honey bee colonies by helicopter.  Matthew later worked with the Saskatraz bee-breeding project, studied at Concordia University in Montréal, participated in bee research, and eventually became Program Lead for Manitoba's Knowledge and Research Transfer Program for Apiculture.  We talk about what "technology transfer" really means, new approaches to Varroa control, RNAi-based mite treatments, queen breeding, old feeding syrup (should you use it, fix it, or dump it?), Tropilaelaps, honey fraud, and why practical beekeeping knowledge and scientific research need each other.  We even travel to the Solomon Islands, where Matthew worked on a beekeeping development project.  It is a conversation about bees, science, family history—and the curious paths that turn a childhood summer job into a career.  Manitoba Knowledge and Research Transfer Program links:   KRTP Syrup Testing Service Explained: https://youtu.be/Vb_m8sEYIhI?si=in6eUKh6gzKH-_R0 KRTP YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@krtpmanitoba KRTP's RNAi Varroa Control Trial Results: https://youtu.be/VmoocGAvy3I?si=8bgAf0OpSIvq-4dj&t=2290 https://www.facebook.com/krtpmb Instagram: @krtpmb https://manitobabee.org/krtp/ 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:  miksha@gmail.com

  2. Sep 4

    The Autumn Flower: Goldenrod, not really too stinky.

    Season 9 Episode 8: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The Autumn Flower: Goldenrod: not really too stinky.   Goldenrod is a keystone species for plant, animal, and ecological survival in a huge part of North America. It is also suffering from an unexpected problem, which is hurting bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. That's this episode's bonus - the collapse of human civilization.  Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in October 2025; Encore in September 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:  miksha@gmail.com

  3. Sep 1

    The American Honey Queen: Bees, Education and Advocacy

    Season 9 Episode 7:  About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The American Honey Queen: Bees, Education and Advocacy     Delanie Craighead, the 2026 American Honey Queen, joins Ron Miksha on About Bees, Culture, and Curiosity for a conversation about honey bees, entomology, education, honey and American beekeeping.  Delanie's route to the American Honey Queen crown is an unusual one. She studied animal biology, parasitology and forensic entomology, served with the Peace Corps in Guyana, participated in the California Master Beekeeping Program, and is now pursuing graduate studies in public health and epidemiology.  As American Honey Queen, Delanie travels across the United States representing the American Beekeeping Federation and talking with everyone from elementary-school students to governors and mayors. She explains why honey bees matter to agriculture, introduces people to regional American honeys, and helps connect the public with the people who keep bees.  Delanie and Ron discuss what forensic entomologists can learn from insects, her childhood raising alpacas and sheep through 4-H and FFA, life in Guyana, becoming a beekeeper, and what she has learned from beekeepers across America.  They also explore the remarkable diversity of honey (from California sage and avocado honey to Florida orange blossom) and the environmental challenges facing bees and beekeepers.  Curiosity, insects, bees, public service and the demanding job behind the crown of the American Honey Queen.  LINKS: https://abfnet.org/american-honey-queen-program/ 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:  miksha@gmail.com

  4. Aug 30

    The End of the Honey Flow means Trouble

    Season 9 Episode 6:  About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The End of the Honey Flow means Trouble   The honey flow is over. The supers have been extracted. We had a nice crop (300 pounds from 2 hives). More than we can eat at one time. Now the trouble begins. Robbing. Varroa. Wasps. Crowding.  End of the season blahs. 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:  miksha@gmail.com

  5. Aug 27

    The 50% Honey Tariff: When a Market Disappears

    Season 9 Episode 5:  About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The 50% Honey Tariff: When a Market Disappears  The bees made the honey. Now who will buy it? A new 50% U.S. tariff on Canadian honey arrived just as Prairie beekeepers began harvesting the 2026 crop. The numbers reveal an uncomfortable imbalance: Canadian honey is only about 2% of U.S. honey imports, but the amount we send south is equivalent to roughly 14% of Canada's entire annual honey production. Canadian honey is not that important to American consumers, but American consumers are important to Canadian beekeepers. For some family beekeeping operations, the exposure is much greater. One Manitoba producer has historically sold about 90% of its honey into the United States. I also loook at Saskatchewan and Alberta beekeepers. In this episode of About Bees, Culture, and Curiosity, I look at the people behind the statistics, why the U.S.A. imports so much honey, and whether Canada could absorb more of its own crop by reducing the nearly 25 million pounds of honey Canadians import each year. The bees did their job. The difficult part now is finding a market. 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:  miksha@gmail.com

  6. Aug 14

    Too Hot for Bees? Arizona Heat, Drought, and Rescuing Bees

    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:  miksha@gmail.com

  7. Aug 9

    Sweet Clover: The Best Honey Plant?

    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:  miksha@gmail.com

  8. Aug 5

    No Bugs on the Windshield. Is it the Insect Apocalypse?

    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:  miksha@gmail.com

    No Bugs on the Windshield. Is it the Insect Apocalypse?
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Bees of all sorts are the engines of agriculture and the glue of ecology. Join us as we explore everything About Bees, Culture, and Curiosity.

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