Wild Bee Care in the Spring
About Bees, Culture & Curiosity
Season 8 Episode 5: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Wild Bee Care in the Spring This podcast episode featured Ilan Domnich, the native bee stewardship specialist with the , discussing how to support native bees in spring. Ilan explained that Alberta has 370 species of native bees, with 70% overwintering underground and 30% in plant stems or elsewhere, emphasizing the importance of leaving leaf litter ("Leave the leaves.") until temperatures consistently reach 10 degrees Celsius (50F) and preserving hollow plant stems. We chatted about dandelions and their...
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Can Magnets Help Honey Bees Survive Winter?
About Bees, Culture & Curiosity
Season 8 Episode 4: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Can Magnets Help Honey Bees Survive Winter? In this episode, we examine the unusual controversial question of whether electromagnetic fields affect honey bees. We begin with the broader idea that the bees' world is surrounded by weak natural and artificial electromagnetic signals. The discussion includes Schumann resonance (the low-frequency electromagnetic background of the Earth) and considers why some beekeepers insist that bees may are sensitive to such energy, and why I think they are badly misstaken. From...
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More than Packages
About Bees, Culture & Curiosity
Season 8 Episode 3: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – More than Packages Bees can arrive in packages. Putting them into snow-covered hive boxes is exciting. We'll install packages and chat bees and more on this episode. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. Podcast website: About Ron Miksha: Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst: miksha@gmail.com
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Dandelion: The Bee Plant That Doesn’t Need Bees
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...
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Apitherapy and the Joy of Bee Stings
About Bees, Culture & Curiosity
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: About Ron Miksha: Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst: miksha@gmail.com
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Spring 2026 Trailer and News Briefs
About Bees, Culture & Curiosity
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. Social encapsulation of parasite eggs by honeybee colonies In Sweden, the trade association Beekeeping Entrepreneurs collected honey from Swedish grocery stores, sent samples to Estonia for analysis using new DNA method. From Spain: New traps at Palma Port aim to detect...
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March is Orange Blossom Month
About Bees, Culture & Curiosity
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...
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Bee Poop, Yellow Rain, and the Bee Gut
About Bees, Culture & Curiosity
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...
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February means Almonds
About Bees, Culture & Curiosity
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...
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The Apiary in a Box
About Bees, Culture & Curiosity
Season 7 Episode 9: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The Apiary in a Box I had a great chat with Herman van Reekum of and . 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 that aggrandizes current news and research in bees and beekeeping. Links for Herman Beekeeping Innovations: BeeCube: The Global Beekeeping Digest: Recorded in Calgary, Alberta,...
info_outlineSeason 6 Episode 6: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Is All Manuka Honey Fake?
Is all manuka honey fake? I used to think that manuka is overrated. Not much there, there – if you know what I mean. Yes, of course I’m a cynic, or at least a skeptic. But follow along with this episode and see why I changed. It’s a path of discovery.
We will cover the fraud fights, the discovery of manuka’s antibacterial qualities, how honey kills germs, and my conversion to an appreciation of this amazing honey. How does it work? What does it taste like? You’ll have to listen to find out.
Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in November 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: miksha@gmail.com