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: 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

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 ne...

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 ep...

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 bee...

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.lib...

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

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.s...

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/540...

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!

Recor...

Season 7 Episode 5: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Start the Year with New Bees!    

In this episode, Ron Miksha and his brother Joe McShaw discussed Joe's greenhouse business and beekeeping operations. They covered topics including making beeswax crayons, installing bee packages, and the challenges of wintering bees in northern climates. 

Joe shared his simple approach to beekeeping, which involves minimal intervention (just 5 trips to the beeyard!). Joe focuses on efficiency rather than detailed management. 

They also discussed the greenhouse business at Honeymoon Acres, including starting cuttings from around the world and preparing millions of plants f...

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 b...

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:  miksha@gmail.com

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:  miksha@gmail.com

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 wil...

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:  miksha@gmail.com

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, le...

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...

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:  miksha@gmail.com

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...

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 li...

Season 6 Episode 7: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – What's it like to run 6,000 hives of bees?  

What is it like being responsible for 6,000 colonies, a couple dozen employees, and 150 apiary locations?  And producing and selling over a million pounds of honey each year?

Here's your chance to find out. We visit with Murray Hannigan of Hannigan Honey. The operation is in Saskatchewan, eight hours north of the US border. Honey crops in his area are usually big but depend on keen management. We discuss queen production, disease control, and crew management. Murray tells us what works for h...

Season 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...

Season 6 Episode 5: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Philosopher-Beekeeper Richard Taylor  

Dr. Richard Taylor's 106th birthday memorial is this week. That's as good of an excuse as any to open up his best-selling book, The Joys of Beekeeping, and chat about his life as a commercial beekeeper and philosophy professor. We look at his life and explore his thoughts on being a better beekeeper and a better person. Enjoy!

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in November 2025.

Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. 

Podcast website: https...

Season 6 Episode 4: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Brother Joe: Bees & Greenhouses 

Joe and I talk about neonicotinoids (and other poisons), problems with wax worms, the greenhouse business, our oldest brother, David, and innovations, a BrainPopping drink, politics, economics, and "Why be good?" Hope you enjoy this episode.

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in October 2025.

Honeymoon Acres: https://honeymoonacres.com/

BrainPop - New Age Drinks: https://newagedrinks.com/

Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. 

Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site...

Season 6 Episode 3: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – A Halloween Shorty  

Do you celebrate Halloween? Beekeepers should. Listen to find out why.

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in October 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

Season 6 Episode 2: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Down in October  

It's October and things are shutting down here in North America - at least the part of North America that's north of Mexico. Just before it all ends, there are a few final bursts of flowers to treat pollinators of all shapes and sizes. Today, we talk about Asters, the stars of fall, and Brazilian Pepperbush and Melaleuca, the intruders of Florida's deep south. All three of these plants give a little end-of-season honey and support before winter to your bees and to wild pollinators.  

Record...

Season 6 Episode 1: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Apimondia 2025  

Ron is back from Apimondia Scandinavia 2025. If you missed this world bee event, listen up as we walk through the Global Honey Bar, hundreds of posters, the mega-exhibition hall, and the heart of the conference - the presentations. This is not an exhaustive review, but this overview will give you a sense for the dizzying amount of bee knowledge on display in Copenhagen at Apimondia 2025.  

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in October 2025.

Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. 
<...

Season 5 Episode 12: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The Autumn Flower: Goldenrod. Plus a bonus - the end of human civilization  

Goldenrod is the 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 civilzation. 

Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in October 2025.

Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. 

Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site

Season 5 Episode 11: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Bright Shiny Bees  

Our guest today is Ilan Domnich of the Alberta Native Bee Council. We dig deeply into the care and appreciation of native bees in North America. 

Bright green bees, yellow-faced bees, bees that make cellophane (sort of), mine into the sand, plus tiny, tiny bees. Bees that turn their blood into wine? This episode is a trip. We talk about taking care of native, wild bees and helping them help us. Bee hotels? Maybe they do more harm than good. Sticks and leaves? Your excuse to let...

Season 5 Episode 10: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Apimondia: The World's Bee Meeting    

This short introduction to Apimondia will be of interest to all beekeepers, whether attending Apimondia 2025 in Copenhagen or not.  I hope you are among those going to the conference!

Apimondia 2025: https://apimondia2025.com/

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

Season 5 Episode 9: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Beekeeping along Canada's Sunshine Coast     

Canada has a sunshine coast. That's where I met up with my friend Steve Clifford. Steve is a honey producer (mostly Himalayan blackberry honey) and he produces and sells queens and nucs. It's a really different part of Canada - a rainforest where it seldom snows, but summers can get hot and sunny. 

This episode was recorded in Halfmoon Bay, British Columbia, in September 2025. 

See Steve Clifford interviewed by Coast Magazine

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Season 5 Episode 8: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Chile for Avocado Pollination, Queen Production, and Adventure     

Today's guest is Francisco Rey, a Chilean beekeeper and avocado farmer. We talk about the country of Chile, Francisco's 43 years of beekeeping, queen breeding, Francisco's friendship with researcher John Kefuss, Francisco's family-run bee farm, avocado pollination, avocado honey, exporting queens, and we talk about why you should visit Francisco in South America..

This episode was recorded in August 2025. 

Francisco Rey's Chilean Bee Farm:  www.pacificqueens.com

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Season 5 Episode 7: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Buckwheat: Our Favourite August Honey Plant     

Buckwheat is quirky. Both the plant and the honey. We look at both - plant and honey - in today's podcast. Especially the black, chokingly-strong honey.

Buckwheat, though often mistaken for a cereal grain, is actually a member of the Polygonaceae family, kin to rhubarb and sorrel. First cultivated in China more than 6,000 years ago, it spread westward along trade routes and became a staple in Eastern Europe for its short growing season, tolerance of poor soils, and high-protein, gluten-free grain. Farmers turned...

Season 5 Episode 6: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Laura Sends us Deep into the Beekeeping Groove     

This wide-ranging beekeeping podcast takes us from Wales to New Zealand and then Alberta, Canada, with beekeeper Laura Barritt. We look at commercial beekeeping in New Zealand and touch on Sir Edmund Hillary, manuka honey, queen breeding, package shaking, honey producing by under supering, migratory beekeeping, favourite honeys, the Bee Cube®, viral 13-year-old harvesting honey in his house, maintaining queen bee lines, aging of beekeepers, fireweed honey production, honey bee adaptaions to new crops, and becoming a commercial beekeeper.

Links from t...

Season 5 Episode 5: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – World's Most Interesting Bee Museum - and more...      

I am just back from a quick trip to central Europe, where I visited bees in Slovenia and family in Hungary. You don't want to miss what this curious beekeeper has to say about what he saw!

Among other things,, I explored the world's most interesting beekeeping museum. What would you put into the museum if it were yours?

This episode was recorded in August 2025. 

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Season 5 Episode 4: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Bees, Greenhouses, and 18-hour Work Days     

It takes 18-hour workdays to keep a greenhouse that produces 3 million plants a year, and to keep a dozen hives of bees on the side to pollinate a10-acre pumpkin patch.

Our guest is Joe McShaw, of Honeymoon Acres in Wisconsin. Joe is Ron's youngest brother, so we have a lot of fun on this episode. We do bees, wintering (or not), raising plants to retail, and we answer that old question, "Why be good?"

Visit Honeymoon Acres: https://honeymoonacres.com/<...

Season 5 Episode 3: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Ask Me Anything for July 2025      

Ask me anything. 

I start off with a powerful phrase you can always use when a pesky new beekeeper wants advice with their bees. Keep this phrase in your toolkit.

Also, just a bit about putting supers on and taking supers off. Summer management questions, answered in this AMA.

This episode was recorded in July 2025. 

Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. 

Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site

Season 5 Episode 2: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – July's Best Honey Plant     

What's July's best honey plant? In much of the northern hemisphere, if the soil is sweet alkali, the answer is sweet clover. 

It's a spectacular honey plant, one of the best in the world, but it originated far away from the western plains. It's invasive. Wild. Part of today's episode considers what this means - native, invasive; old, new; wanted, unwanted.

This episode was recorded in July 2025. 

Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation. 

Season 5 Episode 1: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Beekeeping on Canada Day     

It's Canada Day, up Canada way, on the first day of July.

We talk bees, sunshine, swarms that refuse to be retrieved, and of course Stompin' Tom Connors. Enjoy, eh?

This episode was recorded in July 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:  ron@aboutbees.net

Season 4 Episode 9: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Slovenia, the Country that Buzzes    

In preparation for a trip to central Europe, I have been learning about beekeeping in the small country of Slovenia. I always learn a lot about beekeeping by looking at beekeeping in other parts of the world. It's amazing how many good ideas, and a few bad ones, I pick up this way. Anyway, I wrote a bit about beekeeping in the quaint country of Slovenia, and today I am reading my story to you.

One of the first things I discovered during my res...