Tag Archives: honey bees

CSI: Honey Bee Edition

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Beekeepers have some unique traits.  One of those unique traits is our obsession with examining dead bees especially after an entire colony dies.  We take pictures of our dead bees and post them in beekeeper groups on social media.  I spent a significant portion of time one day this week examining photos of dead bees from a hive in Alabama trying to figure out why the bees died.  It occurred to me after the fact, that many people may not consider this behavior normal.

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February Hive Check

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I loathe January. If January were a vegetable, it would be cauliflower except unlike cauliflower January can’t be redeemed with a cheese sauce. New Year’s Day is an awful. Everyone is tired because they stayed up too late. January is when everyone starts overly ambitious resolutions to exercise more and drink kale smoothies for breakfast. January is also a terrible month if you are a beekeeper. The weather is too cold to open the hives. You just have to hope that all your fall preparations are working and you don’t have a pile of dead bees at the bottom of the hive.

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