About Bees, Culture & Curiosity

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, avocad...

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

Buckwheat is quirky. Both the pland 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...

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...

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 w...

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 ...

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 A...

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 th...

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 ...

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 bee...

Season 4 Episode 8: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Late Spring Beekeeping   

Rain brings flowers, flowers bring nectar, nectar brings bees, beekeepers make honey. We are getting heavy rains here, so, of course Ron is predicting a big honey flow. This gets Bidzina’s attention. He is thinking about making comb honey with upside-down glass jars, but Ron throws cold water on the idea. Find out why.

We di...

Season 4 Episode 7: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Judging your Honey  

Today we judge your honey. Not by flavour, but by the tiniest nuances of bottle fill and floating specks of bee smoker ash. Our guide is the accomplished Calgary honey judge, Linda Symmes.

If you have ever considered participating in the fine art of preparing for a honey competition, we spill some secrets fro...

Season 4 Episode 6: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Spring Honey Bees  

Bidzina and Ron talk about the status of their hives, leading to a discussion about dandelion honey, which Ron’s colonies produced in abundance this year. An intense early flow can lead to swarming, which happened to some of Bidzina’s hives.

Two migratory beekeeping mishaps are mentioned – one in Oregon, the o...

Season 4 Episode 5: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Alberta Native Bees in Trouble  

We chat about the troubles facing native bees with Alberta Native Bee Council (ANBC) Executive Director Megan Evans. Pollinators of all sorts are essential to the health and success of our environment. Understanding the habitats and lifecycles of the 371 known species of bees in Alberta is the first step towards ensur...

Season 4 Episode 4: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Thousands and Thousands and Thousands of Queens  

Dedicated to the memory of Florida queen breeder David Miksa 

This episode was recorded two days before David Miksa passed away. His son Ted and I chat about this remarkable beekeeping family and about queen breeding in general. We jump right into our conversation, catching up wit...

Season 4 Episode 3: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Bee Thievery 

Pay close attention and you may pick up a few clues to reduce honey bee hive thefts. Listen even more closely and you may pick up tips on how to steal colonies. But please don't. It's not worth time in the big house.

We also chat about the apiary in a box (BeeCube), Apimondia's upcoming conference in Denmark, Ron's ...