About Bees, Culture & Curiosity
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. Watch the podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@ABCCPodcast
Episodes
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 ...
Season 4 Episode 2: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – A Rose among the Bees
With Rose, our conversation starts with a bee walking on Ron's neck, progresses to a stash of wax, some bee work, civilization, parasites, and beeswax, beeswax church candles, bees coming to America, mead...
Season 4 Episode 1: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Philosophy of Bee Happiness
With Daniel Miksha, we try to unravel the philosophy of happiness. We barely touch on our intended theme (Can bees be happy?), but we lay some of the essential groundwork.
This episode was recorded in April, 2025.
Pl...
Season 4 Trailer: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Season 4 Trailer
A quick preview of Season 4! How will we treat for mites? Is spring honey any good in the north? (Ron doesn't think so.) And Bidzina muses about building a cabin where paying customers can enjoy the air exhausted by honey bee colonies.
This episode was recorded in March, 2025.
Please subscri...
Season 3 Episode 11: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Arizona's Monica King
Our best podcast so far. We chat with Monica King, who rescues Africanized Honey Bees and teaches beekeepers in Tucson, Arizona.
Monica's bee rescue web page: Monica King - Contact & Bee Removals
This episode was recorded in March, 2025.
Please subscribe, like, lo...
Season 3 Episode 10: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Spring feeding
Before we look at spring feeding strategies in the northern part of the northern hemisphere, we take a detour through a few important news stories, including the effect tariffs might have on honey sent from Canada to the USA, Apimondia in Denmark, the death of Gene Hackman, and a trial chemical treatment that might help bees withstan...
Season 3 Episode 9: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Packages or Overwintered Colonies?
We begin this episode – which is mostly about honey production using package bees – with a quick look at gloomy Denmark, where this year’s big international bee fest is being held. That, of course, leads us to a discussion about the wealth of nations (not to be confused with Adam Smith’s book), before finally circl...
Season 3 Episode 8: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The Bee Shop
We visit Robert McBane and his brilliant beautiful bee supply shop in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Discussion flows from helping new beekeepers choose the right equipment to the establishment of a large retail beekeeping supply company, with lots of stops in between.
Worker and Hive: https://worke...
Season 3 Episode 7: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The Bees are Still Dying
The bees are still dying. It's looking really bad for the survival of bees and beekeepers.
This episode was recorded in February, 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:...
Season 3 Episode 6: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The Bees are Dying Part 2
The bees are dying. In part 2 of this 2-part podcast, we look at how devasting honey bees losses have been the during past year and we look at the enormous loss of wild (native) bee species. It's not good out there.
This episode was recorded in February, 2025.
Some links mentioned in this podcast:
Season 3 Episode 5: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The Bees are Dying Part 1
The bees are dying. In part 1 of this 2-part podcast, we look at how devasting honey bees losses have been the during past year and we look at the enormous loss of wild (native) bee species. It's not good out there.
This episode was recorded in February, 2025.
Some links mentioned in this podcast:
Season 3 Episode 4: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Winter Bee News Roundup
This episode covers some recent papers and news, including the discovery of a new bees species in France, native bees used for crop pollination, a Tropilaelaps (Tropy) Mite invasion in Georgia (Europe), and a robot-bee designed to scatter pollen. As usual, we blunder far off topic and that might be the best part of today's podcast.
Popular Podcasts
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.
Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S. centering Latino stories, hosted by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Maria Hinojosa Every week, the Peabody winning team brings you revealing, in-depth stories about what’s in the hearts and minds of Latinos and their impact on the world. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peaks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. www.futuromediagroup.org/joinplus