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Imagine the lucky colony that lives here!

I just love it when people go crazy with their hive design or decoration. This Layens hive was painted by Michele Levani of Charleston, South Carolina. She explains: I’m a professional artist and muralist. A client just hired me to paint a scene on one of his hives. This is my first time working with […] Read more

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The Valkyrie long hive: built with love for bees and their keepers

Many of you may remember the Valhalla hive from several years ago. The Valhalla was a long hive designed by Naomi and Larry Price for beekeepers who were unable to lift heavy equipment or reach stacked hive boxes. The Valhalla hive was unique in many ways, including the fact it used standard Langstroth frames. This […] Read more

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My Favorite Books & Bee Supplies
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The Bees in Your Backyard
A Field Guide to the Common Bees of California
California Bees & Blooms
The Bee-Friendly Garden
Pollination Power
Simple, Smart Beekeeping
The Beekeeper’s Handbook
The Valkyrie Long Hive
The Valkyrie Long Hive is perfect for those who don't like to lift heavy bee boxes.
Bee Wise
Go to the bee, thou poet: consider her ways and be wise.

—George Bernard Shaw
Bee-yond Bees
Bees are more than a hobby; they are a life study, in many respects a mirror of our own society.

—William Longgood
Why Honey Bee is Two Words

Regardless of dictionaries, we have in entomology a rule for insect common names that can be followed. It says: If the insect is what the name implies, write the two words separately; otherwise run them together. Thus we have such names as house fly, blow fly, and robber fly contrasted with dragonfly, caddicefly, and butterfly, because the latter are not flies, just as an aphislion is not a lion and a silverfish is not a fish. The honey bee is an insect and is preeminently a bee; “honeybee” is equivalent to “Johnsmith.”

—From Anatomy of the Honey Bee by Robert E. Snodgrass
State Insects
The non-native European Honey Bee is the state insect of:
- Arkansas
- Georgia
- Kansas
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- New Jersey
- North Carolina
- Oklahoma
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Utah
- Vermont
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
Not one native bee is a state insect. The closest relative of a North American native bee to make the list is the Tarantula Hawk Wasp, the state insect of New Mexico.

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