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A garden gem

Berry bees, Osmia aglaia, amaze me because they appear brilliant blue or green depending on the light. Sometimes, they reflect both at once. Since they are called berry bees, I used to think they were specialist bees, but they are not. This year I have seen them on just about everything in my garden including […] Read more

Berry busy berry bee

Here is a creature to add to your native bee list. Osmia aglaia is a small (about 3/8-inch long) metallic-green bee that is native to the west coasts of Oregon and California. Belonging to the same genus as the popular orchard mason bee, this bee is especially fond of Rubus varieties—particularly red raspberries and blackberries. […] Read more

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My Favorite Books & Bee Supplies
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Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees
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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