Episodes
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A Little Halloween Buzz
A little Halloween history, a little honey, and some little bees at the door. This short episode chats about the origins of Halloween, honey as a Halloween treat, and dressing unfortunate little children as bees for trick-or-treating. A short, seasonal listen with a bee-themed twist. Season 10...
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Honey Bump and Pumpkin Bust with Joe
Season 10 Episode 6: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Honey Bump and Pumpkin Bust with Joe Support this Podcast! Like, Follow, and buy me Gallons of Coffee here: ko-fi.com/miksha What makes a great honey year? And why can the same season be difficult for pumpkins? Joe McShaw, owner of...
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Yellow-Legged Hornets: Why Bees Stop Foraging
Season 10 Episode 5: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Yellow-Legged Hornets: Why Bees Stop Foraging A hornet hovers outside a hive. It catches a bee. Then something less obvious happens: fewer bees leave to forage. The flowers may still be there, but the colony's food supply begins to...
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Why Join a Bee Society? Scott Steinfeldt on WAS
Season 10 Episode 4: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Why Join a Bee Society? Scott Steinfeldt on WAS What does a bee society offer when beekeeping advice is already everywhere online? Scott Steinfeldt, president of the Western Apicultural Society of North America (WAS), joins me, Ron...
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More Sugar, Less Protein: Rising CO₂ in Plants and Pollen
Season 10 Episode 3: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – More Sugar, Less Protein: Rising CO₂ in Plants and Pollen More carbon dioxide helps plants grow. But does more plant growth mean more nutritious food? In this episode of About Bees, Culture, and Curiosity, we look at what rising...
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Why is a Turkey a Turkey?
Season 10 Episode 2: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Why is a Turkey a Turkey? Why is a bird native to North America called a turkey? The answer takes us from Mexico to Spain, Africa, the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), France, England, and eventually back across the Atlantic on the Mayflower....
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Killing the Drones
Season 10 Episode 1: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Killing the Drones As autumn arrives, worker honey bees turn against the drones they fed and tolerated all summer. But what triggers their eviction? Is it cold, shorter days, dwindling forage or something else? We explore the strange...
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Building a Better Bee: Brother Adam to DNA
Season 9 Episode 12: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Building a Better Bee: Brother Adam to DNA Brother Adam spent his life trying to build a better bee. Thirty years after his death, we can sequence bee genomes, scan more than 100,000 genetic markers and even edit honey-bee DNA. But…
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Getting Rid of Confusion in Beekeeper-Speak
Season 9 Episode 11: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Getting Rid of Confusion in Beekeeper-Speak What exactly is a bee colony? The answer seems obvious. Until beekeepers, scientists and computers all need to agree. In this episode of About Bees, Culture, and Curiosity, we explore an...
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Bees, Climate Change, Catastrophe
Season 9 Episode 10: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Bees, Climate Change, Catastrophe The tables are turned. Instead of asking the questions on About Bees, Culture, and Curiosity, I become the guest on Brady Podloski's Catastrophe podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about honey…
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Helicopters, Varroa, Tech Transfer, and a Life with Bees
Season 9 Episode 9: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Helicopters, Varroa, Tech Transfer, and a Life with Bees In today's episode, we interview Matthew Polinsky, Manitoba's Bee Technology Transfer lead. Matthew grew up around commercial beekeeping in Saskatchewan. His father kept bees…
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The Autumn Flower: Goldenrod, not really too stinky.
Season 9 Episode 8: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The Autumn Flower: Goldenrod: not really too stinky. Goldenrod is a keystone species for plant, animal, and ecological survival in a huge part of North America. It is also suffering from an unexpected problem, which is hurting bees,...
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The American Honey Queen: Bees, Education and Advocacy
Season 9 Episode 7: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The American Honey Queen: Bees, Education and Advocacy Delanie Craighead, the 2026 American Honey Queen, joins Ron Miksha on About Bees, Culture, and Curiosity for a conversation about honey bees, entomology, education, honey and...
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The End of the Honey Flow means Trouble
Season 9 Episode 6: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The End of the Honey Flow means Trouble The honey flow is over. The supers have been extracted. We had a nice crop (300 pounds from 2 hives). More than we can eat at one time. Now the trouble begins. Robbing. Varroa. Wasps. Crowding.…
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The 50% Honey Tariff: When a Market Disappears
Season 9 Episode 5: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The 50% Honey Tariff: When a Market Disappears The bees made the honey. Now who will buy it? A new 50% U.S. tariff on Canadian honey arrived just as Prairie beekeepers began harvesting the 2026 crop. The numbers reveal an uncomfortable...
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Too Hot for Bees? Arizona Heat, Drought, and Rescuing Bees
Season 9 Episode 4: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Too Hot for Bees? Arizona Heat, Drought, and Rescuing Bees Southern Arizona is beautiful bee country, but it's tough on bees and beekeepers. Temperatures climb above 100°F, water becomes critical, drought can shut down forage, and the...
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Sweet Clover: The Best Honey Plant?
Season 9 Episode 3: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Sweet Clover: The Best Honey Plant? Sweet clover is the best nectar-producing plant. Best honey quality; best for making lots of water-white mild honey. But not everywhere. Here's its story. This podcast was Recorded July 2025 and…
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No Bugs on the Windshield. Is it the Insect Apocalypse?
Season 9 Episode 2: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – No Bugs on the Windshield. Is it the Insect Apocalypse? A summer drive from Calgary to Banff used to leave my windshield covered with insects. A few days ago, the same 250-kilometre round trip left just three bug splatters. Three. It...
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What if a Part of Canada Leaves? Who gets the bees?
Season 9 Episode 1: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – What if a Part of Canada Leaves? Who gets the bees? What if part of Canada separates from the rest of the country? I take a deep dive into this subject because the province of Alberta has a hearty band of separatists who have been...
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The 3-in-1 Bee Tree: Linden, Lime, and Basswood
Season 8 Episode 12: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The 3-in-1 Bee Tree: Linden, Lime, and Basswood Discover why linden, lime, and basswood trees have been used and abused for centuries by beekeepers, herbalists, and woodworkers in this About Bees episode. The basswood (aka linden and...
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Joe's Greenhouse and Bees Philosophy
Season 8 Episode 11: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Joe's Greenhouse and Bees Philosophy Today we visit Ron's brother Joe McShaw at Honeymoon Acres in New Holstein, Wisconsin. We'll explore his management philosophy, running a business with family, selling 3,000,000 plants, and working...
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Left Behind: After the Honey Bee Rapture
Season 8 Episode 10: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Left Behind: After the Honey Bee Rapture What happens inside a honey bee hive after a swarm leaves? In this episode of About Bees, Culture, and Curiosity, Ron Miksha follows the parent colony after half the bees depart with the old...
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Scotland through a Beekeeper's Eyes
Season 8 Episode 9: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Scotland through a Beekeeper's Eyes Join me on a journey through Scotland as I explore Edinburgh, Inverness, the Highlands, Loch Ness, and the famous Scottish heather moors. What began as a visit with my daughter, who studies at the...
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Black Locust: Appalachia's Gift to World Beekeeping
Season 8 Episode 8: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Black Locust: Appalachia's Gift to World Beekeeping One of Europe's most famous honey trees actually came from the Appalachian Mountains of North America. In this episode of About Bees, Culture, and Curiosity, we follow the remarkable...
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World Bee Day, No Mow May, and Do Bees Dream?
Season 8 Episode 7: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – World Bee Day, No Mow May, and Do Bees Dream? It's No Mow May, World Bee Day is coming up, so, of course, I was wondering if bees dream. Recorded in Calgary, May 2026 Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your...
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Tupelo Honey: Swamps, Bees, and Southern Taste
Season 8 Episode 6: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Tupelo Honey: Swamps, Bees, and Southern Taste In this episode of About Bees, Culture, and Curiosity, we travel into the flooded river forests of Florida and Georgia to explore the remarkable story of tupelo honey - one of the rarest…
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Wild Bee Care in the Spring
Season 8 Episode 5: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Wild Bee Care in the Spring This podcast episode featured Ilan Domnich, the native bee stewardship specialist with the Alberta Native Bee Council, discussing how to support native bees in spring. Ilan explained that Alberta has 370...
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Can Magnets Help Honey Bees Survive Winter?
Season 8 Episode 4: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Can Magnets Help Honey Bees Survive Winter? In this episode, we examine the unusual controversial question of whether electromagnetic fields affect honey bees. We begin with the broader idea that the bees' world is surrounded by weak...
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More than Packages
Season 8 Episode 3: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – More than Packages Bees can arrive in packages. Putting them into snow-covered hive boxes is exciting. We'll install packages and chat bees and more on this episode. Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your...
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Dandelion: The Bee Plant That Doesn't Need Bees
Season 8 Episode 2: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Dandelion: The Bee Plant That Doesn't Need Bees Dandelions show up early. In many places, they're the first thing people notice in spring. Bright yellow, everywhere at once, and full of bees. It's easy to assume they are the first and...
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Apitherapy and the Joy of Bee Stings
Season 8 Episode 1: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Apitherapy and the Joy of Bee Stings Happy World Apitherapy Day, March 30, marked on the birthday of the founder of apitherapy, Filip Terč. Oh, and I heard that it's also Ron Miksha's birthday. Recorded in Calgary during March 2026...
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Spring 2026 Trailer and News Briefs
Season 8 Episode 0: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Spring 2026 Trailer and News Briefs Starting off Spring 2026 with a preview of the season ahead plus some chat about 12 recent bee news stories. From the United Kingdom, Bee brain model offers insights into next-gen AI....
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March is Orange Blossom Month
Season 7 Episode 12: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – March is Orange Blossom Month Orange Groves, Honey Bees, and a Vanishing Industry Orange blossom honey begins in the groves—but those groves are disappearing. In this episode, beekeeper and writer Ron Miksha explores the history,...
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Bee Poop, Yellow Rain, and the Bee Gut
Season 7 Episode 11: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Bee Poop, Yellow Rain, and the Bee Gut Honey bees refuse to defecate inside their hive all winter—and when the first warm day arrives, thousands of bees take a sudden cleansing flight. In this episode, we explore one of the stranger...
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February means Almonds
Season 7 Episode 10: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – February means Almonds Most California almond pollination takes place in late February and earlier March. In this episode, we look at the world's largest mass migration of livestock and the problems honey bees encounter during...
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The Apiary in a Box
Season 7 Episode 9: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – The Apiary in a Box I had a great chat with Herman van Reekum of Beekeeping Innovations and BeeCube. BeeCube is what it sounds like, a cube of bees, an apiary in a box. We discuss the advantages of the BeeCube as well as new…
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Wintering at minus 50 in Singles!!
Season 7 Episode 8: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Wintering at minus 50 in Singles!! Let's go way up north to the Yukon with beekeeper Etienne Tardif. He experiments with wintering - in single storey hives - through minus 50 temperatures. His secrets, which he is happy to talk about,...
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Sylvia Plath, the Beekeeper's Poet
Season 7 Episode 7: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Sylvia Plath, the Beekeeper's Poet Today's podcast is more about Bees and Culture, less about Beekeeping Curiosity. Today, February 11, is the anniversary of the death of a great poet, Sylvia Plath. The daughter of a bee scientist,...
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Organic Beekeeping on the Prairies
Season 7 Episode 6: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Organic Beekeeping on the Prairies Tracey Smith, Executive Director of Organic Alberta, tells us about building up her beautiful Alberta honey farm, starting from two packages, and creating a sustainable farm and business over a…
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Start the Year with New Bees!
Season 7 Episode 5: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Start the Year with New Bees! In this episode, Ron Miksha and his brother Joe McShaw discussed Joe's greenhouse business and beekeeping operations. They covered topics including making beeswax crayons, installing bee packages, and the...
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Arizona is Swarming
Season 7 Episode 4: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Arizona is Swarming It's been a bit wetter than last year in Arizona and the bees are swarming. I know that because I chatted with my niece, Monica King, who is based just outside Tucson. We talk about swarming, some serious pesticide...
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What's Blooming in January?
Season 7 Episode 3: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – What's Blooming in January? What's Blooming in January? Not much. Unless you're in the deep south, west coast, or Hawaii. We look at these places and we look at how to feed bees in colder areas. Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in...
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139 Ways your Bees Can Die
Season 7 Episode 2: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – 139 Ways your Bees Can Die Enjoy this quick overview of 139 honey bee pathogens and pests that should be keeping you awake at night. Have fun! Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in January 2026. Please subscribe, like, love, and...
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Ten Bee Predictions for 2026
Season 7 Episode 1: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Ten bee predictions for 2026 Here we go. I might be wrong more than right, but it's still worth a think. 1. I expect more bees declines, but not kept honey bees. 2. Honey bee colony numbers will surprise researchers. 3. Climate-driven...
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2026 Short Trailer
Season 7 Episode 0: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – 2026 Short Trailer This trailer, our introduction to Season 7, sets the stage for season 7, the About Bees podcast's next 12 episodes. Our winter season. A great time to get caught up. Enjoy. Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in...
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2025: Ten Bee News Stories
Season 6 Episode 12 About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – 2025: Ten Bee News Stories Links to our ten featured news stories from 2025: 62% Bee Losses Honey Bee Health...
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Bees or Greenhouses?
Season 6 Episode 11: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Bees or Greenhouses? Bees or Greenhouses? Which would make more money as a business? Ron chats with his brother Joe of Honeymoon Acres, a Wisconsin greenhouse business. We engage in a race to the bottom. I make the case that…
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A Langstroth Christmas
Season 6 Episode 10: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – A Langstroth Christmas Let's look at the inventor of the modern North American beehive. It's Christmas and it's L.L. Langstroth's birthday. Hope you enjoy this! Recorded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in December 2025. Please subscribe,...
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A Candid Chat with Alberta's (former) Agriculture Minister
Season 6 Episode 9: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – A Candid Chat with Alberta's (former) Agriculture Minister In this episode, I enjoy a conversation with the Honorable Oneil Carlier, former Agriculture Minister of Alberta. Alberta is cowboys and ranching and enormous forests and wheat...
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Buzz Pollination in the Greenhouse
Season 6 Episode 8: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Buzz Pollination in the Greenhouse I was looking around for something in bloom here in December to talk about on this podcast, but I didn't feel like stepping outside into the deep snow and arctic temperatures. Then I realized that...