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 with 14 colonies of honey bees that live beside his 15-acre pumpkin garden.

Honeymoon Acres Greenhouses

Dark Horse Hive Mind Episode

Recorded June 2026 in Calgary.

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Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site
About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/

Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst: miksha@gmail.com

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 queen. The story explores why bees swarm, how many bees leave, what remains behind, why swarm queen cells often produce excellent queens, and how new research on queen-cell architecture suggests that bees do more than feed queens royal jelly - they build specialized royal nurseries.

The episode also examines virgin queen piping, queen fights, afterswarms, mating flights, genetic turnover, honey crop losses, and the remarkable resilience of the old hive. Swarming may frustrate beekeepers, but for honey bees it is colony-level reproduction - one of nature's oldest and most successful survival strategies.

Recorded in Calgary, June 2026

· Fang, Y. et al. Queen cell architecture shapes honey bee queen development. Nature. 2026. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10534-3. PubMed record: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42236932/

· UC Riverside News. "How honeybees really crown their queens." June 3, 2026.

· Chemical & Engineering News. "Queen bees emerge from special wax chambers." June 3, 2026.

· University of Florida IFAS Extension. "Swarm Control for Managed Beehives." ENY-160/IN970.

· Jim Tew, Bee Culture. "General Honey Bee Swarm Biology and Management (Part 1)."

· Thomas D. Seeley and Martin Lindauer traditions on swarm decision-making and nest-site selection, especially as discussed in Seeley's Honeybee Democracy and related American Scientist coverage.

· E.O. Wilson's Pulitzer Prize books: On Human Nature (1979); The Ants (with Bert Hölldobler, 1991)

· Tom Wenseleers. "Superorganism Revisited." BioScience 59(8), 2009, noting William Morton Wheeler's early use of the superorganism concept.

Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation.

Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site
About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/

Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst: miksha@gmail.com

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 University of Edinburgh, quickly became an opportunity to see Scotland through the eyes of a beekeeper.

Along the way, I discover why Scotland's landscapes are so different from those of western Canada, learn about the country's history and culture, sample authentic heather honey, travel by train through the Highlands, and reflect on the people, language, food, and scenery that make Scotland unique.

We'll talk about heather, honey bees, canola, bramble, Gaelic place names, Dolly the cloned sheep, haggis, and even a surprising Scottish heat wave.

Whether you're interested in bees, travel, history, or simply curious about Scotland, I think you'll enjoy coming along for the ride.

Recorded in Scotland, May 2026

Please subscribe, like, love, and follow. We live or die by your adulation.

Podcast website: https://sites.libsyn.com/540327/site
About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/

Finally: email your questions, comments, and angst: miksha@gmail.com