A would-be beekeeper "inherited" an empty bee box, a reconditioned bee box, in his backyard. "How do I become a beekeeper?" he asked. A very good question, and one that the UC Davis Department of Entomology answers a lot.
They know their insects. They know what a "land lobster" is. They know diseases caused by trypanosomes. They can name the six orders of arthropods represented in the circus troupe from the movie, "A Bug's Life.
So, you've just stepped on a bug. Do you kill it and put it out of its "misery" or do you let it live? That was basically the question that UC Davis entomologist/doctoral candidate Matan Shelomi answered on Quora.
The third time was definitely the charm. After rain postponed the grand opening of the Davis Bee Collective's Bee Sanctuary not once, but twice--the third time, Sunday, April 1--proved to be the charm.
The neonicotinoid pesticides are creating quite a buzz in the bee world. Research published this week in the Science journal zeroed in on the effects of the neonics on honey bees and bumble bees.