Posts Tagged: Eric Mussen
It's Bee-ginning to Look a Lot Like...
It's bee-ginning to look a lot like Christmas... All hail our littlest agricultural worker. European colonists brought the honey bee (Apis mellifera) to what is now the United States in 1622. Specifically, the bees arrived at the Jamestown...
A feral honey bee colony (now gone) from a backyard in Vacavile, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Inside a managed hive at UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A bee-utiful Christmas wreath, designed and crafted by Ellen Keatley Rose of Castle Rock, Wash. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Revisiting 'The 13 Bugs of Christmas'
Back in 2010, UC Cooperative Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen (1944-2022) of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and yours truly, department communications specialist, wondered why no insects appear in "The Twelve Days...
A golden honey bee, a Cordovan, nectaring in a Vacaville, Calif., garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A varroa mite attached to a foraging bee in a Vacaville, Calif. garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey Bee Larvae: Weigh to Go!
It's a week before Christmas and it's not just the geese that are getting fat. If you're thinking that the bathroom scale and you are not good friends, not to worry. We remember the late Extension apiculturist emeritus Eric...
Queen bee laying an egg. A honey bee egg weighs about 0.1 mg, according to the late Extension apiculturist emeritus Eric Mussen, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Over the next six days, a tiny egg will soar to 120 mg. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee larvae grow fast. Here a bee, next to larvae, is ready to emerge. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Newly emerged honey bee. It weighs about 1000 times the weight of a one-day-old bee larva. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Kim Flottum: Friend of Beekeepers and Bees
We are saddened to hear of the death of Peter "Kim" Flottum, longtime editor of Bee Culture magazine, a friend of the nation's beekeepers and bee scientists, and a close friend of the UC Davis bee community. A resident of Medina, Ohio, Kim died...
UC Davis emeritus professor Norm Gary (far right) working with Kim Flottum (seated) on a television project in 2010 at UC Davis. In back is a member of the TV crew. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
In 2010, Kim Flottum, then editor of Bee Culture, stands by a cluster of bees, ready for bee wrangling by his friend Norm Gary, UC Davis emeritus professor of entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bee-ing Thankful for Honey Bees
Let's put the "thanks" in THANKSgiving by bee-ing thankful for the honey bee, Apis mellifera... If your table includes pumpkin, cranberries, carrots, cucumbers, onions, apples, oranges, cherries, blueberries, grapefruit, persimmons, pomegranates,...
The squash bee, Peponapis pruinosa, pollinating a squash. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Thank a bee for the squash! (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee pollinating a pomegranate blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Thank a bee for the pomegranate! (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)