We often support the value of bees with economic arguments, neglecting the dimension of values, the principles we hold important and the personal and environmental standards that should be at the heart of beekeeping rather than at its fringes. The…
Honey, Hives and Poetry
Bees do many things, but one undervalued side product of being involved in apiculture is the diversity of doors that bees open for human interaction. There are, of course, the obvious interdisciplinary collaborations: entomologist with botanist, scientist with beekeeper, professor…
Perhaps Beekeeping Should Change?
(The post below first appeared as a Letter to the Editor in Bee Culture magazine) It was an interesting January, bookmarked with the American Beekeeping Federation (ABF) meeting at Disneyland at the front end, and ending with the American Bee…
Who Keeps Bees?
Who keeps honeybees? The number of beekeepers globally is statistically elusive, but there are something like 30 million hives worldwide, tended by a few million beekeepers. Some manage a single colony while the largest commercial beekeeping operation runs about 70,000…
Mouthparts of the long-tongued bees
At one point early in my career I was recognized as the world’s expert in the labiomaxillary complex of the long-tongued bees, at least among the half-dozen or so entomologists for whom bee mouthparts mattered. I achieved this obscure recognition…
Saving Bees Can Teach Us Lessons (op-ed, The Scotsman)
The Scotsman, 17 December 2014, op ed “Saving Bees Can Teach Us Lessons” http://www.scotsman.com/news/mark-winston-saving-bees-can-teach-us-lessons-1-3635984
The Road Not Taken
We all have our life-fork stories, those crossroads where we could have gone one way but chose another. I was reminded about one of my road-not-taken moments last week, at the Entomological Society of America (ESA) meetings in Portland, Oregon.…
Pathways to Urban Nature (Seattle times op-ed)
Seattle Times, 10 November 2015, “Pathways to Urban Nature” http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2024979208_markwinstonopedbeesxml.html
The Collaboration Room
I received an unusual honor a few weeks ago: Simon Fraser University named a room after me, the Mark L. Winston Collaboration Room. It generally takes a hefty donation to inspire a university to name a room, a level of…
The Book is Out!
Bee Time: Lessons From the Hive is more or less officially out. Hard copies have arrived in most bookstores and can be found for sale on the usual websites; the e-book will be available 6 October from Amazon and…