Backyard Orchard News
Welcome Back, Painted Ladies
The painted ladies are on move. Butterflies. Scores of painted ladies (Vanessa cardui) are...
A female butterfly, a painted lady, nectaring on Spanish lavender on March 8 in the Benicia Community Garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Painted lady twists around for a better shot at the nectar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Just Bee-Cause
In recent years, honey bees received neither recognition nor respect until commercial beekeeper...
Queen Turner inspects the beekeeping operation on the rooftop of the San Francisco Chronicle. Turner completed a 10-month stay in the U.S. and returned to Botswana where she is head of the beekeeping section of the Ministry of Agriculture in the Botswana government. (Photo: Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey, formerly of UC Davis and now of Washington State University, examines a frame. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Why Bee Stings Can Be Deadly Serious
The Daily Mail, UK, recently reported a tragic case of a fatal bee sting that occurred in a...
This honey bee, in the process of defending her hive, is stinging Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of UC Davis. That's her abdominal tissue being pulled out. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of two stings. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Go Native! Be a Native Bee 'Beekeeper'
If you're yearning to be a backyard beekeeper, "go native." "Go native" with native bees, that...
Leafcutting bees heading home to their condo. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis, shows Danielle Wishon of the California Department of Food and Agriculture a bee condo. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Blue orchard bees on display at the Bohart Museum of Entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of bee nesting sites shown March 2 at the Bohart Museum of Entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
About Those Walking Sticks...
Why would anyone want to study walking sticks (stick insects)? Well, why wouldn't anyone NOT want...
This is the insect that Matan Shelomi studies. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)