Bug Squad

Diners know that a napkin serves a good purpose: touch the lips with it or protect the lap. Well, honey bees occasionally use a napkin, too. A recent sun break--blue skies, 70-degree temperatures, no rain--resulted in honey bees foraging for water on a rain-soaked napkin on the patio.

His topic is enticing: "The Irritable Insect." We've all found a few species of insects irritable; some more than others. (Apiculturists know how grumpy bees are when they open a hive on a cold, rainy day.

When honey bees make the transition from egg to larva to pupa to adult, it's magical. Today we watched bees chew through their cell cappings, flex their antennae, crawl out, and immediately look around for work to do.

If you head over to the California State Capitol tomorrow (Tuesday, March 23) don't be too surprised if there's a John Deere tractor on the west steps. March 23 is Ag Day when the state's urban and rural folks come out in force to celebrate the state's $34.8 billion ag industry.

If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have not more than four years to live." That comment, widely attributed to physicist Albert Einstein, is all over the web.