About the Author

Patrice Lewis

Patrice Lewis is a wife, mother, homesteader, homeschooler, author, blogger, columnist, and speaker. An advocate of simple living and self-sufficiency, she has practiced and written about self-reliance and preparedness for almost 30 years. She is experienced in homestead animal husbandry and small-scale dairy production, food preservation and canning, country relocation, home-based businesses, homeschooling, personal money management, and food self-sufficiency. Follow her website patricelewis.com or blog rural-revolution.com.
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Articles by Patrice Lewis

Giant Honeybee Shimmering Bee-Havior
May 20, 2026 · · Beekeeping 101

Learn about the giant honeybee shimmering behavior as a defense strategy to ward off predatory wasps and hornets.

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Treating Varroa Mites with Heat
May 15, 2026 · · Health & Pests

What temperature kills varroa mites? Treating varroa mites with heat is a different tactic that uses special hive components to employ a passive solar radiation technique.

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How Do Bees Communicate with Each Other?
January 17, 2025 · · Beekeeping 101

How do bees communicate with each other? Learn about different honey bee pheromones, the chemical substances secreted by exocrine glands, and the hive tasks they achieve.

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Do Bees Eat Meat?
January 16, 2025 · · Beekeeping 101

Do bees eat meat? Meet carrion-eating vulture bees that live in Central and South America and feed off dead carcasses to produce meat honey for baby bees to grow.

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Asian Giant Hornets and Honeybees
December 14, 2023 · · Health & Pests

Asian giant hornets are the world’s largest hornet, measuring a whopping 1.75 inches in length (queens reach over two inches) with a wingspan of three inches!

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Bumblebees at Play
May 30, 2023 · · Beekeeping

When bumblebees were given small wooden balls, they romped with them. There’s no other way to describe it.

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The Lost Honeybees of Blenheim
April 3, 2023 · · Beekeeping 101

Blenheim estate of 6,000 acres contains Europe’s largest ancient oak forest, and in 2021 a marvelous thing was discovered: wild honeybees.

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The Thrill of Beelining
March 3, 2023 · · Beekeeping Lifestyle Topics

If you are looking for a hobby that gets you out in nature, requires patience and determination, and has all the thrills of a treasure hunt, then beelining is for you.

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The Unsolved Mystery: Washboarding Behavior in Bees
February 1, 2023 · · Beekeeping 101

Often observed at the entrance to hives, washboarding is a purposeful group behavior involving anywhere from a few to several hundred bees engaging in a swaying to-and-fro movement reminiscent of scrubbing clothes on a washboard.

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Honeybees and the Classroom
January 1, 2023 · · Hive Highlights

Add to Favorites Of all the creative applications for bees, one of the most exciting is bringing bees into the classroom — or rather, bringing the classroom out to the …

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