Greetings readers. I am trying something new in this month’s column. Increasingly, many of you are going to Large Language Models (LLMs) with your questions about bees. ChatGPT is one such LLM. I have seen colleagues and other authors compare how they would answer a specific question to how ChatGPT answers the same question. I …
Read MoreIn my youth, all honey came in a comb, something I never questioned. It wasn’t until I departed my Pennsylvania homeland that I discovered something amiss: Whenever I tried to buy honey, the good part was missing. For the life of me, I couldn’t understand why someone would separate honey from its cradle. Like waffles …
Read MoreIt may be tempting not to bother trying to control the swarming instinct, but there are some very good reasons not to allow swarms to “go to the trees.” First, for yourself … if your colony swarms, a good portion of your honey production goes with it. Even if you don’t care about honey, the …
Read MoreSneaking out of church When I was a little guy (but not real little), during winter months I would quietly leave the church service and take the back stairway to the dark, warm boiler room in the basement. There the custodian would be sitting near a large, dark, coal-heating boiler that hissed, thumped, and clanked. …
Read MoreToday, American Bee Journal and Bee Culture are well-known periodicals among beekeepers. Far less known is an obscure historical fact. Another 99 periodicals about bees were started in the United States and 10 in Canada (Paddock, 1930). These bee journals were scattered all across America, even into her more distant corners. From the Northeast was …
Read MoreMuch of the nation reported a great deal of snow and stretches of brutal cold this past winter, though some warmer temps were reported to the West and Northwest. Colony health varied by state and region, but as of February we weren’t hearing reports of the kinds of heavy losses seen last year. Retail honey …
Read More“ The apartment” I was excited to receive my Feb. 2026 ABJ and like my usual routine, I stood at the kitchen counter to skim through for honey bee topics that help keep me an “up-to-date” and a top-notch beekeeper! For starters, the intro from the Editor! As I took in the tone and depth …
Read MoreMore space, less fear — that’s the future Carrie Diaz is building for honey bees in the heart of Los Angeles. What began as thousands of everyday conversations about honey and stings turned into something much bigger: a realization that most people have never truly been introduced to the honey bee, properly. That disconnect became …
Read MoreFebruary 12, 2026 — California State Beekeepers Association Woodland, CA — On February 10, 2026, deputies from the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office, in collaboration with the California Rural Crime Prevention Task Force (CRCPF), arrested 47-year-old Leonid Terzi of Sacramento in connection with the theft of 172 beehives reported stolen from Merced County on February 6, …
Read MoreThe American Beekeeping Federation is proud to announce that Delanie Craighead and Oceanna Escribano were selected as the 2026 American Honey Queen and Princess. Queen Delanie is the daughter of Don and Laurie Craighead of Descanso, California. She is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, and earned a bachelor’s degree in animal biology …
Read More"I want the American Bee Journal to be the finest publication about bees and beekeeping in the world."
- C.P. Dadant, Editor of ABJ 1912-1938
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