The Beekeeper’s Companion Since 1861
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Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor – July 2017

- July 1, 2017 - (excerpt)

future beekeeper advocating for bee research at the March for Science even in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Future Beekeeper

I’m a former bee research technician at Virginia Tech. I’m now at UF as a technician and working on a PhD in termites, but I stay current in apiculture by keeping bees, reading ABJ & teaching for Jamie Ellis’ Bee College a couple of times a year. Rick Fell at VT saw this picture of my son & thought I should submit it to ABJ in case you were looking for current event photos.

Aaron Mullins
Sr. Biological Scientist
University of Florida
Fort Lauderdale, FL

Photo Caption
Fox Mullins advocating for bee research at the March for Science event in Fort Lauderdale, FL on April 22.

Three Swarms at Once

I collected these three swarms of bees last night. What do you think happened here? Did the swarms come from the same hive or different hives? A fourth swarm actually fell into the stream and the bees drowned.

Gary Stansbery
Warsaw, IL

Publication of the “World Book” No Bees, no Life

Žirovnica, Slovenia – Every third spoonful of food on Earth depends on bees or, more precisely, on pollination. The more the meadows are polluted and the more frequently they are mown, the smaller the number of bees. Do we even realize what that means for our future and for us?

The three authors behind the book No bees, no life are well aware of this. It is our mission to make sure this message reaches as many people as possible.

That is why we decided to publish a book like none before and it is being created over the last few months. We will shed light on this topic from different viewpoints together with more than 60 renowned beekeeping experts from 30 countries. We intend for the publication to be a homage to bees and beekeeping that will provide a technical yet comprehensible explanation suitable for all ages on why bees are so extremely important for our planet and what we can do to preserve them for the generations to come. The book will also offer a clear answer to why we need World Bee Day that will be celebrated for the first time on 20 May next year.

The book will take you on a walk through the history of beekeeping all the way to modern methods of caring for bees. The readers will learn about the role of bees in pollination, agriculture and global food production and about what everyone of us can do to help bees survive. The work will describe Slovenian beekeeping, beekeeping practices on other continents and the challenges beekeepers face. Facts will be accompanied by high-quality photographs.

The book will be published simultaneously in Slovenian and English language, because we want it to become a “world book” accessible in as many parts of the world as possible.

You can take a look at a few sample pages of the book – http://issuu.com/medium_zirovnica/docs/no_bees_no_life

Technical details of the book
No bees, no life

Title: No bees, no life
Authors: Peter Kozmus, PhD, Boštjan Noč, Karolina Vrtačnik and more than 60 authors from over 30 countries
Publisher: Beebooks, d.o.o.
Language: Slovenian and English
Binding: Hardcover
Print: Color
Paper: High-quality, coated, 150 g
Number of pages: at least 250
Dimensions: 200 x 300 mm
Price: EUR 39.90
Pre-order price: EUR 29.90

To order, please write to nobeesnolife@gmail.com

Boštjan Noč
Peter Kozmus
Karolina Vrtačnik

How I use the JZs BZs Plastic Queen Cage

I have used the JZs BZs cage for making nucs and introducing queens for the last 11 years with excellent results. Any queen that I receive in a wooden, 3-hole Benton or skinny wooden California cage is always transferred into a JZs BZs cage for introduction. It is that important to me!

Queen introductions can be challenging and the topic deserves some serious study. Experimentation and short cuts can be cruelly disappointing. This article is not a complete “how to” on queen introduction. Most beekeepers understand there are a lot of variables. Generally the hive to receive the queen must have …

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