How about a Skep hat On YouTube is the 1936 movie Red Lights Ahead. In the last 5 minutes, one of the actors has joined the Lodge royal order of bees, and put on his Skep hat. I don’t know if anyone is collecting unusual skeps, and I thought this would qualify. Michael Lowe Zero …
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Last month, we learned how summer could bring a surge of varroa mites immigrating into hives. The number of varroa mites entering a hive on its returning robber bees could accumulate to large numbers, preventing the colony from producing its long-lived bees needed for winter survival. Summer also brings another “pest” infiltrating hive defenses – …
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What would happen if all beekeepers simply stopped trying to control varroa mites? Well, there would likely be a massive worldwide population crash of the managed western honey bee (Apis mellifera). And in the process, there would likely be an epidemic of viruses that spilled over from collapsing honey bee colonies into the numerous species …
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Those new to beekeeping frequently ask why we don’t just breed better bees. This is a logical question because breeding has long been the answer to many agricultural problems. When I say “breeding,” I don’t mean modern gene-insertion techniques that allow us to raise glow-in-the-dark cats, but the old-fashioned kind of breeding where you cross …
Read MoreSince January 2015 I have been writing a column in these pages on the social evolution of the honey bee. Social, in the sense that I have focused less on Darwinian forces that shape the individual and more on Darwinian forces that shape the group. This is why I have not, for example, talked about …
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Honey bee queens keep sperm from drones alive inside them for years, but some surprising environmental triggers can cause massive sperm death. “Give the drone’s thorax a pinch,” Jeff Pettis instructed as I took the drone he handed me. “Then squeeze the abdomen between your thumb and forefinger, rolling from the front of the abdomen …
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When starting out in beekeeping, it’s really hard to recognize if your colony is doing well. You most likely lack the prior experience to compare what you see going on in your hive now with what a colony should look like at this time of year in your specific region. While it feels good if …
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Understanding the concept of zero is surprisingly difficult. The honey bee has joined the ranks of dolphins, parrots, primates and preschool children, in demonstrating the ability to distinguish zero on the numerical spectrum. This finding raises questions of how a species that differs so much from humans – with fewer than one million neurons in …
Read MoreThe iridescent shimmer of butterfly wings, the metallic green of a sweat bee, the color shifting carapace of a beetle: who hasn’t stopped to admire these beautiful works of nature, wondering how they produce such a dazzling and shifting array of color? Long thought to help attract mates, it turns out that the iridescence may …
Read MoreDeep Forest Bee Hunting Robin Radcliffe and Tom Seeley – 871 Hive Indicators: Clues to Colony Health Zachary Lamas – 879 The Varroa Problem – Part 17b Randy Oliver – 883 Treatment-Free Beekeeping: A Practical Hands-On Approach Terry Combs – 891 Fishing for Honey Bees Jennifer Standley – 905 Listening to the Wild Animals David McDonald – 919 Envisioning the Future of Beekeeping Part 3 Tammy …
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- C.P. Dadant, Editor of ABJ 1912-1938
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