Treatment Free Beekeeping: A Practical Hands-On Approach

Posted August 1, 2018

Treatment Free Beekeeping: A Practical Hands-On Approach

I am a 100% chemically-free beekeeper when it comes to varroa control in my apiaries. Does that conjure up images and thoughts of a totally disconnected bee-haver doing no management other than taking what honey my bees are fortunate enough to make? Apiaries with hives simply left to their fate and allowed to collapse, sending …

Posted August 1, 2018

The Classroom – August 2018

Q What Should I Use? I am following your instruction given in the Classroom to the letter Jerry. I have memorized the three words about honey bee health you gave us: varroa, varroa, varroa. I have also memorized the “Tools for Varroa Management Guide” from the HBHC and as summer progresses I am sampling and …

Posted August 1, 2018

Letters to the Editor – August 2018

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 …

Posted August 1, 2018

Something Else Sneaking into Your Hives This Summer: Small Hive Beetles

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 – …

Posted August 1, 2018

Notes from the lab – August 2018

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 …

Posted August 1, 2018

Honey Bee Genetics: Why Breeding is So Difficult

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 …

Posted August 1, 2018

The Honey Bee Superorganism in Perspective

Since 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 …

Posted August 1, 2018

Long Live the Sperm

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 …

Posted August 1, 2018

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BROOD, BABY

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 …

Posted August 1, 2018

HONEY BEES CAN ZERO IN ON THE ADVANCED CONCEPT OF ZERO

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 …

Treatment Free Beekeeping: A Practical Hands-On Approach

Posted August 1, 2018