Treatment of a Colony’s Resident Queen After an Influx of Foreign Bees

Posted January 1, 2026

Treatment of a Colony’s Resident Queen After an Influx of Foreign Bees

Using locally reared queens selected for local conditions is a smart and proven way for bee businesses to thrive. My concern after studying bees for over 50 years regards a fundamental weakness in raising these queens. The queens are not available early in the spring In Virginia, unlike queens from the South. To have locally …

Posted January 1, 2026

Night Flight: A Beekeeper’s Guide to Zombie Flies

Watching a honey bee mulishly smash into a light bulb is disconcerting, surreal, as if the bee is shouting and pleading with the natural world: Hear me! Help me! I will never forget the bee tinking against the hot glass, desperate to evade the thing savaging her body, chewing her organs, hollowing her to a …

Posted January 1, 2026

Some Beekeeping Thoughts and Snapshots

Just a short time ago, as did you, I started another new year. What is it about a new year’s beginning? Maybe it’s just me, but I’m always reflective, optimistic — even sappy as the new year begins. Normally, I boldly predict major upcoming changes in my bee life that will — finally — make …

Posted January 1, 2026

Invisible Bee Communication

Honey bee dance communication is well known and intriguing, but there is a lot of communication going on in the hive that is invisible, and more important for us as beekeepers to be aware of and understand.1 Having a better understanding of the invisible ways that bees communicate with one another can be very helpful …

Posted January 1, 2026

Letters to the Editor – January 2026

Up Close and Personal with an Absconded Colony Mike and I had the strangest experience on a Saturday afternoon in early October with a hive that absconded. I am not talking about when you look at your hive and it is gone; this was completely different. We stopped at a large bee yard to feed the …

Posted January 1, 2026

UC DAVIS BEE HAVEN COORDINATOR RECEIVES RESEARCH GRANT

Samantha Murray, education and garden coordinator of the UC Davis Bee Haven and a bee specialist, has just received a grant from the El Dorado Beekeepers (EDB) to support her research on how nutritional supplements affect honey bee health and colony performance. Jim Guilliams, president of EDB, and his wife, Debbie Katz, secretary of EDB, …

Posted January 1, 2026

YELLOW-LEGGED HORNET DISCOVERED IN NEW ZEALAND

On October 17, 2025, the yellow-legged hornet, Vespa velutina, was discovered in Auckland, the capital of New Zealand, with five confirmed detections to date. Two small nests were discovered about one mile apart, suggesting that the hornet is established with other nests still to be found. It is believed they have not yet moved outside …

Posted January 1, 2026

SOUTHERN GIANT HORNET, VESPA SOROR, FOUND IN SPAIN

During routine inspections of traps for Vespa velutina (Asian, or yellow-legged hornet) in northern Spain, Vespa soror, the southern giant hornet, was found in 2022 and 2023. The southern giant hornet inhabits the warmer regions of Asia, including north-eastern India, northern Myanmar, northern Thailand, Laos, northern Vietnam, and southern China. The climate in northern Spain …

Posted January 1, 2026

NORTH AMERICAN BEE STRATEGY UNVEILED TO PROTECT POLLINATORS AND STRENGTHEN HONEY MARKET

— December 2, 2025 Four major North American beekeeping organizations released the first-ever North American Bee Strategy this week, a coordinated, continent-wide plan to protect honey bees, strengthen the viability of professional beekeeping, and safeguard food security across the United States and Canada. The strategy is the result of a cross-border collaboration between the American …

Posted January 1, 2026

Contents – January 2026

International Honey Market Report Ron Phipps – 23 Winter Reads Dewey Caron, Frédéric Eggers de Villepin, Carl Hrusovszky, Julia Mahood, Tina Sebestyen – 29 THE CLASSROOM Jamie Ellis – 37 BEEKEEPING BASICS Invisible Bee Communication Tina Sebestyen – 45 Vadescana: Using Synthetic Biology to Control Varroa Bill Hesbach – 51 THE CURIOUS BEEKEEPER Night Flight: …

Treatment of a Colony’s Resident Queen After an Influx of Foreign Bees

Posted January 1, 2026