A genomic study of Puerto Rico’s Africanized honey bees – which are more docile than other so-called “killer bees” – reveals that they retain most of the genetic traits of their African honey bee ancestors, but that a few regions of their DNA have become more like those of European honey bees. According to the …
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Year-round water for my bees I leave feeders in my hive entrances most of the year. Occasionally I’m feeding syrup and the rest of the time the jars contain plain water. The standing water will eventually erode the metal of the lids as well as stain the jars with rust. Using the tiniest size of drill …
Read MoreQ Precarious Haranguing Hello Mr. Hayes, I’m a beekeeper here in Central Massachusetts and unlike many hobby beekeepers, I’m not writing to harangue you! Over the 6 years I’ve been involved in beekeeping, I’ve noticed a marked increase of Varroa destructor and a marked increase in their resistance to available treatments. This fall alone between …
Read MoreAs I’m sure everyone is aware, there’s a lot of buzz about global pollinator declines lately. But are declines restricted to pollinators, or are we actually experiencing global insect declines in general? This is the topic of our second “Notes from the Lab”, where we highlight “More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in …
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Alfred Hitchcock would have loved the small hive beetle, Aethina tumida. If he had only known, he might have scrapped his movie The Birds in favor of The Beetles. Small hive beetles lead a horror story life, fraught with mystery, intrigue, and destruction. The beetles, aided by their partner in crime—a symbiotic yeast—produce slime, mimic …
Read MoreEvery beekeeper has wrestled with the Varroa destructor mite. Every beekeeper also knows we’re running out of weapons. With abounding resistance to conventional miticides, researchers at Monsanto are instead trying to use biotechnology to fight the mite – it could work, but is another mite-killing agent what the industry really needs? Recently, I had the …
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Colony usurpation is when a summer swarm takes over an established colony by quickly invading it in a matter of minutes. While some of the hive bees and the usurpation bees fight, the crucial action is with the queens. The usurpation queen becomes balled near the hive entrance, where she just entered with the invading …
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For the last two months, I’ve been talking about things that can go wrong in the honey bee colony. Threats to social cohesion. In November, I talked about so-called “royal” subfamilies whose female larvae coerce nurse bees into feeding them royal jelly and rearing them into queens. Last month I talked about “anarchistic” workers who …
Read MoreInternational Honey Market Ron Phipps – 23 The Slippery Life of the Small Hive Beetle Rusty Burlew – 39 Extended-Release Oxalic Acid Progress Report #3 Randy Oliver – 45 Five Women of Iowa Share a Passion for Bees Robert Weast – 60 Bee Vision is Totally Different Adrian Horridge – 65 Varroa Problem—Part 14—Virus Dynamics and Treatments Randy Oliver – 69 Cold Flying Foragers: Honey …
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In 2016 Maryland experienced a giant blizzard that dropped over three feet of snow in late January. The wind blew a lot of the snow off the roof, where it met the snow collecting on the deck. While shoveling the deck clear, my shovel hit something hard. I had completely forgotten about the two story …
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