How a Nobel Prize in Physiology Influences Tomorrow’s Varroa Control

Posted January 1, 2018

How a Nobel Prize in Physiology Influences Tomorrow’s Varroa Control

Every 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 …

Posted January 1, 2018

More Usurpation: Colony Take-Over by Summer Swarms

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 …

Posted January 1, 2018

Enigmatic Cape Bee

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 …

Posted January 1, 2018

January 2018

International 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 …

Posted January 1, 2018

January 2018 ABJ Cover

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 …

Posted December 1, 2017

Letters to the Editor – December 2017

First Year Beekeepers Hello: My husband and I are first year beekeepers. We live in the Washington, DC area and have a weekend place in West Virginia. We set up two beehives in the spring of 2017 at our place in WV. There’s a small stream nearby and more wildflowers all spring, summer and fall …

Posted December 1, 2017

The Classroom – December 2017

Q Ventilation I’ve made a Lang hive ventilator. I stapled a plastic queen excluder to prevent the hardware cloth from sagging. I then put a layer of thin burlap, then shavings. The frame has holes drilled with screen on them. I’m having a tough decision on one thing. Do I put my ventilator on top …

Posted December 1, 2017

LURING HORNETS: SCIENTISTS UNLOCK SEX PHEROMONE OF NOTORIOUS HONEY BEE PREDATOR

Traps baited with synthetic pheromone could become solution to invasive Asian hornet Over the past decade, Asian hornets, predatory insects with a widespread and expanding population, have invaded parts of Europe and Korea. Vespa velutina has a growing reputation as a species that proliferates rapidly, preys on honey bees and poses risks to humans. Now …

Posted December 1, 2017

COAL MINERS SHIFT TO BEEKEEPING

University of Delaware researcher helps establish socioeconomic growth program for displaced miners in West Virginia University of Delaware Former coal miners or citizens whose lives have been shaped by the coal mining industry in southern West Virginia spent their summer learning how to establish and operate bee colonies thanks to help from the University of …

Posted December 1, 2017

Honey’s Magical Power: Four Ways to Slay Microbes

You’ve heard the rumors, right? Honey never goes bad, it’s been found in Egyptian tombs ready to eat, and it’s the only cure for some antibiotic-resistant bacteria. You may wonder if any of this is true, and if so, why. Let’s look at some of the details. Since the beginning of recorded history, honey has …

How a Nobel Prize in Physiology Influences Tomorrow’s Varroa Control

Posted January 1, 2018