The Beekeeper’s Companion Since 1861
American Bee Journal Volume 166 No. 4 April 2026 Cover features children's art work depicting honey bees. Callouts: Reduce Supersedure in Packages - 443, Why the hexagon - 419, Educating the Future - 403

U.S. Honey Crops and Markets – May 2016

US Crops and Honey Markets
Posted May 1, 2016

U.S. Honey Crops and Markets – May 2016

The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service published their U.S. and state honey crop production estimates for 2015 in late March. They estimated that U.S. honey production fell 12 percent in 2015. It is notable that honey production fell in almost every large honey production state which includes North Dakota, South Dakota, California, Florida, Montana and …

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How to Protect Bees from Pesticides

Read the Label
Posted May 1, 2016

How to Protect Bees from Pesticides

The University of Georgia, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences states: “For fruit or nut bearing crops, pollination can be a grower’s last chance to increase yield. All post pollination inputs, whether growth regulators, herbicides, fungicides, or insecticides, are generally designed not to increase yield but to conserve losses.” AgriCultures Network writes in “Managing for …

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May 2016 Cover

ABJ MAY 2016
Posted May 1, 2016

May 2016 Cover

Michael LaSpina took this wonderful photo of a honey bee in his yard in Northern California.  The flower is a Crepe-Myrtle variety known as Prairie Malus. Michael said that the bees love it!

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May 2016

Posted May 1, 2016

May 2016

U.S. Honey Production Down 12 Percent in 2015 National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA……………………………………………..513 Big and Small Things to Learn from an Observation Hive, or Something to Build This Season Tina Sebestyen…………………………………………………………………………………533 Fungal Alliances Against Varroa and the Viruses They Vector M.E.A. McNeil…………………………………………………………………………………541 How to Become a Beekeeper (The Not-so-Straightforward Way): Part II—Conclusion William Blomstedt…………………………………………………………………………….553 A …

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How to Make Covers for My Two-Queen Horizontal Hive

Two-Queen Horizontal Hive Covers
Posted May 1, 2016

How to Make Covers for My Two-Queen Horizontal Hive

It has been busy this spring, thinking about how to cover my Two-queen Horizontal bee hive. First, the inner covers are to be considered. When the two-queen horizontal hive is in use, the queens must be separated by a queen excluder. The queen excluder separates the two queens while allowing the workers from both colonies …

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Mitigating the Potential threat Your Bees and Beekeeping Activities Pose to Other People

Threat bee swarms pose to people
Posted May 1, 2016

Mitigating the Potential threat Your Bees and Beekeeping Activities Pose to Other People

I started keeping bees when I was 12, roughly 26 years ago. When I first started keeping bees, I was very proud of my colonies and wanted to show them off to everyone. People from my church or my grandparents’ neighbors (I kept my bees on my grandparents’ farm) would stop by while I worked …

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Hyperpolyandry

Hyperpolyandry
Posted May 1, 2016

Hyperpolyandry

Last month I talked about the queen’s habit of mating with many males, storing their sperm, and using that sperm to produce daughters that are genetically diverse. This habit of multiple mating is called polyandry which, if one recalls one’s Greek means poly-many, andry-males. The opposite of this polygyny – many females, which in social …

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Meet a Bee Hunter from History

The Bee Hunter
Posted May 1, 2016

Meet a Bee Hunter from History

The Bee-Keepers Journal and National Agriculturist for the Apiary, Farm and Fireside promised a big engraved picture with every issue, right under the banner of the newspaper. The July 1870 issue showed a rough figure from American lore, legendary now, a reality back then. Overall, he was rarely illustrated or photographed. He was a bee …

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Family Convolvulaceae – The Morning Glory Family

Convolvulaceae - The Morning Glory Family
Posted May 1, 2016

Family Convolvulaceae – The Morning Glory Family

Family Convolvulaceae—The Morning -glory Family The Convolvulaceae consists of twining herbs, trees and shrubs. The family is made up of about 50 genera and between 1400-1650 species. Because of its variability the family is a little messy to deal with. Most of the trees and shrubs don’t occur in North America and are therefore of …

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Master Beekeepers Survey

University of Montana
Posted May 1, 2016

Master Beekeepers Survey

Hello All Beekeepers, We need your help. We are in our final class in Master Beekeeping at the University of Montana. We are conducting a research project to determine the current trends in beekeeping and styles of colony care. Please take this 5 min survey so that we can record your preferences. Please also answer …

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