Colony Level Thermoregulation and the Honey Bee Dance Language

Posted February 1, 2016

Colony Level Thermoregulation and the Honey Bee Dance Language

In recent months, I have spent significant time writing about various aspects of the biology of honey bees. The articles included the members of a honey bee colony (June 2015), the components of a honey bee nest (July 2015), the external (August 2015) and internal (September 2015) anatomy of the honey bee, the tasks of …

Posted February 1, 2016

My New Two-Queen Hive Design

It is late fall at this writing. We are already shopping for Christmas and Thanksgiving has arrived. It is a new year and as always we beekeepers are optimistic about the coming prospects of honey production. Maybe you also produce propolis, queens, nucleus colonies or beeswax and candles. We must have hive products to make …

Posted February 1, 2016

February 2016

Surviving without Treatments: Lessons from Wild Bees Leo Sharashkin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …

Posted February 1, 2016

Probiotics and Colony Productivity

My apologies for skipping a month in this colony microbiota series—too much bee work and too many conferences to attend. But before I return to beebread, I’d like to share the results of a related study of my own. Probiotics As we learn more and more about the symbiotic microbial communities that reside in or …

Posted February 1, 2016

February 2016 Cover

Honey bee on an almond blossom. This excellent photo comes to us from photographer Clarke Sutphin of Billings, MT. Clarke took this photo last year during the California almond bloom that occurs in February and March.

Posted January 1, 2016

U.S Honey Crops and Markets – January 2016

UNITED STATES Just as beekeepers over much of the nation settle down to the slower winter months, work has gone into high gear in California as thousands of colonies arrive in the state, adding to the thousands already there that will be used for almond pollination in February and March. Beekeepers will continue to feed …

Posted January 1, 2016

Letters to the Editor – January 2016

Feral Colony Just thought you all might be interested in this. I discovered this in a park down along the Grand River near us in Lansing, MI. If you look closely, there is a hole in the tree above the honey comb. So, maybe the hollow in the tree is full, and they moved their …

Posted January 1, 2016

Camelina Cover Crops a Boon for Bees

Camelina is an herbaceous, yellow-flowering member of the mustard family whose oil-rich seed and cold tolerance has piqued the interest of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists for its potential as both a winter cover crop and biodiesel resource. Now, in the process of studying this plant, scientists with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have …

Posted January 1, 2016

Ancient Bees Gathered Pollen in Two Ways

Were ancient bees specialists, devoting their pollen-collecting attentions to very specific plant partners? Or were they generalists, buzzing around to collect pollen from a variety of flowers in their midst? Researchers who’ve studied an ancient lineage of bees now say in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on November 12 that the answer to both …

Posted January 1, 2016

The First Human Uses of Beeswax Have Been Established in Anatolia in 7000 BCE

The current loss of bee populations as a result of pesticides, viruses and parasites has increased awareness about their economic importance and essential role in farming societies. Our relationship with bees stretches way back before modern farming, which is shown, for example, in various depictions in Ancient Egypt or, going back even further, in the …

Colony Level Thermoregulation and the Honey Bee Dance Language

Posted February 1, 2016