Before the bee smoker, beekeepers tried various devices to gain control over the bees while checking the status of the colony. Figure 1 shows an example, and also the hardship beekeepers once endured, with uncontrolled smoke. This large smudge pot hung on the windward side of the hive at top-bar level. The smoke would waft …
Read MoreHigh on the must-know list for a beginning beekeeper is how to read a proper comb pattern. Pull out a brood comb from the middle of a hive body and it will look something like this: a concentric series with brood in the middle, an arc of pollen above it, and the rest of the …
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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 …
Read MoreIt 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 …
Read MoreSurviving without Treatments: Lessons from Wild Bees Leo Sharashkin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …
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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 …
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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.
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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 …
Read MoreFeral 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 …
Read MoreCamelina 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 …
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