APIVAR 2.0: A NEW WEAPON AGAINST VARROA MITES SOON AVAILABLE IN THE USA!

Posted July 1, 2025

APIVAR 2.0: A NEW WEAPON AGAINST VARROA MITES SOON AVAILABLE IN THE USA!

by Véto-pharma On January 10, 2025, the EPA officially granted federal authorization for Apivar 2.0, a new amitraz-based slow-release treatment. State registration will follow according to the usual calendar. Apivar 2.0, as its name indicates, is the new generation of Apivar, a well-known varroa mite treatment that has helped millions of beekeepers across the globe …

Posted July 1, 2025

Contents – July 2025

Summer Reads Rusty Burlew. Carol Hrusovszky, Dewey M. Caron, Tina Sebestyen – 723 Alfalfa Leafcutter Bee Producers Need New Pest Treatment Options Alison McAfee – 739 The Pollen Frame – The making of an award-winning “Bee Bread” display Richard Dunnagan – 746 The Shift Toward Bioacaricides Randy Oliver – 751 Fast Food: Tear-drinking Bees in …

American Bee Journal Volume 165 No. 7 July 2025 Alfalfa Leafcutter bee on a thistle. Callouts: Splitting in July - 735, Leafcutter Bees Need Help, Too - 739, The Shift Toward Bioacaricides - 751

Posted July 1, 2025

ABJ JULY 2025 COVER

It’s been over six years (see April 2019) since we’ve run a non-honey bee on our cover, but this alfalfa leafcutter really caught our eye. It was provided by Shelley Hoover and Lynae Ovinge of Lethbridge, Alberta (Canada), to accompany Ali McAfee’s story about these bees, whose importance to the alfalfa and canola pollination is …

Posted June 1, 2025

The Classroom – June 2025

Q: Methane bio-digester I am a hobbyist beekeeper and live in Missouri. [A renewable-energy company] is building a methane bio-digester plant about one-eighth mile (0.2 km) from my home. Right now, I have four hives at my home. I am wondering if you have ever heard of the effects of hydrogen sulfide on bees. I …

Posted June 1, 2025

NOTES FROM THE LAB

Scott McArt’s column is temporarily on pause.

The 18882 cover of the "Sunny Side Apiary" Catalog featuring the "Old Reliable Hive" from the backside.

Posted June 1, 2025

The Diversity of Beehives in an 1882 Historic Bee Supply Catalog

With my historical apicultural work, sometimes I document the existence of old hives from supply catalogs, which is evidence they were actually sold and became a working part of our history, even if locally for a brief time. Beehive patents are an important information source too. For me, they have a theoretical component, telling me …

Posted June 1, 2025

Pollination Beyond the Plate: The Ladies of Industy

Soon after the phrase “colony collapse disorder” appeared in the press, Americans became obsessed with honey bees and the human food supply. We like to discuss how many mouthfuls of food our bees pollinate and how fast we would starve without them. It’s true that much of our diet — shuffled around the globe in …

Posted June 1, 2025

Wiring Beeswax Foundation — (Apparently) Far From a Lost Beekeeping Procedure

I didn’t see this one coming Yes, I was blindsided by your responses to my recent article where I asked if any of you were still wiring and embedding the foundation in your frames. In a footnote, in the March 2025 issue of this magazine, I wrote: Personally, I wonder how many of you still …

Two beekeepers stand ext to a open hive inspecting a frame of bees.

Posted June 1, 2025

Wellness Checks for June

Bees don’t need a calendar to tell them that summer has arrived. The air is filled with the hum of bees leaving and arriving at hive entrances. Bees work from early morning to sundown, and are so busy that inspections can be done with little worry about angering them. It is after the nectar flow …

Posted June 1, 2025

Letters to the Editor – June 2025

Who lands first in a swarm? I was delighted to read Frank Linton’s article on bivouac traps, something I had not heard of, though I was not completely surprised given its long European history. I’m going to try it, and right now, it’s time! One question, or rather clarification — though swarms often choose the …

APIVAR 2.0: A NEW WEAPON AGAINST VARROA MITES SOON AVAILABLE IN THE USA!

Posted July 1, 2025