Letters to the Editor – April 2024

Posted April 1, 2024

Letters to the Editor – April 2024

Plastic Beehives Plastic beehives, particularly polystyrene beehives, are, and should be, anathema. Polystyrene, especially expanded polystyrene, is subject to fragmentation into breakdown products that include microparticles and nanoparticles that, in turn, absorb microorganisms and toxins thus increasing their impact when ingested. Scientific Reports (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-64464-9), “Potential toxicity of polystyrene microplastic particles”: “Direct contact with microplastic particles …

Wisconsin 2024 Honey Queen: Queen Sadie Goettl

Posted April 1, 2024

WISCONSIN HONEY QUEEN

The Wisconsin Honey Producers Association is proud to announce that of Berlin, Wisconsin was selected as the 2024 Wisconsin Honey Queen. Sadie is the daughter of Tammy and Tony Goettl. A graduate of Berlin High School, Sadie is a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studying Agricultural Business Management and Communications Arts, with certificates in …

Posted April 1, 2024

BEES FOR DEVELOPMENT HELPS BEEKEEPERS NURTURE TREES

The Bees for Development Green Match campaign emerges as a beacon of hope in the face of the devastating consequences of deforestation that lead to soil erosion, land degradation, and severe hardships for local communities in Zimbabwe. Bees for Development proposes the powerful solution of beekeeping. Inextricably linked, bees and trees create a relationship that …

Posted April 1, 2024

EUROPEAN BEEKEEPING ASSOCIATION ESTABLISHED, TO BE HEADQUARTERED IN SLOVENIA

Submitted by Mihaly Hevesi The European Beekeeping Association was established on February 10 in Belgrade during the XV State Beekeeping Fair. Twenty-six European beekeeping associations joined the association, with 18 of them represented at the founding assembly. Additionally, two observers attended from Germany and Ukraine. Biljana Tomić, the Technical Secretary of EBA, led the founding …

Posted April 1, 2024

Contents-April 2024

Book Reviews: Spring Reads Dewey M. Caron, Tina Sebestyen, David Shimo – 353 Division of Labor in a Colony: Who does What? Part 2: Adulthood and old age Kayla deJong – 373 The Elephant and the EPA Randy Oliver – 379 Research Lab Spotlight: The University of Minnesota Bee Lab Alison McAfee – 385 What …

ABJ April Cover 2024 - Honey comb with bee larava

Posted April 1, 2024

ABJ APRIL 2024 COVER

A candle to spring: Here is a typical early-spring scene. A young Caucasian queen (reared last summer) has been laying in every empty cell she can find – and one not-quite-empty one, where an egg stands like a candle wick on a vivid base of henbit pollen. Timothy Williams took this photo February 25 at …

Posted March 1, 2024

Bees & Beekeeping: Past & Present – March 2024 The Dangerous Lives of Foraging Bees: Part 1

Away from the protection of the hive, foraging bees suffer a dreadfully high death rate. The various fates of the bees are not often photographed in a collection and shown to the beekeeping public. From photographs saved in various dedicated folders since 1998 (on a succession of hard drives), we will see how bees died …

Posted March 1, 2024

The Classroom – March 2024

Q Bees chewing wood I have had a weird behavior in which I am not sure what the bees are doing. Hopefully you can see from this picture (Figure 1), the bees are chewing the woodenware along the inside edge. I have seen this once or twice before. This particular box is new woodenware and has …

Posted March 1, 2024

Notes from the Lab – March 2024

New bee-friendly restrictions on neonicotinoid insecticides in New York … and a barrier to further progress on this topic in the USA In the two previous Notes from the Lab column, I focused on the scientific evidence that pesticides are currently harming bees, and specific ways in which the current pesticide risk assessment process overseen …

Posted March 1, 2024

Beekeeping Basics – March 2024 Good, Old-fashioned Spring Cleaning — with a Lye Bath

I had a good laugh last month when I looked at the calendar and saw the most horrible winter weather forecasts I’ve seen in a decade. The joke was on me — here, I had been writing about “mild winters” and “Super El Nino,” banking on unseasonably warm weather like it was a sure thing. …

Letters to the Editor – April 2024

Posted April 1, 2024