THE CLASSROOM Jamie Ellis – 251 BEEKEEPING BASICS Swarm Season Can Help Your Raise Great Queens Tina Sebestyen – 257 Producing Swarm Queens for Fun, Profit, and Really Big Queens Part 1: What we don’t know about swarms Shelley Stuart – 263 The Indiana Queen Breeders Association, Part 1 Jeff Becker – 267 Mysterious Queen …
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Water, please … on the rocks. This month’s cover comes to us from Gavonna Fore of West Plains, Missouri. As the weather warms, our bees will be looking for dependable, safe water sources. Gavonna fills a large rimmed cookie sheet with water, adding smooth rocks for landing spots to keep bees from drowning.
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Colony assessment and assistance I am finishing up my third year as a beekeeper and at age 84 I do not feel like I can count on another 20 or so years to acquire practical experience to become a veteran beekeeper. With that in mind, I have sought to gain “experience” through searching the internet …
Read MoreIn 1873, Moses Quinby, a beekeeper from New York, invented a practical bee smoker, the design we use today. The new design stood upright with the bellows to the side of the fire box (the smoker barrel), and was easy to use with one hand (see Figure 1). Not surprisingly, creative beekeepers offered their modifications …
Read MoreOn a late summer day — October, it was — a bitter breeze nipped my face and slithered beneath my jacket. I shivered. Overhead, an arrogant Steller’s jay threatened, scolding me in a harsh, get-the-heck-outta-here voice. And nearby, in a thicket of western red cedar, a Townsend’s chipmunk caterwauled in a rapid chip, chip, chip …
Read MoreHelping weak colonies — too much review? Maybe I write about this subject too much. After all, we seem to agree that honey bees are not as vibrant as they were a few decades ago, but in life, we seem to forget the bad and remember the good. Am I, and others like me, just …
Read MoreDrones are the underappreciated, but (in)dispensible gift in your hives. They are indispensible in that they are the key to keeping good genetic traits in your colonies and surrounding apiaries. They also seem dispensable, since we humans think that there are always more than we need, and culling the larvae is such a valuable tool …
Read MoreA Beekeeper’s Valentine Like a bee to a flower I come to your bright colors, Your intoxicating scent. I can’t get enough of your sweet nectar, Your abundant pollen covers me completely. I’m all a-buzz in your company. And when I finally leave you, You’ll be the fuller for it, and I, I will carry …
Read MoreWASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) today introduced the Trade Cheating Restitution Act of 2025, legislation that would support American honey producers and producers of other commodities, like crawfish, garlic, and mushrooms, who have been harmed by unfair trade practices, primarily by China. Specifically, the bill would direct U.S. Customs …
Read MoreFour major North American beekeeping organizations released the first-ever North American Bee Strategy (https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/NABS/) this week, a coordinated, continent-wide plan to protect honey bees, strengthen the viability of professional beekeeping, and safeguard food security across the United States and Canada. The strategy is the result of a cross-border collaboration between the American Beekeeping Federation, the …
Read More"I want the American Bee Journal to be the finest publication about bees and beekeeping in the world."
- C.P. Dadant, Editor of ABJ 1912-1938
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