Orientation Day: This is a common sight outside the summer hive, and the beekeeper’ first reaction can sometimes be, “Oh no, robbers!” But in most cases these are just new foragers taking orientation flights — brief sorties outside, beginning just in front of the hive and then at increasing distances — to familiarize themselves with …
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Q: Honey bees in the ground I recently relocated my bee yard, and I noticed a lot of bee activity near the old location. Assuming they were displaced or lost bees, I put a nuc box near the location to collect the lost bees. After five days, I noticed the bee activity did not decrease. …
Read MoreAn explanation may be necessary This past spring, I had a swarm leave one of my hives and cluster about 14 feet up in an old pear tree. I am not a young man anymore, and after trying to climb a ladder, I felt that I was skirting with trouble. It is one of the …
Read MoreMy mistake. For several years, I believed that urban beekeeping — especially rooftop beekeeping — was on the decline. Because urban beekeepers stopped sending me photos and stories of their rooftop adventures, I concluded that urban beekeeping was passé. But when I began researching the reasons for its decline, I stumbled upon the truth. Instead …
Read MoreIn the spring of 2026, I was conducting my annual experiment on bait hives, with the goal of making them more attractive. Briefly, this was the setup: I had seven pairs of bait hives on our property, each consisting of a treatment and a control bait hive (see Figure 1). Early in the spring, days …
Read MoreBeekeepers kill more bees than anyone else in the world. Better habits during inspections can help. Little tricks can make our work more efficient, and it is always nice to be able to accomplish your work without causing trouble for the bees. If using your smoker to calm the bees, use it gently. You are …
Read MoreWait … that’s not demaree! Although never a beekeeper, I have been an ABJ subscriber for over 50 years and every month I find something of interest in the magazine. Tina Sebestyen’s “The Demaree Method of Swarm Control” in the April 2026 issue was very educational. George W. Demaree was my great-great-uncle and thus I …
Read MoreA Producer-Led Path Forward for U.S. Honey The Challenge: U.S. honey producers face suppressed prices, rising costs, and a marketplace flooded with imported and blended products that undermine consumer confidence in domestic honey. What is the initiative? The American Honey Promotion Initiative is a new, producer-led effort to strengthen demand for U.S.-produced honey and create …
Read MoreProject Apis m. began funding beekeeper-approved, applied research 20 years ago. Since then, PAm has also spearheaded programs to put bee forage back on the landscape and provide beekeeper-facing resources and training for emerging problems like Tropilaelaps. We are excited to launch a new program, The Bee Health Regulatory Consortium (BHRC), that is a direct …
Read MoreSummer Reads Rusty Burlew, Dewey M. Caron, Mihaly Hevesi, Alison McAfee, and Tina Sebestyen – 709 THE CLASSROOM Jamie Ellis – 715 BEEKEEPING BASICS Tips and Tricks: Secrets to Better Inspections Tina Sebestyen – 721 Eastern Apicultural Society 2026: Just Weeks Away – 727 Building a More Effective Beekeeping Scholarship Program Jared Malcolm – 729 …
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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