The Beekeeper’s Companion Since 1861
Volume 165, No. 9 September 2025 Cover Features a Bee on a pink flower. Callouts: Honey Bee swarms are different - 963, Just what does "Africanized" mean? - 991, The BeeCAUSE Alliance - 1013

ARS-DEVELOPED VARROA-RESISTANT HONEY BEES BETTER WINTER SURVIVORS

Posted June 1, 2022

ARS-DEVELOPED VARROA-RESISTANT HONEY BEES BETTER WINTER SURVIVORS

Baton Rouge, La., April 7, 2022 — Pol-line honey bees, a type of Varroa mite resistant honey bee developed by the Agricultural Research Service, are [much more] likely to survive through the winter than standard honey bees, according to a study published in Scientific Reports at https://www. nature.com/articles/s41598-022-08643-w. Although ARS developed Pol-line bees in 2014, …

Read More

Contents June 2022

Posted June 1, 2022

Contents June 2022

International Honey Market Report Ron Phipps – 607 A Test of Smoker Fuels Jim Berndt – 627 Colony Confidential … What Really Goes on Inside the Hive Chapter 5: A Royal Audience Peter Keilty, with illustrations by Bridget White – 642 Walking the Walk — Selective Breeding for Mite Resistance; 2022 Update, Part 1 Randy …

Read More

ABJ – JUNE Cover

ABJ June Cover
Posted June 1, 2022

ABJ – JUNE Cover

Our adorable cover this month comes from April DeLay of Silver Spring, Maryland. “I am in my second year of beekeeping and have two hives now. My daughter is 6 years old, and we took this photo today while she helped me with a hive check. She wanted to hold the bees because ‘they are …

Read More

The Classroom – May 2022

The Classroom - ABJ - Jamie Ellis
Posted May 1, 2022

The Classroom – May 2022

Q  Do feed supplements work?  Are the various diet supplements for bees (SuperDFM and the various products from Honey-B-Healthy) effective? Has research been done? I cannot find any studies online. Dave Smith Wisconsin, March A Before I answer, I want to make sure and elaborate a bit on what you are asking so that we …

Read More

Historic Comb Foundation Mills

Dunham mill
Posted May 1, 2022

Historic Comb Foundation Mills

Building new frames in the winter, immersed in the pleasant scent of wax from the comb foundation, is when beekeeping renews itself for a new start come spring. On a larger industry level, comb foundation was a crucial invention needed by modern apiculture to abandon the old box hives with fixed combs and fully embrace …

Read More

Soybean yield increases when bee-friendly habitat is located next to fields

soybean field
Posted May 1, 2022

Soybean yield increases when bee-friendly habitat is located next to fields

If you live east of the Rockies, chances are you live within a few miles of a soybean field. After corn, which covers 92.7 million acres in the United States, soybean fields cover the most land of any agricultural crop — 87.6 million acres. Soybean fields are a ubiquitous part of the landscapes that many …

Read More

The Honey Bee’s Amazing Inability to Sonicate

honey bee on flower
Posted May 1, 2022

The Honey Bee’s Amazing Inability to Sonicate

Roughly eighty-nine percent of flowering plants need animal assistance for ideal pollination. Oddly, about eight percent of those needy plants make the process as difficult as possible. This strange minority hides its pollen in protective capsules that keep most pollinators at bay. Eight percent may sound like a paltry number until you realize it’s about …

Read More

Repeated Summer Oxalic Acid Treatments are Not as Effective as You Think

Oxalic Acid Treatments
Posted May 1, 2022

Repeated Summer Oxalic Acid Treatments are Not as Effective as You Think

New research shows that applying oxalic acid vapor in the brooding season is a preventative measure, at best — if you stick to the label rate Since its approval for use in Canada in 2005 and the U.S. in 2015, oxalic acid has become a standard method of varroa management. Though widely known to be …

Read More

Swarm Basics, Part 2: Can We Control Swarming?

honey bee swarm
Posted May 1, 2022

Swarm Basics, Part 2: Can We Control Swarming?

The behavior of swarming is probably one of the most dramatic occurrences in the life of a bee colony. And also, for the beekeeper. Wally Shaw, 34-year Welsh beekeeper in Anglesey, Wales, a retired research ecologist and author of numerous BeeCraft articles and a 200-page paperback “Swarming-Biology and Control,” echoes the sentiment of many: “There …

Read More

Letters to the Editor – May 2022

beehive deadout
Posted May 1, 2022

Letters to the Editor – May 2022

Deadout Caused by Mite Treatment? Note to Dewey Caron: Your article in March ABJ (page 262), the picture of “Spring deadout.” You didn’t mention why they died. I noticed the dead bees were out along their walls and I noticed the mite strip. It brought memories of the first year I had bees. A beekeeper …

Read More

VIEW SITE MAP