Mountain mint, genus Pycnanthemum, includes several species native to the eastern United States, ranging into the Midwest and lower Canada. Its genus name means “densely flowered,” and while it blooms in July and August it attracts a wide variety of pollinators. This photo is courtesy of Scott Langlais, EAS Master Beekeeper and former President …
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Q Does shaking a frame harm brood? When handling queen cells, we are often warned to be extremely careful with the capped cells in order to avoid causing damage to the developing queen, especially the wing buds. However, we often vigorously shake frames of bees when doing various hive maintenance tasks. Are we harming any …
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It’s the time of year when the bees can swarm their colony to destruction, becoming so weak that small hive beetles and wax moths will consume the combs in the heat of summer. It’s the time of year when a colony can launch multiple swarms, the bees somehow ensuring each swarm has at least one …
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What makes a honey bee colony grow and produce lots of honey? Ask this question to two beekeepers and you’re likely to receive more than two answers. Perhaps dozens. Intuitively, we all know climate, weather, and land use are important. Multi-year droughts (climate) and month-to-month variability in rainfall (weather) each very clearly influence the availability …
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You eat them. Fish eat them. Even birds and frogs eat them. In fact, we all scarf them down like condiments. And when we’re not busy swallowing colorful bits of plastic, we inhale them, sending beads and fragments into the deepest recesses of the human lung.1 From there, some of the smaller particles ride the …
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Processing honey is NOT keeping bees Processing honey is not in the same arena as keeping bees. While it is very true that to get a surplus honey crop, you had to do things like control swarming, restrict mite populations, and help colonies get through the winter, in the bright light of reality, once you …
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More beekeepers are using cold storage to induce brood breaks or ease the summer dearth Beekeepers have been keeping colonies indoors to pass through the depths of winter for over a century. For example, discussions of “cellaring” colonies in the coldest months date back to 1902, when G.M. Doolittle, a beekeeper in New York, wrote …
Read MoreHot Weather Beekeeping Thanks so much for this! This is my first season with bees and your article came at a perfect time [“Hot weather bees and beekeeping,” July]. We are roasting in SW Ohio. Best regards, Krista Taylor Jim Tew responds: Dear Ms. Taylor, I certainly feel your pain. I am in Wooster, …
Read MoreWinter honey bees, compared to newly emerged summer bees, have a better ability to withstand the harmful effects of a widely-used insecticide in pest management, according to a recent study published in Apidologie. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS) researchers from the Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, found winter honey …
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Australia “the only major honey-producing country free from varroa mite,” the most serious pest to honey bees worldwide An emergency biosecurity zone has been imposed to stop the movement of bees across New South Wales after the deadly parasite varroa mite was discovered. The mite was found last week at hives near the Port …
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