From the author: For the next few months, I look forward to contributing both written and photographic information here that relates to beekeeping — plain and simple. That will be a challenge for me because many beekeeping techniques are anything but plain and simple. In this column, I promise I will do my best to …
Read More
As a pre-teen with a fondness for Nancy Drew mysteries, I developed a taste for hidden messages. I’d see them everywhere, written in puffy clouds or in raindrops sluicing down a windshield. But binomial species names were my favorite, filled with secrets. Why people didn’t like these pompous-sounding appellations, I couldn’t understand. After all, who …
Read More
Harmful pesticide exposures during crop pollination come from beyond the farm As I write this, it’s currently pollination season throughout the northern U.S., which means lots of beekeepers are bringing lots of bees to lots of farms. In New York, pollination is worth ~$400 million per year to the state’s fruit and vegetable farmers. In …
Read More
With the heat of the summer comes increased trouble from small hive beetles in areas where they have become a problem, particularly in the Southeast. For new beekeepers, they need to know the life history of small hive beetles early on to avoid their destructive consequences. Let’s begin with identification. Small hive beetle eggs are …
Read More
The City of Bee Cave’s inaugural Books and Bees Festival took place on April 30th, and was an instant success with children and adults alike. Pollinator education was the order of the day, with a live honey bee demonstration, beekeeping-themed games and wildflower giveaways providing fun and pollinator awareness in equal measure. The city would …
Read MoreBook Reviews: Summer Reads Carol Hrusovszky, Alison McAfee, Tina Sebestyen and M.E.A. McNeil – 729 Walking the Walk — Selective Breeding for Mite Resistance; 2022 Update, Part 2: Mite Resistance and Genetic Expression Randy Oliver – 755 Colony Confidential … What Really Goes on Inside the Hive Chapter 6: Family Tree Peter Keilty, with illustrations …
Read More
Our cover this month comes courtesy of Trent Wheeler, of Buckley, Washington. “I planted an area of about 40×10 with a pollinator, wildflower mix in 2018. They are mostly bachelor buttons. The bachelor buttons came back the strongest” in 2019, but since that time “the California poppies have especially thrived. … The only thing …
Read More
Q Ideal hive entrance size [Using a standard entrance reducer], I keep [my hive entrances] at the smallest entrance throughout the season to help in defense and to replicate natural bee tree openings (Figure 1). My teaching partner opens his hives to the maximum [size] to make it easier for foragers and to help …
Read More
One of my main endeavors in reconstructing American apicultural history has been to find from long ago a beekeeper’s original equipment (a beehive, smoker, honey extractor, comb foundation mill, etc.) Concurrent with the equipment search, I am constantly hunting for old apicultural literature, particularly any explanatory literature published by the beekeepers who made any equipment …
Read More
Honey bees and bumble bees are very different creatures, and we need more research on bumble bee biology to support threatened populations When two live bumble bee colonies showed up on my lab bench this spring, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting myself into. Having never worked with bumble bees before, aside …
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
THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL
51 S. 2nd St., Hamilton, IL 62341
Phone: 217.847.3324
Fax: 217.847.3660
info@americanbeejournal.com
©2026 Copyright the American Bee Journal. All Rights Reserved.
website developed by CleverOgre
