The Beekeeper’s Companion Since 1861
American Bee Journal Volume 166 No. 5 May 2026 Cover features a close up of a drone bee emerging. Calouts: Do you really need a new queen - 491, AHB in the USA - 523, Where do honey bees mater?-527

How climate, weather, and land use shape colony productivity in the Northcentral U.S.

Posted August 1, 2022

How climate, weather, and land use shape colony productivity in the Northcentral U.S.

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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Are Microplastics Plaguing Our Honey Bees?

Posted August 1, 2022

Are Microplastics Plaguing Our Honey Bees?

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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Harvesting Honey One way or the other

Posted August 1, 2022

Harvesting Honey One way or the other

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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Indoor Storage is for More than Just the Winter

Posted August 1, 2022

Indoor Storage is for More than Just the Winter

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 …

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Letters to the Editor – August 2022

Posted August 1, 2022

Letters to the Editor – August 2022

Hot 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, …

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WINTER HONEY BEES SHOW RESISTANCE TO A COMMON INSECTICIDE

Posted August 1, 2022

WINTER HONEY BEES SHOW RESISTANCE TO A COMMON INSECTICIDE

Winter 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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AUSTRALIAN STATE ISSUES BEE LOCKDOWN AFTER VARROA DISCOVERED

bees on frame
Posted August 1, 2022

AUSTRALIAN STATE ISSUES BEE LOCKDOWN AFTER VARROA DISCOVERED

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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AMERICAN HONEY PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES ANTI-DUMPING WIN

Posted August 1, 2022

AMERICAN HONEY PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES ANTI-DUMPING WIN

On May 9, 2022, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) voted unanimously that U.S. beekeepers producing raw honey were being materially injured by dumped imports of raw honey from Argentina, Brazil, India and Vietnam. This was the last step necessary in the trade case that was filed in April 2021 by the American Honey …

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Contents – August 2022

Posted August 1, 2022

Contents – August 2022

Walking the Walk — Selective Breeding for Mite Resistance; 2022 Update, Part 3: Shifting the Genetics of a Breeding Population Randy Oliver – 869 Colony Confidential … What Really Goes on Inside the Hive Chapter 7: Ant Wars Peter Keilty, with illustrations by Bridget White – 876 My Journey to Regenerative Beekeeping, Part 2 David …

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August 2022 ABJ Cover

ABJ 2022 Cover
Posted August 1, 2022

August 2022 ABJ Cover

Our colorful August cover comes to us from Sandy McMurry-Richey of Mountain Grove, Missouri. Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) is a species of milkweed that is blooming across much of the country this month, attracting a variety of bees, wasps and butterflies with both pollen and nectar.

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