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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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COVID has made me hypervigilant about the slightest tickle in my throat. But even in pre-COVID times, I and pretty much everyone I know had something they would take when they felt that tickle. Green tea, echinacea, garlic, cloves, perhaps a tincture of propolis? Each of these herbal remedies has something in common: They contain …
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The landscape of beekeeping is in flux. Ten years ago, beekeepers were folk heroes, the saviors of our food supply. But since the so-called insect apocalypse began shifting attention to other bees, beekeeping has come under attack. Some keepers are now feeling like pariahs, finding themselves being cross-questioned like criminals. The problem? Native bees. Recently, …
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Homeowners positively impact bees and pollinating insects. We are well aware that our urban bees need more and better food. But most homeowner lawns are largely deserts as they cultivate the “ideal” lush, green carpet meant to draw the admiration of neighbors. The ideal lawn is NOT the bee ideal. An informative Xerces Society 2018 …
Read MoreWhy Not Manage Drone Cells? This letter is about drawing ideal worker combs. Have you ever wondered why bees draw drone cells in our 10-frame equipment where they chose? Some of it is phenology, but most may be how we manage the hives. Are communication gaps found in natural colonies? Or are they the product …
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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 MoreInternational 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"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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