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

Using fewer insecticides improves crop yield by increasing pollination by bees

Pesticides on Crops
Posted January 1, 2022

Using fewer insecticides improves crop yield by increasing pollination by bees

The vast majority of farmers use chemical insecticides to protect their crops against potentially damaging insect pests. This should not be a foreign concept to beekeepers; the majority of beekeepers use miticides to protect their bees against the varroa mite. But how farmers use insecticides varies greatly. Some farmers operate on a schedule, applying insecticides …

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Two Pollination Myths We Love to Believe

Venus Flytrap
Posted January 1, 2022

Two Pollination Myths We Love to Believe

It’s hard to know the truth about anything. At the inception of the internet, we imagined unlimited access to a world of information. The dissemination of knowledge would be boundless, allowing each of us to read and consider multiple viewpoints before drawing our own fact-based conclusions. It sounds like heaven. It used to be that …

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Can Bees Make Funny Honey?

cannabis and honey bees
Posted January 1, 2022

Can Bees Make Funny Honey?

Cannabis is becoming a prevalent crop, but it doesn’t mean your honey will have a buzz I live in British Columbia’s Fraser River delta, surrounded by agricultural land. The usual crops of hay, corn, blueberries, pumpkins, peas, and potatoes abound. But in the last two years, a new plant has made an appearance in the …

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Bees and Trees

Feeding bees
Posted January 1, 2022

Bees and Trees

Early humans were initially hunters/gatherers. This includes the earliest beekeepers who practiced hunting of wild bee nests for their honey and beeswax. Some human cultures continue such traditions today. Dr. Mike Burgett, emeritus professor of Apiculture at Oregon State University, described the dangers to present-day Sundarban honey hunters of the mangrove coastal forests of India/Bangladesh …

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Letters to the Editor – January 2022

Posted January 1, 2022

Letters to the Editor – January 2022

“Easier” OAV Method Not so Easy I found the title of Mike Haney’s article (November 2021), “Making Oxalic Acid Vaporizing Easier,” rather ironic. While I know there are many ways to accomplish the same task, the rather lengthy process he described, complete with 7 photos, seems unnecessarily complex to me. The three main problems he …

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SIZE MATTERS FOR BEE ‘SUPERORGANISM’ COLONIES

Posted January 1, 2022

SIZE MATTERS FOR BEE ‘SUPERORGANISM’ COLONIES

Like neurological systems and human social groups, new research on bees offers clues to how biological collectives make choices under dynamic conditions Scientists have carefully studied the intricacies of how individual organisms live and act together in groups known as biological collectives. In “superorganisms” such as bee colonies, the interactions of the individual members add …

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AS-NEEDED PESTICIDE USE BRINGS WILD BEES, INCREASES WATERMELON YIELD WITHOUT REDUCING CORN PROFITS

watermelon and bees
Posted January 1, 2022

AS-NEEDED PESTICIDE USE BRINGS WILD BEES, INCREASES WATERMELON YIELD WITHOUT REDUCING CORN PROFITS

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Many farmers rent bee hives to pollinate crops, but they could tap into the free labor of wild bees by adopting an as-needed approach to pesticides, a new proof-of-concept study shows. A multiyear study of commercial-scale fields in the Midwest found this approach led to a 95% reduction in pesticide applications, …

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Contents – January 2022

Posted January 1, 2022

Contents – January 2022

Book Reviews: Winter Reads Tina Sebestyen, Thomas Seeley, Eugene Makovec – 31 Intelligent Insects Peter L Borst – 53 Do the Blooms Need the Bees? Self-pollinating Almonds and the New Yorizane M.E.A. McNeil – 69 Observations on Pollen Subs — Part 4: Nectar, Water, and Humidity Randy Oliver – 85 Turfgrass Tyranny: Augusta Syndrome and …

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ABJ Cover January 2022

January 2022 ABJ Cover
Posted January 1, 2022

ABJ Cover January 2022

“It does snow in Texas sometimes!” Our cover photo was sent in by Richard Chapman, who took it last January at his ranch in Rice, just south of Dallas.

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The Classroom – December 2021

The Classroom - ABJ - Jamie Ellis
Posted December 1, 2021

The Classroom – December 2021

Q  Using Api Life Var  How much brood do you expect to see this time of year (September)? I know the bees detest the smell of Api Life Var and that causes some irritability and brood disruption. That said, I only saw a couple of spotty frames of brood in the hives, less than I …

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