The Beekeeper’s Companion Since 1861
American Bee Journal Volume 166 No. 10 October 2026 Cover Cover Callouts: Apis mellifera, weather girl - 1077, Winter hive ventilation - 1093, 1101, 1105, How does the colony respond to OA? - 1127 Cover shoes a frame of brood with a queen cell and several bees near the center of the frame.

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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Bee Vectoring Technology

Posted December 1, 2021

Bee Vectoring Technology

Using bees to deliver targeted biological control agents to flowers could be the next big thing for precision agriculture Humans have been designing pollination robots since at least the 1990s, but try as we might, so far nature has produced the best pollinators we have. Bees have delicate dexterity, wonderfully small, fuzzy bodies that tickle …

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Colony Usurpation (Takeover): The Fourth Method of Queen Replacement – Part 1

Posted December 1, 2021

Colony Usurpation (Takeover): The Fourth Method of Queen Replacement – Part 1

How many beekeeping books can you recall listing the ways honey bees replace their queen bees? Here is the list: swarming, supersedure, and emergency queen loss. This list needs to be updated now, because for probably about 10-15 years, maybe longer, the bees have had a fourth way to replace a queen (here in the …

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Notes from the Lab – December 2021

Posted December 1, 2021

Notes from the Lab – December 2021

How good are honey bees at pollinating compared to other pollinators?  When I speak with most people about pollination, they talk about honey bees as the prime example of a highly effective pollinator. But this contrasts with the opinion of many scientists. Many of the scientists I speak with consider honey bees to be OK …

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The Spectrum of Bee Sociality

Posted December 1, 2021

The Spectrum of Bee Sociality

When we think of bees, we usually think of social creatures. We often see drawings of bees circling a bulbous nest dangling from a tree. The bees look down at us and scowl or smile, depending on the artist’s worldview. In truth, bees have an enormous range of social behaviors. The eusocial (meaning truly social) …

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Some Final Management for 2021

Posted December 1, 2021

Some Final Management for 2021

December is a good month to look back over the past year and see if our beekeeping objectives were met. How did your bees do? Did you try something new? Did you incorporate a new piece of equipment? Did you get any harvestable surplus or were harvest expectations exceeded? Now is a good time to …

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Letters to the Editor – December 2021

Posted December 1, 2021

Letters to the Editor – December 2021

Hymenoptera   Our yards sounded with a buzz. The four winged creatures below And above. From ants to wasps And of course honey bees too.   If you didn’t disturb them they would Not disturb you! With the Vernal Equinox the seasons changed Spring had sprung and the flowers were   Blooming causing insects to …

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