Almond growers have a lot of inputs to consider to produce their crop. They must balance the cost of labor, pest management, water, and bees for pollination. Those costs are not fixed year-after-year, especially renting the bees. The fact is the cost of colony rentals for pollination has steadily increased, and remained at a premium. …
Read MoreAlmond Pollination: When is the best time to remove hives? Elizabeth Frost – 1203 Fire Siege: Tragic losses for beekeepers M.E.A. McNeil – 1223 Mite Control While Honey is on the Hive, Part 1 Randy Oliver – 1231 Beekeeping in the United States: Samuel Wagner and the American Bee Journal Peter L Borst – 1241 …
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Joan Fox took our cover photo of a sow thistle in Tucson, Arizona. “I know bees and other pollinators love flowers with that simple wide-open shape,” she says. “You probably know sow thistle is a nutritious, edible dandelion family member. Yes, I eat the leaves in salads (arugula lettuce, black pepper, olive oil) — I …
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Q Uncapped honey? In a perfect world, the frames of honey removed would be filled, capped and ready for the extractor; but at the end of the season, one gets partially capped frames. If the honey does not pass the refractometer test, how does one cure or age the honey and how long? Note — we …
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This series of queen introduction articles grew from time with observation hives, watching the fluctuation in the number of bees balling on the screen of the queen cages, and later on, even watching the queens and attendant bees inside the cages. Figure 1 shows a queen inside her introduction cage –– in the moment of …
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Most readers of this column probably know how important bees are for pollinating crops and contributing to global food production. For example, I’m sure everyone has heard that one out of three bites of food we eat is dependent on pollinating insects. But how often aren’t there enough bees to pollinate those delicious fruits and …
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Biosecurity is a set of preventative measures designed to reduce the risks of infectious disease transmission to and among livestock. It means doing everything you can to reduce the chances of an infectious disease being carried onto your farm/property by people, animals, equipment or vehicles. Biosecurity is a key part of raising livestock, and most …
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Why do people keep bees? These days, it seems that honey has nothing to do with it. “I don’t care about the honey,” they say with conviction. Instead, they cite a desire to pollinate their gardens or save the bees. Maybe that’s true for some. Others, I think, just want to look cool or intimidate …
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RAISED IN A BEE FAMILY Some kids are born with a silver spoon in their mouth, others are born with a hive tool in their hand. Mine are definitely the latter. We recently culled queen cells and left one out on our porch. Nate, my 4-year-old, found it and opened the queen cell to discover …
Read MoreIn recent years, the notion of an insect apocalypse has become a hot topic in the conservation science community and has captured the public’s attention. Scientists who warn that this catastrophe is unfolding assert that arthropods – a large category of invertebrates that includes insects – are rapidly declining, perhaps signaling a general collapse of …
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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