The Beekeeper’s Companion Since 1861
Volume 165 No. 12 December 2025 Cover American Bee Journal. Cover features a queen bee surrounded by worker bees. Cover Callouts: Managing pests and pathogens organically - 1321 Stem cells, weeds, and bees - 1337 Lower-energy beekeeping-1343

FORD MOTOR COMPANY SHARES ITS BEEKEEPING EFFORTS WITH “HEROES TO HIVES” TO HELP VETERANS HEAL

Ford Bees
Posted September 1, 2019

FORD MOTOR COMPANY SHARES ITS BEEKEEPING EFFORTS WITH “HEROES TO HIVES” TO HELP VETERANS HEAL

DEARBORN, Mich., July 10, 2019 — Adam Ingrao was a military man. He always knew it, just like his father and his father before him, so he enlisted. But when Ingrao’s military career abruptly ended, he struggled to acclimate back into civilian life. A few years later, he found solace in an unexpected place — …

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U.S. Honey Crops and Markets – September 2019

US Crops and Honey Markets
Posted September 1, 2019

U.S. Honey Crops and Markets – September 2019

We’re still feeling the effects of last winter in much of the country. We’ve been saying for months that all the moisture in the ground portends a good honey crop. Unfortunately for some areas, moisture ON the ground portends crop failure — for both farm crops and honey. Northeast Things dried out in New Hampshire …

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Cultivating an Obsession with Bees

bee
Posted September 1, 2019

Cultivating an Obsession with Bees

I awoke to wind. In the faint moon glow, I could see a chain of poplars silhouetted against the sky, the upper branches tossing and thrashing. Individual trees synchronized into a chorus line, bending with the rhythm of each successive gust. The musky essence of sagebrush reminded me I wasn’t home. Each time I visit …

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Notes from the Lab – September 2019

wild bees and varroa
Posted September 1, 2019

Notes from the Lab – September 2019

If you don’t control varroa, you’re probably making wild bees sick and reducing overall pollinator health in your community. Do you know the Varroa levels in your colonies right now? If you’re like many beekeepers who I interact with, you don’t. And that’s surprising since varroa and its associated viruses are the major driver of …

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The Secrets of Old Homemade Bee Smokers

bee smokers
Posted September 1, 2019

The Secrets of Old Homemade Bee Smokers

In this article, we examine the intriguing details of two homemade bee smokers. In recent years, bee supply catalogs have grown thicker and heavier, from companies offering more equipment and specialty items. Catalog pages were once folded over, producing a thick (calendar) style fold as the spine of the catalog. Now bee suppliers publish catalogs …

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Wasp Woes

yellow jacket
Posted September 1, 2019

Wasp Woes

Yellow jacket wasps are more than just picnic crashers – they also raid beehives, killing off entire colonies. And climate change could be prodding the nest. “How do you tell the difference between a wasp and a bee?” The twelve-year-old girl looked up at me expectantly, proud to be asking me a question that her …

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Getting Ready for Winter

full honey frames
Posted September 1, 2019

Getting Ready for Winter

Our main goal as beekeepers is to help the bees do what they want to do. This is a much more successful paradigm than trying to make the bees do what we want them to do. What the bees are doing right now is preparing for winter. Actually, that is what they have been doing …

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September 2019

Posted September 1, 2019

September 2019

International Honey Market Report: Import Fraud and Adulteration Continue to Undermine the Honey Industry John Phipps – 981 Shelter Science: Overwintering Bees in Extreme Northern Conditions R Micheal Magnini – 1013 Nosemosis: Part 4 of a Series Randy Oliver – 1027 Development Project: Nicaragua Poverty, Unrest and Africanized Bees Kris Fricke – 1035 The Importance …

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September 2019

ABJ September 2019 Cover
Posted September 1, 2019

September 2019

Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) is native to most of the continental United States, often occurring in wetlands or along streams, though it can be grown just about anywhere with not-too-dry soil and full sun or partial shade. It blooms for several weeks in summer and attracts a plethora of pollinators; you can see several tiny, unidentified …

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Apiaries as Part of an Ecosystem of Wildlife

raccoon in apiary
Posted August 1, 2019

Apiaries as Part of an Ecosystem of Wildlife

We see very little of what occurs in our apiaries. During hive inspections, we glimpse some of the inner workings of the colonies. Around our hives, we do not see much either. At night, we witness even less. All of my apiaries are at rural locations. Two apiaries are even by wildlife trails, upping the …

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