PESTICIDE PROGRAM UPDATE: EPA OFFERS WEBINARS ON POLLINATOR HEALTH AND HABITAT

Posted May 1, 2020

PESTICIDE PROGRAM UPDATE: EPA OFFERS WEBINARS ON POLLINATOR HEALTH AND HABITAT

Beginning in March 2020, EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs began hosting a series of public webinars highlighting ongoing work to promote pollinator health and habitat. These webinars seek to increase awareness of the evolving science on pollinator health, promote efforts to improve pollinator habitat, and engage stakeholders in addressing factors associated with declines in pollinator …

Posted May 1, 2020

USDA ANNOUNCES UPDATES FOR HONEY BEE PRODUCERS

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2020 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) today announced updates to the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP). These updates include changes required by the 2018 Farm Bill as well as discretionary changes intended to improve the administration of the program and clarify existing …

Posted May 1, 2020

May 2020

Coming to America: Honey Bees in the New World — Part 2 Peter L. Borst – 515 Re-evaluating Varroa Monitoring — Part 3 Randy Oliver – 525 Mind Your Own Beeswax: Let’s Talk About Synthetic Comb John Rintoul 531 Queen Rearing in Smaller Operations Tina Sebestyen – 533 Up on the Roof: Keeping Bees on …

Posted May 1, 2020

May 2020 Cover

Happy Day Bees: Trent Wheeler took this photo last spring in Buckley, Washington. “I got this shot of my Italians having a happy day,” he says. “The blackberry flow was just getting into full swing.”

Posted April 1, 2020

The Classroom – April 2020

Email Questions to Jamie at classroom@americanbeejournal.com Follow my lab on social media: Facebook Twitter Instagram Q The Crud What is the best course of action for crud as far as treating the colony and re-using the comb? Thank you Eric Joswig Florida, December A First, let me define the “crud” briefly for the reader. The crud is a …

Posted April 1, 2020

Comb Building: Watch Out for Wrong Turns

With the approach of spring, let’s examine some various aspects of comb construction, ending with an example of straight combs destroyed. My top-bar hives and frame hives will provide a wide selection of comb-building situations. Sometimes comb construction records a nectar flow. In Figure 1, we see a small piece of burr comb. Figure 2 …

Posted April 1, 2020

Engineered gut microbes combat varroa and DWV in honey bees

Varroa mites. Viruses. For the past several decades, beekeepers have sought to protect their colonies from these two ubiquitous threats that often come together. Not only do varroa mites weaken individual bees by feeding on their fat bodies, they also transmit diseases such as Deformed Wing Virus (DWV). As everyone reading this column knows, unfortunately …

Posted April 1, 2020

Have Honey Bee Researchers Really Been Corrupted by Industry Dollars?

Wannabe whistleblowers believe that funding from the agrochemical industry invalidates research, but this view is overblown If Bayer offered me $1 million to start a research program, would I take it? If I accepted the funds, my hypothetical laboratory would have years of prosperity. But if the results of my research happened to favor the …

Posted April 1, 2020

The Curious Beekeeper

After months of study, you finally take the plunge and buy your very first wooden hive. You sand the sweet-smelling boards until they feel like silk beneath your fingers. You browse the paint aisle of your local home improvement store and spend far too much money, buying colors that spark your imagination, colors with names …

Posted April 1, 2020

Letters to the Editor – April 2020

The thermal mite Treatment Concerns It was with great interest that I read Ali McAfee’s article in the January edition concerning thermal varroa mite treatment. I am a small beekeeper running an average of 10 to 15 hives. I am in my 8th year of beekeeping and have fought all the issues facing our honeybees. …

PESTICIDE PROGRAM UPDATE: EPA OFFERS WEBINARS ON POLLINATOR HEALTH AND HABITAT

Posted May 1, 2020