We need better tools to diagnose queen failure The queen is special. So special, she is the only bee with the privilege of sporting a bright polka dot, marking her birth year. When we work through a hive, she is the only bee met with an exclamation — “Found her!” — upon spotting. And she …
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Q A Few Questions I am back with a few questions. Now I don’t care if it is a long Jerry answer or a short one but if you know anything about answers I’d appreciate hearing from you. First question, why does sorghum honey ferment when granulating but not otherwise? Second question, does it work …
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Disrupting a single gene causes genetically female embryos to develop as males. There’s a lot more to honey bee sex determination than most of us think. When we were new honey bee enthusiasts, what makes a bee male or female was probably one of the first bee biology facts that we learned: Eggs with one …
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Being able to find the queen is a thrill, every time. Of course, it is not imperative that beekeepers actually lay eyes on the queen each time they inspect their colonies, since the presence of eggs (and young larvae, to a lesser extent) is confirmation that she is present and doing her job. Sometimes, though, …
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The year was 1894 and the American Bee Journal was published weekly (see Figure 1). Fifty-two issues rapidly filled two volumes (33 and 34), the numbers running from one to 26 in each volume. With about 60 pages in midsize format, the publication schedule must have been intense with various submitted articles, more steady column …
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Pollinator declines. We’ve all heard the phrase, but what does it actually mean? I get this question all the time, and the answer is less straightforward than you might think. What evidence is there that these so-called “declines” are occurring? And are they occurring everywhere, or only in some areas with some particular species? These …
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Dogs. Cats. Mice. Your next-door neighbor. What do they all have in common? One answer is a moveable lower jaw. In fact, lots of creatures have one movable jaw — known as a mandible — and one stationary jaw or maxilla. But your bees, along with many other invertebrates, have two movable jaws, both known …
Read MoreUsing petals as ears, the evening primrose sweetens its nectar in minutes when it hears sounds at the frequency of bees’ wing-beats Israeli scientists at Tel Aviv University say they have found a flower that hears the approach of pollinating bees and hawk-moths and produces extra and sweeter nectar in response. Using the evening primrose, …
Read MoreBeekeepers play an important key role in the fight to end the cycle of bee devastation. However, American apiaries are faced with multifaceted challenges. To list a few: Colony Collapse Disorder Lack of lucrative avenues to sell honey Difficult to compete with cheap imports monopolizing the food industry To address these problems, we have created …
Read MoreWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Honeybees play essential roles in pollinating plants that humans and animals rely on for food. Declines in bee populations – including 20 percent of honeybee colonies per year in Indiana – threaten our food supply. Insecticide exposure, loss of flowering plants, and fewer nesting habitats, disease and parasites are all factors. …
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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