Q: Bee and bananas?
I am a fan of Charles Linder and admire his tenacity in finding solutions and actually acting on them in the industry. He should be commended! He wrote an article “Into the New Year” in the ABJ January 2026 issue in which he briefly referenced bananas. I believe he implied bananas were to be used as a supplement to feed bees, rather than protein patties. The article was not clear, so I am guessing and would like clarification if this is what he was, in fact, referring to. If so, is it actually a viable solution?
He states: “I also heard all summer again about bananas. … Funny, a bunch of commercial guys are even trying them. … So here I am at Walmart. … Ordered six boxes of bananas. … Three thousand hives getting half a banana. Am I losing it?”
I do not want to sound like I am bananas, but is this for real? Is Charles saying he is feeding his bees bananas? And if so, how? Does he peel them? Any details about bananas in terms of what and how Charles is using them would be appreciated. And perhaps if you know him, you can get the results of his use of six boxes of bananas for three thousand hives getting half a banana? And lastly, does the honey derived from this have a banana overtone? Banana honey sounds delicious.
Sadie Bart-Simpson
Florida, January
Answer
I reached out to Charles directly, and I passed your question to him. He graciously provided his response, which I include here:
From Charles:
It’s a great question actually, and I owe readers a better explanation! We do feed pollen subs[titutes] in the fall. The bananas were added simply as a trial. In the last few years, I have seen many reports of bees doing well after feeding them. To the best of my knowledge there is ZERO science involved to date.
That said, several of my friends have been swearing they see a change in the bees after feeding them. After spending months studying what we know about bee nutrition, I realized there is much we don’t know also. The idea that there are some essential vitamins in bananas is not real farfetched. When I did the math, I realized it was a pretty cheap test to run. Having a lot of hives makes a bit of experiments pretty simple. The math was easy: At 19 cents, if it made one in 1000 make grade it was a wash. Any more is a perk. Bananas are mostly simple carb[ohydrates], and it seems small hive beetles don’t care for them, so it was worth a shot. As for technique, we simply cut them lengthways and put them under the lids. Bees cleaned them out in short order sans a few pieces of stem they ignored.
As for results? Inconclusive at best. No harm it seems, but no smashing victories either. Maybe just a bit of desperation? It still baffles me we can grow and ship them to us for almost nothing! Far cheaper than pollen patties or sugar to be honest.
Now my thoughts: I think the key statement in Charles’s answer is that he saw no changes in the colonies fed the bananas (the whole “inconclusive at best” statement). That said, I did manage to find research studies in which the investigators fed banana paste, pieces, fruit pulp, peel extract, and/or syrup to colonies. This seems to be a practice in Africa. To help you get to those papers, I went to Google (Google.com) > Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/) > Labs (top left corner) > “Is there any research on feeding whole bananas to honey bee colonies?” (This is the question I typed in the search box.).
The summaries of the manuscripts selected following this roadmap were interesting, yet I found them to be pretty speculative. I am left to give a standard Jamie answer, i.e., that more research is needed before this becomes a management strategy I can recommend.
Given my experience with pollen substitutes in general, I would recommend not feeding bananas to bees. I mean, it does not seem to hurt anything, but without more conclusive testing, it could still be a waste of money.
Q: Thoughts on AI
Hi Jamie, I just read your response to a question regarding Large Language Models (LLMs) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the June ABJ, page 600. I know many people are skeptical of AI, some even fear it. I was skeptical after hearing negative things.
In December 2025/January 2026, I found tremendous numbers of dead Varroa while oxalic acid vaporizing my seven colonies. After about 4-5 rounds, I presented my numbers to two of my mentors without any response. I decided to try Microsoft’s Copilot and presented the same information and got a response in 1-2 seconds that totally analyzed my situation and gave me hope. Since then, I have been using it extensively managing my apiary. I get instantaneous answers any time of the day or night.
For instance, I wanted to move a hive 10-15 feet (3.8 to 4.6 m). Copilot said to do it at night, the bees would orient to the new location in the morning. I told one of my mentors, who was pushing for the 2-feet (0.6 m) at-a-time method. When I told her what Copilot suggested, she said, “Who are you going to believe? The textbooks or a computer?” I told Copilot what she said. Copilot said, “She has only her lifetime of accumulated knowledge to rely on. I have access to thousands of lifetimes to gather information from.”
I have a hard time differentiating between swarm/emergency/supersedure cells. If I see queen cells in spring, the first thing I think is “Swarm!” But when I described the situation to Copilot, it said they were supersedure cells.
Even though I am in my ninth season and feel I have a decent grasp on things, after I do an inspection, I will tell Copilot the results and receive an accurate analysis. I just installed four Golden West queens (GWQs) in four colonies. Copilot laid out a timeline for queen-release check, egg check, brood pattern to watch for, when each colony should be stabilized, and how the GWQs should perform.
It is not perfect. Sometimes it assumes something incorrectly or will forget something even though it maintains a memory of what I have told it. However, it is still a valuable assistant.
Bob Hawley
Oregon, June
Answer
I love your comments about AI. This is a delicate topic. Some folks love AI, while others are indifferent, leery, or even afraid of AI. Every time I mention AI to someone who has significant experience with it, they remind me that it is a “tool.” I hear that all the time. AI is a “tool,” and this implies it is here to help us accomplish something.
In fact, it is here to help us accomplish a lot. My wife and kids use AI and LLMs all the time — like, all the time. They use it for recipes, deciding between colleges, asking about requirements for new driver’s licenses, when best to water orchids, etc. The list goes on, and on, and on, with no end in sight.
As you reference, I used AI in my April 2026 article to compare AI’s answers to reader questions to my answers to the same questions. Both sets of answers were eerily close. I discussed it again in response to a reader’s question in my June 2026 article. Ultimately, we live in the age of AI. It is not going away, or at least it does not seem to be going away any time in the near future. I use it increasingly more by the week and I find it to be incredibly useful. I also read prolifically and see considerable print material that appears AI-generated. It is everywhere and it passes across my desk, sourced by others, all the time.
I, for one, am eager to embrace what AI brings to the table. I am constantly trying to think of ways to integrate it into my research and extension programs. I love how you use it. Essentially, you are feeding it real-time data, and it is giving you a real-time analysis. Of course, it could be wrong, but so can I! I find AI to be really good at getting to answers that I typically would have provided. However, I cannot process big datasets in my mind. I cannot compare those to the thousands or millions of resources available. Also, I am not in the apiary with you, inspecting your bees, ready to provide an answer on a moment’s notice.
But AI can do all these things. It can be there with you and process the information you provide quickly and mostly reliably. AI is only going to get better over time. Even if it has glitches now, those glitches will fade as AI gains more information and becomes more capable at processing and answering the questions we ask it. I realize this sounds scary to many (“The Terminator,” anyone?), but I look forward to increasing my use of AI.
Q: Mite-resistant bees in Australia
You will have noted that my question is the same as the one Keith Anderson put in the March 2026 issue … with one difference … I am in Australia, indeed the subtropics of this large continent. Varroa arrived a couple of years ago and has hit us hard in the last year.
A bit of a background: We never have a natural brood break. We can have our major honey flows at any time of the year. Indeed, winter can be a very productive time. Due to mismanagement or bad luck, the mites have already built resistance to Bayvarol [flumethrin, a pyretroid] (which I was planning to use when the second wave was hitting us) and amitraz (which I would not use anyway). We have very few legal tools available to us. Currently we use oxalic acid as a vapor every week. We have been able to hold mite numbers below 10 in a wash. We have access to Aluen CAP [slow-release oxalic acid] and have used the strips with mixed results.
I am close to 80. Lifting hives is very challenging now. I have been selecting queens from the best hives for very many years, but selection has been mostly on production, not mite resistance. It is impossible for me to test every hive for mites to do a selection on this criterion. Nobody sells mite-resistant stock here at this stage. Are we a lost cause? Any suggestions?
Max Lindegger
Australia, May
Answer
I was deeply sorry to hear that Varroa had been found in Australia. I have beekeeper friends in your great country, and it is heartbreaking to hear all that you guys have experienced since Varroa arrived. In many ways, your bees are quite behind those living with Varroa for decades. The bees in Australia have not had time to develop resistance to the mite. Yes, you could and should initiate breeding programs to develop stocks or lines of bees that are resistant to the mite. In my experience, though, even when such stocks are available, beekeepers can still be reluctant to use them.
It is alarming that some Varroa are developing resistance to the treatments available to use against them. I have an Australian friend who has shared the same story with me about the nectar flow, i.e., that you can produce honey nearly any time of the year in many locations around the country. This is a great benefit of beekeeping there. From a Varroa perspective, though, it means you may have to sacrifice a honey crop or two so that you can intervene with treatments to kill the mites. After all, beekeepers cannot use most treatments when harvestable supers of honey are on the hive. This presents a conundrum: Treat a colony for Varroa and forfeit a particular honey crop, or do not treat the colony and risk losing it.
You are not a lost cause, but it will not be an easy journey. I have considerable faith in the ability of humans to solve problems. I am not a soothsayer, but I predict that someday, you will have resistant stocks produced and available in Australia. I believe scientists and beekeepers will develop new treatment strategies that will allow you to control the mite effectively, while protecting the honey you and the bees are working to produce.
Since you are a regular reader of this column, you will likely know that I love the Varroa control material produced by the Honey Bee Health Coalition. I realize it is most relevant to beekeepers in the United States. Even still, I think you will benefit from reviewing it closely. You can find the information here: https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/resources/varroa-management/.
My former team at the University of Florida and I produced a series of videos on integrated pest management of Varroa. I link those here as well:
Varroa Overview (Identification, Biology, and Associated Damage): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbiXElFDZ18&list=PLAQHmJyzKkpCu_Pd92GBY2J7T
CVtPsPad&index=27
Varroa IPM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zHBrMGvR64&list=PLAQHmJyzKkpCu_Pd92GBY2J7TCVtPsPad&index=31
Sampling for Varroa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J74SjGFTkf4&list=PLAQHmJyzKkpCu_Pd92GBY2J7TCVtPsPad&index=30
Varroa control and management: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rA_6NIW8Nw&list=PLAQHmJyzKkpCu_Pd92GBY2J7TCVtPsPad&index=29
Controlling Varroa chemically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXepxco1_hE&list=PLAQHmJyzKkpCu_Pd92GBY2J7TCVtPsPad&index=28
I am sure you know this already, but Australia had a National Varroa Mite Control Program and you can find the clearing house for resources they produced here: https://www.varroa.org.au/. Per the website, they are no longer updating this information and encourage you to contact your state or industry website for more information.
I am sorry this is something you must address. It can feel hopeless at times. Keep in mind, though, that beekeepers around the world have found ways to manage this pest. It will happen in Australia as well …
