American Bee Journal

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 the neighbors. Their reasons are…

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 live in a very dry…

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 laying an egg. Her sting…

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 vegetables we like to eat?…

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 people who are raising other…

In this series of queen introduction articles, the candy release method counts down the time to release the queen. With my queen cages mounted on the glass of the observation hives in the bee house, I can even see the bees tunneling their way through the candy to the queen. Figure 1 shows a closeup of the candy end of…

Q  European Foulbrood I have read your excellent guide on the treatment and diagnosis of European Foulbrood at https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in1272. In the past I have tried: Mite treatments Shook swarm Culling older frames (but not all frames) Feeding sugar syrup/pollen patties Requeening Last year, requeening a hive was very effective; this year’s results are disappointing. I also find it strange that…

Neonicotinoid insecticides: When there’s risk to bees, when there are economic benefits to users, and when there are viable replacements Neonicotinoid insecticides. If you’re like many people who we interact with, you just read those two words and already have an opinion. Perhaps such a strong opinion that there’s little point to us writing more. But for those brave souls…

Queen cells are the unsung heroes of sustainable beekeeping. Most beekeepers still seek out mated queens for splits and replacements when queen cells work just as well or even better. There are many advantages to using queen cells over mated queens. A huge advantage is seen in the spring, as queen cells are available earlier in the season. By definition,…

As scientific thinkers, we need to re-examine our beliefs constantly and question what we “know” to be true. As we learn, our cumulative knowledge increases, often giving us a better perspective. For example, I recently had a wake-up call that forced me to re-evaluate the idea of the windshield effect. The windshield effect is a phenomenon that people have noticed…