American Bee Journal

Q  Attracting Swarms My last colony moved out and I’m now beeless. I’ve got lots of hive bodies and I don’t want to chase swarms. Any advice on how I may attract swarms to move into my existing equipment? Bob Dye Missouri, February A Sorry to hear that you are beeless at the moment. I would not like that either!…

Fireweed offers a premium, late-season nectar flow for beekeepers who can handle its unpredictability In 1920, when Frederick Dundas Todd, British Columbia’s first provincial apiculturist, toured the remote valley near the village of Telkwa, he left with the awe of a prospector who had just struck gold. Telkwa is located in a sparsely populated region of BC, just several miles…

A queen bee indulges in many strange behaviors, not the least of which is choosing the sex of her offspring. Of course, this surreal proclivity is shared throughout the Hymenoptera, a fact that doesn’t make it any less mysterious. But even more perplexing than the deciding is the implementing. How does the queen fulfill her desire to lay a fertilized…

With the arrival of spring, my thoughts turn to shipping bees –– from a century ago, give or take a decade, maybe two. Several years ago, I gave a brief historical beginning of the package bee industry in American Bee Journal, using my collection of old shipping packages as original artifacts, acquired after hunting them for years. Old shipping packages,…

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 like Peony, Key Lime, or…

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 pesticide industry, I would promptly…

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 beekeepers have limited tools to…

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 shows a cross section of…

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 general name given to a…