American Bee Journal

Fight Varroa mites Véto-pharma just obtained the EPA federal registration for Amiflex®, a 7-day-flash treatment for varroa mites that has been specially designed for commercial operations. Availability to beekeepers will be in accordance with state registrations. After years of rigorous R&D, Véto-pharma has obtained  federal registration for a unique and innovative amitraz gel formulation that’s specially designed to address the…

Lucile Morehouse, age 12, is an active 4-H member in Choctaw County, Oklahoma. She is the current president for her local 4-H club, shows animals, and participates nationally in martial arts. She just received the Oklahoma 4-H Youth Development 2023 Enhancement Grant for her application called “Bee Box.” Lucile will be assembling and distributing 600 seed packets for free. She…

Q  Splitting to increase hive numbers What is your opinion on making splits for someone wanting to increase hive numbers? I currently have five hives and want to be able to grow my number of hives. I have three hives that I acquired as nucs in February and early March that are already at 8-9 frames of bees and have…

April 23, 2023, WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Brock Harpur, assistant professor of entomology, is one of 10 recipients of the 2022 New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Award announced last week. The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) annually selects early-career scientists to receive the investment. “We are very excited by the work that Brock is leading at…

I was surprised to get a text message from John McMullan, a sixth-year beekeeper in my inspection region, at 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning in mid-May. “Is there something wrong with my honey?” he asked. “What are these brown flecks — some sort of egg?” It was a beautiful sight to see! It was a close-up picture of an…

Mixed messages confusing to new beekeepers I am a new beekeeper who is very happy to receive and read your magazine. I am, however, unhappy at the lack of editorial guidance in the latest issue, March 2023. You have an article by Fred Jones — “Natural Beekeeping: A Reckoning”— and an interview with Tom Seeley by Leo Sharashkin. For new…

Q  Honey bee feed additives  Has any study been done that proves essential oil stimulants actually help a bee colony? Paul Caplinger March A The answer to this question is a bit tricky. The shortest, most direct answer is that there have been some studies on essential oil impacts on Varroa, Nosema, honey quality, toxicity to honey bees, etc. However,…

Imagine you’re playing a word association game such as Password and your secret word is “bee.” The clues you might give to elicit that word include “honey,” “sting,” and “swarm.” But “legs”? Never. Nothing about legs reminds us of bees. Yet bees, especially honey bees, have some of the niftiest legs in the animal kingdom. Although they don’t hold a…

In my July 2022 American Bee Journal article, we saw how small hive beetles can evict a colony off its combs. Now with the approach of summer, the time is appropriate for another small hive beetle article, not like the previous one. This article is more from a beekeeper’s perspective confronting the typical symptoms of a difficult cleanup. Here we…

A casual discussion of a common beekeeping event Honey bees’ big three In no prioritized order, honey bees are known for producing honey, pollinating plants, and stinging. Honey and pollination are appreciated and have been discussed at length in every medium available to us, while defensive stinging is in a category all by itself. Most people really don’t like to…