I was recently reminded of pollen feeders when I received a photo from Tammy Sill in Rhode Island. She said of her bees, “They roll in it like dogs on dead fish!!!” I have to agree. A good and plentiful source of autumn pollen will cause to bees to frolic as if they died and […] Read more
After I wrote about the Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) entering Great Britain, a beekeeper living in southern France wrote to me about his five-year struggle with these aggressive bee eaters. Michael Judd, originally from England, keeps ten hives at an elevation of 789 meters (2588 feet) under a small wild-flower-covered mountain near the village of […] Read more
As many of you know, the drugs that are currently labeled for the prevention and treatment of American and European foulbrood will no longer be available for over-the-counter purchase beginning January 1, 2017. The decision by the US Food and Drug Administration to tighten control over antibiotics is a response to the ever declining list […] Read more
This is a bad piece of news, although not entirely unexpected. British beekeepers have been bracing themselves for years for an invasion by the Asian hornet (Vespula velutina), especially since the introduction of the hornet into France in 2004. A serious threat to honey bees The Asian hornet is a nasty piece of work whose […] Read more
A beekeeper in Nebraska said she found a hundred or so pollen pellets on her screened bottom board. She said she watched for a long time, but the busy bees completely ignored the fallen pellets. She wanted to know why the bees didn’t pick them up. “If honey bees are so careful to conserve nectar […] Read more
Every now and then I decide to bury my head in the sand and pretend I don’t notice the headlines. Invariably, this approach doesn’t work because dozens of people will ask my opinion until I’m more or less coerced into saying something. Then, the something I say is dissected, splintered, and ridiculed until, once again, […] Read more
Madia elegans, also known as common madia or tarweed, is not your typical pollinator plant. In early morning light, the bright yellow flowers look like typical daisy-style composites. But during a hot summer afternoon, it is so nondescript as to go unnoticed, taking it’s skinny place among other quiet dryland species in the western United […] Read more