I awaken on summer mornings to the sound of bumble bees. Bizz. Stop. Bizz. Stop. Bizzzzzz. Stop. The morning cuppa they seek is found in the figwort blossoms below my open window. The figworts, genus Scrophularia, belong to the family Scrophulariaceae. I love that name. I love it because it sounds like a whole sentence […] Read more
Over the past year, Randy Oliver has published several informative articles in the American Bee Journal about the relationship between nosema disease and honey bee dysentery. If you haven’t read these pieces, you should. His message is simple: there is no evidence to support the theory that nosema disease causes dysentery. I’m dismayed, however, that […] Read more
Here’s a new postmortem for all of you bee sleuths out there. Jim Metrailer from Alabama sent the following pictures and questions with the go-ahead to share them with you. The first colony On January 25th, a sunny day with temperatures in the mid-50s, Jim inspected his hives. His top-bar hive and one Langstroth showed […] Read more
In the 2003 romantic comedy, Love Actually, there’s a scene where Juliet (Keira Knightley) visits her husband’s best friend, Mark (Andrew Lincoln), to borrow a video tape of her wedding. Although everyone believes Mark doesn’t like Juliet, the video reveals otherwise. In the awkward scene that follows, Mark admits, “It’s a self-preservation thing.” He uses […] Read more
If you ask a woman whether she is pregnant, she generally answers “yes” or “no.” Very seldom do you hear other versions, such as “more or less,” “partially,” or “somewhat.” She either is or she isn’t — go or no-go — and the reality is easy to comprehend. In plants, however, the situation is very […] Read more
Upper entrances are polarizing. Some beekeepers claim they are the best thing since sliced bread, while others say they offer an efficient way to kill your colony. Most likely the truth lies in the middle. Your local patterns of wind, rain, and temperature will dictate how effective or how detrimental upper entrances can be. Those […] Read more
Back in October, Vince Poulin of British Columbia sent us pictures of a feeder frame he designed for feeding nucs that were stacked one atop the other for winter. I thought it was a creative idea that solved a problem with stacked colonies—they can be hard to feed without much disruption. As a follow-up, Vince […] Read more