Honey bee colonies store nectar and pollen to use in times of dearth. To a honey bee, a dearth is a shortage of nectar-producing flowers. The most obvious nectar dearth occurs during the winter, but many places also experience a summer nectar dearth, a hot and dry period between spring flowers and autumn flowers. This […] Read more
Up until this week I hadn’t seen many yellowjackets. Since 2009 seemed to be “the year of the yellowjacket,” I was expecting to see fewer this year. Nevertheless I had yellowjacket pheromone lures hanging nearby and my hive entrances had been reduced for a month. Everything seemed fine. But late last week I decided to […] Read more
Robbing is a term used by beekeepers to describe bees that raid another hive and take all of the honey back to their own hive. Robbing is particularly prevalent during nectar dearths that occur in the warm months of summer or early fall. The robbing bees may come from within an apiary or from neighboring […] Read more