Health & Pests
Nosema Disease in Honey Bees
Nosema is a serious disease of honey bees caused by a microsporidian. A microsporidian is a type of single-celled fungus that reproduces by spores. The nosema organisms live and reproduce in the honey bee midgut where they steal nutrients and prevent digestion.
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Do My Honey Bees Have Nosema?
Honey bee dysentery is often confused with Nosema disease, so when beekeepers see feces on or near a hive, they automatically think the worst. But several recent papers have reiterated that dysentery is caused by an excess of moisture in honey bee feces. It may occur simultaneously with Nosema or not, but the two conditions are not related.
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How Bees Communicate with Pheromones
Honey bees are eusocial, meaning they live in highly complex social colonies, with multiple casts and tens of thousands of individuals of overlapping generations.
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What Bugs Your Bees in Winter? Know the Lineup of Beekeeping Pests.
Add to Favorites Even before we open our first beehive, we are warned about pests that may live within. Small hive beetles, wax moths, and varroa mites are things we dread, so early in our training …
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Conduct an Alcohol Wash for Varroa Mite Monitoring
Monitoring Varroa destructor’s infestation levels is arguably one of the most important tasks on a beehive inspection checklist — yet mite checks are also the most commonly forgotten task. This doesn’t have to be with so many fast and simple methods available.
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How to Treat Varroa Mites — A New Perspective
Add to Favorites My wife and I took a beginning beekeeping class before becoming backyard beekeepers. We learned about wax moth treatment and how to manage ants in beehives. We …
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Catch and Release Powdered Sugar Roll Varroa Mite Test
Knowing what a hive’s mite load is can mean the difference between a hive surviving the winter in a healthy state ready to tackle the next honey season and an almost guaranteed untimely death from the viruses and diseases contributed to high varroa loads.
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Movements of the Winter Bee Cluster
Add to Favorites The honey bee cluster moves up in winter and down in summer. The downward movement is easiest to see in a feral colony built into a tree …
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Preparing Honeybees for Winter
it’s important to understand what winterizing beehives look like for a backyard beekeeper.
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How do Bees Mate?
Add to Favorites An interesting and deadly dance takes place all across the world; in fact, it’s necessary for human survival and yet goes unnoticed by humans year after year. …
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