Knots can be an important part of keeping bees, which is kind of unfortunate for me since I really struggle with both learning and remembering how to tie different types of knots. One beekeeper we went to had issues in the past with lids flying off die to wind. Their solution was to use rope…
OK, so maybe its not technically a video game, but Reed Johnson at Ohio State has developed an online program called Broodmapper.com to inspect brood frames. Citizen science is a term used describe similar projects, where the general public participates in the collection and analysis of data. Often the tasks include an educational component. In…
Product certification is a process designed to give some level of assurance to consumers that a product is produced under certain guidelines. In honey bees, we tend to most often think about USDA Organic certification of honey. However, there are other certification programs in honey bees including Certified Naturally Grown (CNG) and queens produced…
There has been an article circulating the bee world that I find really interesting and a bit disturbing. It is about how much of the honey purchased in stores lacks pollen. What happens is during the filtration stage of honey extraction, the company uses a really fine filter to remove anything that isn’t honey, so…
For the purpose of hive inspection determining the status of the queen is highly dependent on a beekeepers ability to identify eggs, larvae, pupae, and the queen. Finding eggs means the queen was or has been present in the hive within the last 1-3 days. Without eggs you are left to assume that there may…
Before going out to collect bees there are a few things that you will need. Some of items are essential for collecting faster flying specimens. You should have small lidded containers to place the bees in. If you put small pieces of tissue in the container, those pieces give the bees something to hold on…
Over the last few weeks I have been writing about the importance of hive inspections and field notes covering some
Last Wednesday I went out into the field to help with some feeding and ran into a little bit of trouble, though it was probably my own fault. I would like to blame the time of year and lack of nectar flow, the excitement brought on by the feeding or the nastiness of a certain…
Double click on the comb of the honey bee frame in the picture above to see if you can spot eggs in the cells. Double clicking will zoom in to reveal much more detail.
The other day, while walking down the hall I happened to glance out the window and saw a strange sight. There was what appeared to be a tent over some of the hives in the yard outside the lab. As if that wasn’t strange enough, two of our technicians were standing inside the tent with…
