I have a few perks working with Bee Informed Partnership out of the University of Minnesota: 1)I get to build relationships with many commercial beekeepers, 2)I have access to the University of Minnesota lab equipment and 3) I get to utilize Marla Spivak’s great mind along with other members of the lab. Because I have […]
Here we go! As of this morning (4/13/2018), over 2,200 of you have completed the Colony Loss and Management Survey. Thank you for your time and continued support! So far your response rate is tracking previous years, but we of course want to beat last year’s numbers! This year marks the 12th anniversary of the Colony […]
And no, this isn’t an April Fool’s Day joke! You’re busy! We know that. You’re out catching swarms, picking up packages, and checking your colonies! So grab a coffee or tea, sit down, relax, AND… …take the Survey Today! The information that you provide will be invaluable to our understanding of honey bee health around […]
More and more US beekeepers are starting to place their bees in sheds for the fall, for indoor wintering. While beekeepers in Canada have done this for decades, the popularity of the practice in the US is more recent. Beekeepers began by using structures already built for onion and potato storage in Idaho to house […]
Naming yards isn’t complicated but it’s an important aspect of managing a large commercial operation in order to facilitate communication between staff. Many states require apiary sites to be registered which requires filing paperwork that names the yard in addition to providing some basic information about location (latitude, longitude or nearest intersection), property ownership, and […]
Artificial foundation was developed shortly after the invention of the removable frames. The first foundation frame was invented by Johannes Mehring in Germany (Graham, 1992). But as more people began producing artificial foundation for Langstroth hives, beekeepers began experimenting with different sized cells. Fast forward to today; we see both small cell and standard […]
I have been working in Texas for the Bee Informed Partnership since May, 2017. Many US commercial honey bee colonies are part of migratory beekeeping operations, so I have been on the road a great deal of the last 5 months helping beekeepers monitor the health of […]
This blog has been updated from the original blog posted on October 10, 2017. As of this date, December 12, 2017, the final paper describing the work below has been published and can by found in it’s entirety at this link at Nature.com **************************** One of the best things about working in research is that […]
Hopefully by now you all have your mites under control and are well on your way in preparing your hives for winter! If you are operating a hive scale and forwarding your data to the Bee Informed Partnership, as your beekeeping season begins to wind down and you have more time to spare, we’d strongly […]
Comb management is an important aspect of beekeeping, but comb management has not always been a management strategy of beekeepers. Rather, comb management is a fairly new concept. Beekeepers started managing comb with the invention of the Langstroth hive in the 1850’s. Today, comb management is a common practice for beekeepers, and an aspect of […]
