Our Bees Are Infected with Varroa Mites!

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You can’t believe how many different ways there are for a honey bee to die.  Beekeeping is a life affirming activity that is often filled with death.  Skunks and wild turkeys view bees as flying pieces of candy and will happily eat your bees as they fly from the hives.  Mice and snakes try to make homes inside your hives, and the bees don’t care for this.  Infections caused by bacteria, viruses, and fungi abound.  One particularly nasty bacterial infection called American Foulbrood is so deadly that a beekeeper must immediately destroy the diseased hive and burn the all their equipment so the infection doesn’t spread.  As nasty as American Foulbrood is, it doesn’t top the list of threats to honey bees.  Ask any beekeeper what enemy #1 is, and they will all say varroa mites.  Continue reading →

USDA Discontinues Honey Bee Tracking

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Honey bees have the perfect self-governing system.  All the bees gladly subjugate themselves to an omnipotent queen.  When a queen falters, the members of the colony rally together to produce a new queen.  Every action a honey bee takes from the moment of birth until the moment of death is done for the good of the colony.  Honey bees are sophisticated, selfless creatures.  Humans occupy a higher rung on the taxonomy chart, but in my opinion, it is the honey bee that is more virtuous.  For this reason, I become annoyed when honey bees are used for political purposes and that is what happened this month. Continue reading →