Apiology

The study of honeybees...

Quantifying the effects of pollen nutrition on honey bee queen egg laying with a new laboratory system

Here, we present a new system to monitor honey bee queen egg laying under laboratory conditions and report the results of experiments showing the effects of pollen nutrition on egg laying.

More:EggLaying

What We Can (or Cannot) Learn from Multifloral Pollen Pellets

Pollen and its diversity, including the color of pollen pellets, have caught the attraction of bee keepers and researchers.

More:Pollen

U.S. HONEY INDUSTRY REPORT – 2017

United States honey production in 2017 from producers with five or more colonies totaled 148 million pounds, down nine percent from 2016. There were 2.67 million colonies producing honey in 2017, down four percent from 2016.

More: honeyreport

BEE-L Home Page

This site provides discussion on beekeeping related topics and issues with many of the contributors having a scientific background.

BEE-L

Predictive Markers of Honey Bee Colony Collapse

Across the Northern hemisphere, managed honey bee colonies, Apis mellifera, are currently affected by abrupt depopulation during winter and many factors are suspected to be involved, either alone or in combination.

More:Colony Collapse

Catch the Buzz

General Beekeeping News...

Beekeeping in Vermont...

VBA Now Offers Student Memberships

In an effort to encourage new beekeepers to join the Vermont Beekeepers Association, the VBA membership approved a bylaws change authorizing a new student membership category at the organization's annual meeting this past Saturday in Swanton.

Individual high school and college students are eligible for membership at the reduced rate of $5.00 per year. Students may join online or by mail to take advantage of the VBA's programs.

VBA Summer Meeting

Thanks to the Franklin County Beekeeping Club for hosting another successful summer meeting of the Vermont Beekeepers Association.

Fred Putnam Jr. of Brandon joins the board as VBA's Recording Secretary.

Watch for a write-up and photos from the meeting...

North Yard Workshop Photos

Great weather at today's ACBA workshop where "Talking Bees with Chaz Mraz" was the program. Chaz covered many topics including making nucs, recognizing types of queens cells, mite monitoring, and treatment options as well as wide-ranging questions on Spring and Fall hive management. Pics (provided by Fred Putnam) are available on the VBA website gallery.

Mares on Bee Democracy

VBA's Bill Mares on VPR recently discussing democracy as practiced by honeybees - with a nod to Thomas Seeley's Honeybee Democracy.

(VBA's Twitter feed also features the link and can be followed with RSS on our newsfeed page.)

VBA May Board of Director Meeting Minutes

Minutes from the May 9th VBA Board of Directors meeting (held via conference call) are now available online. VBA members may read the minutes by logging in to the site and selecting Meeting Minutes under the Members Only top menu heading.

Great Weather, Great Information

The group (pictured here) attending the May 12th North Workshop presented by the ACBA's Scott Wilson and Fred Putnam enjoyed good weather and a wealth of information. Topics included how to perform a beehive post-mortem following what has turned out to be a concerning winter for Vermont beekeepers with higher than usual losses reported and management of Varroa - of course.