Recent Articles
January is not a month for bee colony inspection. But that does not keep us from worrying about them. So what can we do with our bees this month (besides just worrying)? It is possible to roughly group our overwintered colonies into two groups per our last fall judgement/inspection. We…
PARASITIC MITE SYNDROME (PMS) Parasitic Mite Syndrome is a condition, not a specific disease whereby a honey bee colony dies rapidly in the fall months. The initial PMS field symptoms include reduced adult population and spotty brood pattern with dying larvae. These symptoms intensify over a short time as the…
Doesn’t this just say fall? Monarch Butterfly and Honey Bee on Sunflower Photo by Kathy Garvey
To feed bees or not to feed bees? If you read Jeremy Barnes letter to the editor (in most recent ABJ, September 2020) you might wish to hit the pause button. Jeremy summarizes studies involving feeding sugar syrup to bees confined in cages in the lab. Worker bees fed sugar…
AFB is a bacterial disease of developing honey bee brood. AFB spores infect the larva in the earliest larval stage (newborn to 2 days old), generally through nurse bees supplying infected food. Infection spreads quickly among the larvae, as nurse bees, which carry the bacteria but are not affected by…
We should seek to enhance colony growth in Spring for surplus honey but seek to flatten the growth curve of mites.
Our Friends
WVBA is a chapter of the Oregon State Beekeepers Association. We are grateful to Chemeketa Community College for allowing us to hold our meetings on their campus. The Oregon Master Beekeeper Program is a joint effort of the Oregon State Beekeepers Association and Oregon State University; we passionately support its mission.