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Wheelchair beekeeping

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Idaho beekeeper Randy Geile, who has come up with a clever home-built modification of Langstroth hives that allows those who are wheelchair bound to practice beekeeping. View his video here. Thank you, Randy!

Tips for Citizen Scientists

Tips for Designing Bee Research Projects Beekeepers are known for being of curious and experimental minds. Since factors affecting beekeeping are continually changing, new unanswered questions are bound to arise; the beekeeper “citizen scientist” can often answer them himself by performing a well-designed experiment, and then share those results to the benefit of everyone. But […]

International Websites of Interest

I’m open to suggestions for interesting websites on beekeeping in countries other than the U.S. to link to–please email me suggestions. Ukraine:A commercial honey sales website, but with a nice summary of the history of beekeeping in that country http://www.honey-export.com/

Pesticide exposure pathways

Sorry for the low resolution of this snip of this Powerpoint slide that I created for a presentation. I’ve color coded the ellipses and arrows. Red is the pesticide active ingredient. Blue is the initial mode of exposure. Orange are the ages/temporal tasks of the bees involved. Green are the contaminated foods or combs. Note […]

GMO Updates

GMO updates Please don’t parrot misinformation–learn the actual facts! Introduction “GMOs” are a hot topic these days, due mainly to the media attention given to a few advocacy groups, as opposed to those who actually understand the science involved in the development of genetically-modified plants. I find this unfortunate, since the future of many species […]

The Short Version

The Major Problems Facing Bees and Beekeepers Number one is varroa. Varroa changed the virus dynamics within the colony. If either the bees or the beekeeper don’t keep the varroa infestation rate down to fewer than 5 mites per 100 bees, colonies start to suffer. At about 15 mites per 100, viruses go epidemic, and […]

Updates

October 2014: Hi All, I’m freshly returned from the Western Apicultural Society Conference in Missoula, where we got to see the state of the art in remote hive monitoring. It won’t be long until we have some really user-friendly and affordable hive monitoring devices on the market. We’re also seeing a sea change in the […]

Small-scale Queenrearing

This page is not a finished product, but due to requests, I’ve posted a rough version. The Oliver “foolproof method” of queen rearing Step-by-step Oliver modification of the “Modified Swarm Box” Starter/finisher colony Click the link below to download my Powerpoint presentation, minus my voice. It is a large download and may take some time. […]

Queens For Pennies Powerpoint Presentation

You can download the linked Powerpoint presentation below for a slide show to go with my article Queens for Pennies. Updates: I recently tested several models of lighted magnifying headlamps available from Amazon and was most pleased with the: Carson Pro Series MagniVisor Deluxe Head-Worn LED Lighted Magnifier with 4 Different Lenses (1.5x, 2x, 2.5x, […]

Reflections on the Honey Bee Health Summit

First published in: American Bee Journal, August 2013

Reflections on the Honey Bee Health Summit (And Other Random Thoughts) Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ in August 2013 Into The Belly of the Beast Plant Breeders Drop the Demonization Let’s Be Logical Take Home Sound Bites Colony Health The Varroa/Virus Complex Pesticide Issues Agriculture and Nutrition Toxins Sentinel Apiaries Weighing the […]

What Happened To The Bees This Spring? (Part 1 & 2)

First published in: American Bee Journal, June 2013

Part 1: Environmental and Biotic Factors Setting the Stage The Lead Up The Drought Lack of Good Forage Varroa Diseases Other Indicators of Impending Collapse An Unexpected Chill Feedback from Brokers The Silent Majority Beekeeper Management Part 2: The Contribution From Pesticides The Lynch Mob Debunking The Myths The Precautionary Principal See For Yourself Be […]

Zombie bees

A parasitic fly was recently discovered to be infesting honey bees– the press wildly extrapolated it into being the cause of CCD. I’ve kept in touch with the researchers in San Francisco, and with beekeepers in the affected areas. The study is ongoing. The fly is a native parasite that normally parasitizes bumblebees and paper wasps. […]

The Harvard Study on Neonicotinoids and CCD

A recent press release by the prestigious Harvard School of Public Health claims that one of their researchers has found that Colony Collapse Disorder was caused by a common insecticide used on corn. As an informed beekeeper and environmentalist, I feel that this study calls for standard scientific scrutiny to see whether their claims actually […]

The Birds and the Bees

I was greatly concerned when I read that news item that the neonicotinoid seed treatments might be causing the decline of bird populations. I don’t know whether you read the referred paper (http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/policy/toxins/Neonic_FINAL.pdf), which was earnest and detailed. Unfortunately, it was mostly speculative, as opposed to being based upon field evidence. The authors themselves, in […]

The “Rules” For Successful Beekeeping

Note: I stuck my neck out a bit with this article, and if you’re easily offended perhaps you should skip it. However, the feedback on this article has been overwhelmingly favorable. The few that were offended apparently missed my point—which is that there are no rigid rules as to how you must keep bees! Beekeeping […]

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