I’m late this year with the November issue of this digest.  All the doings around Thanksgiving got in my way.  We’ve had some wonderful fall days here in North Central Florida.  The bees are still foraging on an almost year-around blooming plant here, Bidens alba (begarticks) .  It will freeze back with cold weather probably, […]

The Honey Bee Microbiome is a fascinating area, perhaps more so given that humans have one as well.  It is more and more evident that large numbers of super organisms abound in the natural world, which is full of surprising and interesting  structures and connections.

Dear Subscribers, The 150th Celebration at the A.I. Root Company was even more significant than expected.  Beyond the various presentations, it was announced that long-time editor of Bee Culture, Kim Flottum, is stepping down and taking his place will be Jerry Hayes, who readers might know as the current author of American Bee Journal’s extremely […]

There was a lot of interest in honey adulteration/contamination at Apimondi 46 in Montreal, Septermber 8-12, 2019.  The attached is a effort to help understand some of the challenges and current efforts to get a real handle on the credibility, indeed viability of the global honey market. I would appreciate any feed back on this […]

Dear Subscribers: I am back from Apimondia 46 in the City of Montreal, Canada.  Some 5,000 attendees showed up to help the Canadians put on a great show.  The venue, Plalais des Congres, was a perfect setting for this convention.   As I predicted in an earlier paper published in the April 2019 of Bee Culturemagazine, […]

Dear Subscribers: It looks like I injured my rotator cuff muscle(s) in my bike accident last month.  It appears to be healing well, which is fortunate, but taking longer than I’d like.  I am back to being able to ride the bike again, but can’t throw a softball yet. We continue to have off and […]

It’s been over thirty years since Varroa was first detected in the United States of America. This author was on the front lines during detection and first control measures were discussed.  The attached file glances at the first two decades and provides a look into the third of an event that was one of the […]

I am beginning an experiment.  Beyond my monthly newsletter, I  am going to produce a monthly essay of information that is curated content, published as an electronic document in .pdf format.  Attached is the first edition.  I look forward to hearing from you concerning this addition to the digest.

Dear Subscribers, The weather continues to surprise here in north central Florida as I described in last month’s newsletter.  Intense downpours occur intermittently at any time with no tropical involvement.  Heat indices (“feels like”) around 105 degrees F.  and straight-line winds around 40 to 45 miles per hour are also  becoming the “new normal.” I […]

Dear Subscribers: How things change.  We have moved quickly from drought status I reported last month for north central Florida, to a surfeit of precipitation at the present time with more on the way.  The storms seem to be increasing in intensity as  does the rainfall.  Literally buckets come down in short periods of time. […]