Dear Subscribers: Our drought is back with a vengeance.  And the heat that’s been promised has also arrived for a record Memorial day forecast to be in the dreaded “triple digits.”   These conditions reveal themselves in the suffering of plants turning brown in the Florida sun.  Time to get the watering devices out or […]

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. […]

Dear Subscribers: The cold is holding on here in North Florida as I reported last year at this time, but it appears to be more extreme with temperatures expected to be up to 50 below zero in some northern parts of the country in the next few days  It’s only expected to be in the […]

February 27, 2019 Dear Subscribers: The cold spell reported last month for this neck of the woods metamorphosed into record heat the third week of February. Gainesville experienced an eleven degree above normal average, topping out whopping 91 degrees F. on February 23.  As of this date, 49 record highs has been reported across the […]

Apis Information Resource News Special Edition!Beekeeping Books Giveaway Dear Subscribers: Those subscribed to this newsletter/blog will remember that one of the recurring themes has been to look at the history and sales of the now second edition of Storey’s Guide to Keeping Honey Bees.   Readers will no doubt recall the basics of this book linked to […]

Dear Subscribers: We are in a mini drought of sorts in northeast Florida. No rain for a long period, then some spotty showers have showed up and more are expected this weekend. However, we are not as dry as the southern part of the state.  Florida’s dry season usually begins in November and continues through […]

                                          Dear Subscribers: Thanksgiving proved to be a welcoming time for all here in Gainesville,  Florida.  We had a long-awaited-for taste of the cold weather that much  of the eastern U.S. experienced. In retrospect, this looks to be an  understatement for the actual conditions in much of the rest of the  country, which were […]

Dear Subscribers: I’m heading to Los Angeles in a couple of days, flying out on Christmas day.  Ironically, that’s expected to be the slowest travel day of this year’s season.  And a frightening number of people are traveling, probably because the economy seems in good shape and  the employment level is extremely high.   Reports […]

There’s been lots of talk about genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) recently.  It’s getting easier to develop these with what is known as crispr technology.  The wikipedia page on this subject is a trial to read, but worth the effort; it shows, if nothing else, how fiendishly complex this topic is. The page itself confesses that it […]

September 24, 2018 Dear Subscribers: As part of the presentations in Hampton, Virginia, Dr. Tom Rinderer, retired from the USDA Baton Rouge Bee Laboratory, took a deep dive into how Russian (Primorsky) honey bees tolerate Varroa.  He ticked off a significant number of “mechanisms” promoting resistance to the mite that research has teased out over […]