Breeding a better bee: Three social immunity traits, one massive experiment

Photo: Amanda Goodman-Lee

DISEASES AND PARASITES are some of the biggest threats to honey bee health worldwide. Sick colonies can be treated with antibiotics and miticides, but pathogens are evolving resistance to fight back.

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Hives for Humanity: Using bees for social empowerment in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

Photo: Sarah Common

PEOPLE LIVING IN VANCOUVER’S DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE face incredibly challenging socio-economic barriers, but their capacity for generosity and understanding has inspired a Canadian mother-daughter team to take action.

Who’s got the guts?

Image: Waldan Kwong

The honey bee gut is more than just a food processing chamber. It’s also home to hundreds of millions of microbes – some of which help the host, and some of which destroy it.

Hygienic behavior and the scent of death

Photo: Alison McAfee

HYGIENIC WORKER BEES have a demanding job. They are key players in the hive’s social immune system, removing sick and dying brood before the diseases they harbor can spread. 

How a Nobel Prize in physiology created tomorrow’s Varroa control

Every beekeeper has wrestled with the Varroa destructor mite. Every beekeeper also knows we’re running out of weapons. With abounding resistance to conventional miticides, researchers at Monsanto are instead trying to use biotechnology to fight the mite – it could work, but is another mite-killing agent what the industry really needs?

Hive of science for bees: Report from an international pollinator workshop

If you had the power to give $300,000 in annual research grants, how would you choose what to fund? The Rovaltain Foundation – in Alixan, France – decided to host researchers from all over the world to discuss the most important issues surrounding bee health.

Transgenic honey bees: Should they take wing in the field, or stay in the lab?

Love it or hate it, in this INK article I argue that genetic engineering is not inherently evil. Whether it’s good or bad is dictated by the context, motive, and intent – not the technology.

Full texts now available

Hello everyone! I just wanted to write a quick note saying that all articles that have appeared in American Bee Journal have been updated to contain the article text & figures instead of short excerpts. The article on Hives for Humanity will be appearing in the October issue, at which time I’ll make that full text available too. Enjoy!

Neonics: The answered and unanswered questions

Neonicotinoid pesticides (neonics, for short) have been a hot topic in popular media and scientific research alike. But we still haven’t answered what is, in my opinion, the most critical question of all: Is there a better alternative?