Discover 12 posts about bee health
EFB kills larvae before capping, leaving twisted yellow-brown bodies in cells. Strong colonies sometimes outgrow it. Diagnosis is harder than textbooks say.
Two federal agencies and one university consortium track US colony losses. Their numbers don't always agree. That gap reveals how hard it is to count bees.
The EPA logged 152 confirmed bee kills from pesticide drift between 2013 and 2023. The actual number is almost certainly much higher.
Vespa mandarinia can decapitate 40 honey bees per minute. The 2019 Washington detection triggered a federal response. The media name outran the science.
The timing of mite treatments matters more than the chemical. Treat too late and winter bees are already damaged. The calendar isn't optional.
Acarapis woodi lives inside a bee's breathing tubes. It devastated British colonies in 1906 and American ones in 1984. Then Varroa arrived and everyone forgot.
A scattering of dead bees with intact wings is Tuesday. Deformed wings mean Varroa. Extended tongues mean pesticide. The entrance is a diagnostic window.
A colony surrounded by 10,000 acres of soybeans is starving. Monocultures bloom for two weeks then become a floral desert. Bees need diversity, not volume.
Three fungal and viral brood diseases that don't get the attention of AFB or EFB. Chalkbrood mummifies larvae into white pellets. All three signal stress.
Seeley tracked wild colonies in Arnot Forest for 33 years. They survive untreated. Small cavities, high swarming rates, and natural selection explain why.
Eight core bacterial species colonize every honey bee gut. Disrupt them with antibiotics and the bee becomes vulnerable to pathogens it normally shrugs off.
Three compounds - imidacloprid, clothianidin, thiamethoxam - control 25% of the global insecticide market. The EU restricted them in 2018. The US hasn't.
