Bee Improvement – The Walrus and the Honey Bee

Breeding the Best Honey Bees: Selecting a Quality Queen Bee

Queen bee with workers on pollen frame Now that we are in that time of crazy colony growth, it won’t be long until some people start to raise their first queens of the season. My experience and research into weather…

13 Feb 23 Walrus

Honey Bee Polyandry: The Secret to Their Success

Chromosomes Honey Bee Polyandry: The Secret to Their Success. Yep, a nice catchy headline, but for most beekeepers the polyandrous nature of honey bees is not much of a secret at all. When a virgin honey bee queen takes her…

27 Oct 20 Walrus

Mating Mathematics

Math or Maths? In 2005 some researchers studying matings in the Hope Valley (England) found out some interesting stats on mating distance. Mating distance is the distance between the hive from which the virgin queen flew and the colonies from…

11 Feb 19 Walrus

Bee Breeding: Life, uh…finds a way

Life finds a way It's a dog's life I have always struggled with the idea that there are sub-species of honey bees but not dogs. A chihuahua is a tiny dog, and a great Dane is enormous. There are many differences between these…