honey bees

Washington State University’s Bee Program will offer a four-hour virtual Beginner Beekeeper workshop A Year Ahead: First Year of Beekeeping next weekend.

“January 1st we had 2.63 million honeybee colonies here in the U.S.," said Lane Honig with NASS. "That was down 1% from a year earlier. But by April 1st of this year, that number was up to 2.99 million colonies."

New research from the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service sheds light on the causes behind the catastrophic honeybee colony losses reported by commercial beekeepers this year.  The findings point to an alarmingly high level of viral infections caused by Varroa mites that have resistant genes to a common treatment.    “Our ...

The Washington State Department of Agriculture is investigating a possible northern giant hornet sighting in the Burley area near Port Orchard.  This invasive species is a known predator of honeybees.  The northern giant hornet is the largest hornet in the world, measuring up to 2 inches long.  This invasive spe...

Honey bees and their keepers have been having quite a bit of trouble keeping the colonies strong and alive. You may remember the news headlines started about 15-16 years ago. Headlines about millions of bee colonies dying off, or in some cases, the bees were just disappearing, with the nation's beekeepers losing 30 to 50% of their colonies every year...

2020 was full of strange happenings and scary headlines, with one of them being the arrival of a new killer bug.

A proposed “Pollinator Paradise” license plate appears well on its way to becoming reality, thanks to the efforts of Oregon State University.  The proposal has created a lot of buzz across the state, as pre-sale vouchers are flying off shelves; and the “Pollinator Paradise'' plate could soon be available at a DMV near you.  OSU Associate Professor o...

New artificial intelligence developed at Oregon State University could help protect bees from new pesticides.  Typically, pesticide developers expose a group of bees to a new chemical and if more than 50% survive, it’s deemed nontoxic for these critical pollinators.  But, OSU...

According to the USDA, during the first three months of the year, bee keepers nationwide lost about 12% of the colonies, and another 10% during the 2nd quarter.  Those losses aren't as bad as the drop we saw during the first half of 2021. ...

The winter-like stormed that rolled across the Pacific Northwest Sunday and Monday not only brought unseasonably cold temperatures to the area, but extremely late season snow as well. Snow totals varied from a few inches on the Palouse, to 3”-8” in the Hood River area and as much as 12” around Medford. What impa ...