Girl Next Door Honey

08/09/2026

Article in a well-known science journal about closing the Beltsville Bee Lab

Take a look at this article by science journalist, Joanna Thompson that recently appeared in the publication , 'Science'. It is all about the closing and destruction of the Beltsville Bee Lab and transfer of all the researchers to other Labs in the country. Here is a heads up from the article, The USDA has announced plans to close BARC. It is a huge area of over 6000 acres. It has been the home to experimental agricultural facilities and labs. Hundreds of researchers have been working for agriculture studying invasive pests, livestock genetics, Honey Bee biology, water conservation, and many other areas to help all of us. This is crazy bad for agriculture in the U.S. in general and after our 50%+ losses Honey Health research directly is even crazier....my opinion. – Jerry Hayes, Editor of Bee Culture Magazine

Take a look at the complete article link below.
https://www.science.org/content/article/usda-accelerates-plan-close-its-flagship-scientific-campus

08/06/2026

We need bee research! Upending the Beltsville lab is incredibly stupid.

Beltsville, Maryland Bee Lab to Fargo, North Dakota

By: Jerry Hayes, editor of Bee Culture Magazine

Everybody!

I am certain you have heard by now that the Beltsville Bee Research Laboratory has been reassigned to Fargo, North Dakota. While I have heard many positive things to say about Fargo and the research programs there, the short beekeeping season and the long, harsh winters would make much of the Beltsville Bee Lab in Maryland and its ongoing research difficult, if not impossible, to continue in its current form. At this point, we are only certain that two lab members may choose to go, suggesting that we could lose the majority of the Beltsville staff. In addition, the honey bee disease diagnostic service would likely be very difficult to sustain under these circumstances.

I have already expressed my serious concerns to the ARS Administrator, Joon Park, REE-ARS, [email protected] . However, I believe it may also be helpful to gather support from Beekeepers, industry partners and encourage our organizations to communicate their concerns directly to our leadership such as Dr. Scott Hutchins, Under Secretary for the Research, Education, and Economics (REE) Mission Area of USDA, [email protected]

08/05/2026

Queenspotting! Leave a 🐝 if you see her. The queen has a long body, short wings, a bald back and there’s sometimes a circle of bees around her.

08/03/2026

Do your hive inspections include observations from outside the hive? You find out some interesting stuff if you pay attention.

07/30/2026

Beekeeping pages are wasting water and ruining the environment to make this garbage.

07/25/2026

07/23/2026

Do you use wired frames? Researchers found evidence that larvae resting directly over the steel wires accumulate significantly higher concentrations of iron in their bodies. 🤔