Our Team: The Beekeepers Who Write and Review BeeKeepersRealm

Daniel has kept honey bees for more than 12 years and manages roughly 45 colonies in eastern North Dakota. His work covers seasonal colony management, spring buildup, swarm prevention, summer honey production and preparing colonies for a long northern winter. He writes mainly about beginner beekeeping, hive inspections, seasonal management, swarm prevention, honey harvesting and hive equipment, with an emphasis on how weather and timing shape colony development in a northern climate. He is a member of his local beekeeping association and continues formal study in practical apiary management.

Most of his articles here are Beekeeping Basics guides: the material a first- or second-year beekeeper reaches for, such as when to open a hive, what an inspection should cover and what each part of the season asks of a colony. His seasonal timing is written from eastern North Dakota conditions, so readers in milder climates should expect their own calendar to run earlier. Nearly all of his articles are second-reviewed by Thomas B. before they carry Daniel’s name, and Daniel in turn reviews a smaller number of colleagues’ articles on hive hardware, equipment, honey harvesting and pollination work.

• Experience: 12+ years keeping bees
• Region: Eastern North Dakota
• Apiary: About 45 hives
• Covers: Beginner beekeeping, hive inspections, seasonal management, swarm prevention, honey harvesting, equipment
• Usually reviewed by: Thomas B.
• Articles: All articles by Daniel M.

Elena has a background in biology and about 8 years of beekeeping experience, keeping around 20 colonies in eastern North Dakota. Her interests are honey bee behaviour, colony biology, pollination, reproduction, communication and the relationship between colonies and the landscape around them. She writes on bee biology, queen and worker roles, reproduction, communication, pollination, bee-friendly planting and colony development. She is also one of the fact checkers here: biological claims and scientific explanations are reviewed by her before publication. She belongs to a regional beekeeping association.

Her articles here are mostly on bee biology, foraging, queens, pollination and colony establishment, which is where questions about why a colony behaves the way it does tend to land. Most of her own articles are second-reviewed by Michael R., and she is in turn the second reviewer on most of Sofia T.’s honey and equipment articles, where her job is to check the science behind what those articles say about honey quality, beeswax and bee behaviour.

• Experience: 8 years keeping bees
• Region: Eastern North Dakota
• Apiary: About 20 hives
• Covers: Bee biology, behaviour, reproduction, communication, pollination, colony development
• Usually reviewed by: Michael R.
• Articles: All articles by Elena P.

Michael has about 15 years of practical beekeeping experience and manages roughly 60 colonies in the Red River Valley. His day-to-day work covers routine inspections, varroa monitoring, queen management, spring buildup, feeding decisions and getting colonies through a hard northern winter. He writes on varroa monitoring, common hive problems, queen failure and requeening, colony establishment, apiary hygiene and seasonal colony health. Because errors in colony health advice can affect neighbouring apiaries as well as your own bees, his articles carry an additional editorial review before publication. He has completed advanced beekeeping coursework and belongs to a local beekeepers association.

His articles here are mostly on bee diseases, apiary biosecurity and sanitation, including foulbrood recognition, quarantining and disinfecting used equipment, and keeping disease records across several yards. His foulbrood, equipment-quarantine and laboratory-testing articles point readers to the North Dakota Department of Agriculture’s apiary program for inspection and reporting. Nearly all of his articles are second-reviewed by Thomas B., and Michael is himself the second reviewer on most of Elena P.’s bee-biology articles, where he checks that the research-based explanation matches what beekeepers actually see in a working colony.

• Experience: 15 years keeping bees
• Region: Red River Valley, North Dakota
• Apiary: About 60 hives
• Covers: Varroa monitoring, queen failure and requeening, colony establishment, apiary hygiene, hive problems
• Usually reviewed by: Thomas B.
• Articles: All articles by Michael R.

Sofia has around 7 years of beekeeping experience and works with a family apiary of roughly 30 colonies in southeastern North Dakota. She focuses on honey production, hive equipment, wax handling and the practical work of running an apiary through a short northern season. She writes about honey harvesting and quality, beeswax, frames, hive types, tools, protective clothing and hive maintenance. Her woodworking and hive-construction experience informs what she writes about equipment and repairs. She belongs to a regional beekeeping association.

Her articles here are mostly on honey harvesting, extraction, bottling and storage, and on hive equipment and hardware. Several of her honey-quality articles, including those on grading, refractometer moisture testing and fermentation, work from the USDA’s published grade standards for extracted honey rather than rules of thumb, and her equipment articles come from someone who has built and repaired hive boxes and frames herself. Most of her articles are second-reviewed by Elena P., who checks the science in them, and Sofia reviews a smaller number of colleagues’ articles on equipment and honey handling.

• Experience: 7 years keeping bees
• Region: Southeastern North Dakota
• Apiary: About 30 hives (family apiary)
• Covers: Honey harvesting and quality, beeswax, frames, hive types, tools, protective clothing, maintenance
• Usually reviewed by: Elena P.
• Articles: All articles by Sofia T.

Thomas has about 18 years of beekeeping experience and manages roughly 75 colonies in western Minnesota, close to the North Dakota border, across both hobby and small commercial operations. His work covers seasonal colony development, honey production, queen management, winter preparation and apiary organisation. His main responsibility here is reviewing articles before publication: checking practical recommendations, looking for unsupported claims, judging whether advice suits a northern climate, and making sure general guidance is clearly separated from advice that depends on local conditions. He also writes on winter preparation, seasonal management and practical apiary management. He has completed advanced beekeeping training and belongs to a regional beekeeping association.

In practice he is the second reviewer on about half of all articles that carry an individual byline, including nearly all of Michael R.’s colony-health articles and nearly all of Daniel M.’s beginner guides. The articles he writes himself are reviewed by another member of the team, so no article with an individual byline is reviewed by the person who wrote it.

• Experience: 18 years keeping bees
• Region: Western Minnesota, near the North Dakota border
• Apiary: About 75 hives
• Covers: Winter preparation, seasonal management, colony development, honey production, editorial review
• Reviews: Most colony-health and beginner articles
• Articles: All articles by Thomas B.