In a month when we learn that the secret of immortality is locked up in the genes of flat worms and that Bayer is setting up a global bee health initiative, we also hear of more problems for honey bees that will certainly add to their mortality. The small parasitic fly Apocephalus borealis which [...]
In order to further promote bee health bayer has initiated a global bee care programme. As part of the program, two dedicated “Bayer Bee Care Centres” are to be established. In Europe, one centre is scheduled to open in Monheim, Germany, in mid-summer. A second centre, which will focus on North America, is planned [...]
February 10, 2012: Bulgaria. Orthodox Christians in Bulgaria on Friday observed a holiday traditionally associated here with bees and honey.
It was the Day of St. Haralambos, a patron saint of beekeepers, who also is known as “the lord of all illnesses.” Believers pray to him to protect their home and health. Hundreds came [...]
Honeybee deaths linked to seed insecticide exposure. As we all know, honeybee populations have been in serious decline for years and there are many theories as to the cause – or more likely, causes. American scientists from Purdue University may have identified one of the factors that cause these deaths around agricultural fields.
Analyses of [...]
Espionage isn’t only the prerogative of MI 6 or the CIA; it seems to happen in all societies and bees are evidently no exception. Recently, a team from London University’s Queen Mary’s School of Biological and Chemical Sciences explain how they trained a colony of bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) to use cues provided by a [...]
Foraging for nectar and pollen is more than just finding a flower source and moving from flower to flower. It also involves moving from flower patch to flower patch or meadow to meadow and in various ways, this is how honey bees and bumblebees operate. So how does this have an echo in human [...]
Plants for Bees new scientific study reveals what you really should be planting.
In a brilliant piece of practical research, biologists at the University of Sussex have been analysing how effectively different species of flowers attract foraging insects and they have found that planting the right kind of flowers in gardens may help to halt [...]
How bees speak to hornets! With the possibility of the bee killing eastern hornet entering the UK from Europe, most beekeepers now know that this creature is able to decimate colonies of Western honey bees and that the eastern honey bee having evolved alongside this killer can deal with the problem.
During a recent study [...]
If all the other new exotic bee diseases and mites weren’t enough, bee colonies in California and South Dakota, are coming under threat from an emerging fly parasite that causes them to abandon their hives and die after a bout of disoriented, “zombie-like” behaviour, San Francisco State University researchers have found.
The phenomenon, first [...]
In new mass-production technique, robotic insects can spring to life using a technique inspired by elegant pop-up books and origami will soon allow clones of robotic insects to be mass-produced by the
sheet. This process can now mass produce sheets of pop up robotic bees that can fly and even behave as a colony.
[...]
It is well known that New Zealand Manuka honey can be used to combat some of the most hard-to-treat infections that are resistant to powerful antibiotics and this has now been clinically proved, but what about other honeys. How do they fare? Most honeys have antibacterial properties because of the presence of hydrogen peroxide [...]
A new research centre adds to the global growth of stingless-bee beekeeping for pollination and honey. You would think that this would be in the developed world but in fact it is a centre that is showing just how fast Africa is catching up. This research centre is in Ghana.
In rural Ghana, stingless [...]
Honey could be effective at treating and preventing wound infections Manuka honey could help clear chronic wound infections and even prevent them from developing in the first place, according to a new study published in Microbiology. The findings provide further evidence for the clinical use of manuka honey to treat bacterial infections in the [...]
My son, eat honey, for it is good;
The droppings of the honeycomb, which are sweet to your taste:
So you shall know wisdom to be to your soul; when you have found it,
Then there will be a reward, your hope will not be cut off.
A bee hexagon by Piero della Francesca
Piero [...]
This month’s note is a discourse on bee diseases from that noted writer Virgil. It is taken from his Georgics Book 4 which deals with beekeeping and apiculture and is illustrative of the knowledge of the time.
Since life has brought the same misfortunes to bees as ourselves,
if their bodies are weakened with [...]
A Spanish Flan is a soft custard sweet rather than the flans we would know about in the UK. Every Spanish bar or restaurant sells them and the locals say that the shop bought already prepared versions are as good as home made ones and don’t take hours to make. It is true that [...]
