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 for later in the year in North Carolina, United States.
“As a company with long-standing expertise in both animal health and crop protection, Bayer is committed to environmental stewardship and sustainable agricultural practices, including protection of beneficial insects such as honey bees,” said Professsor Dr. Wolfgang Plischke, member of the Bayer AG Board of Management responsible for Innovation, Technology and Environment.
“We have been providing products specifically designed to ensure bee health for more than 25 years,” Plischke said. “And through promoting sustainable farming practices, we support farmers worldwide to produce safe, high quality and affordable food for an increasing world population.”
Professor Wolfgang Plischke - Bayer AG Board of Management
The new centres will serve as a scientific and communication platform to consolidate existing and future bee health projects from Bayer companies in cooperation with external partners. They will also foster information sharing and will provide a platform for discussion and new ideas. Bayer believes that this collaboration is essential in order to find sustainable solutions that will improve honey bee health. “The Bee Care Program and the establishment of the Bee Care Centres will bring Bayer‘s extensive experience and knowledge in bee health under one roof and will ensure that dedicated resources for bee health are available,” Plischke said.
Bayer CropScience is working with the agricultural communities worldwide to ensure the safe use of crop protection products which are essential to protect plants from pests and diseases. “At Bayer we take our responsibility to bee health very seriously,” said Sandra Peterson, Chief Executive Officer of Bayer CropScience. “We make great efforts to ensure that our products can be used in a bee-responsible manner. We do this through researching and extensive testing of our products, thorough risk assessment and the focused stewardship measures we have put in place. Our plans to establish these two Bayer Bee Care Centres further underline our commitment to global bee health.” Given the essential role that honey bees and other pollinators play in the pollination of a large number of food crops, there has been considerable public interest in the discussions and science related to honey bee health and colony losses over the last few years.
Although the global number of bee colonies increased by approximately 45 percent over the last half century the decline in Europe and North America over recent years due to a number of factors including diseases, parasites, extreme climatic and environmental factors and also certain agricultural and apicultural practices is concerning. “For more than 25 years Bayer has played a leading role in securing bee’s health with proven products to control the varroa mite – a parasite which transmits pathogenic viruses and is considered to be one of the most significant factors in losses of honey bees in Europe and North America,” said Dr. Jean-Luc Lowinski, Managing Director of Bayer Animal Health. “In addition, we are developing further products and exploring technological solutions which will complement our current portfolio to ensure improved honey bee health.”
In a separate initiative, Bayer CropScience has launched a new bee health component of its U.S. Website, highlighting the important role bees play in agriculture and underscoring Bayer’s ongoing commitment to ensuring honey bee health. Visitors to the website can find out more about the important role bees and pollination play in agriculture, meet Bayer’s resident bee expert, learn how Bayer is working to protect honey bees and the ways Bayer’s product stewardship practices positively affect honey bee health. The new website may be viewed at http://www.bayercropscience.us/our-commitment/bee-health.
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What an interesting blog! I’ve awyals been fascinated by bees. My husband brought up the idea of us having bees, but it looks so complicated. On the other hand, his sister in Oakland, CA went ahead and started about 2 years ago. She had some problems with a neighbor’s fear of bees, but she moved her hive to the other side of her roof and apparently the neighbor is none the wiser. Dare I forward info about your blog to my husband? It does involve some commitment to keep a hive, does it not?
NickI come from a similar laotgsrnth background and am currently preparing for my all natural transition into top-bar hives. I was wondering what your take was on the screened bottom board as an IPM approach. True, bees do best when left alone, but we humans alter everything else outside of the hive (i.e. shipping hives and pests) so i feel this is an important addition to any system. As for the quick start guide that I just read, a few things to clarify ( i will be making presentations to the local beekeeper associations in a month so I was being thorough):Do all/most warre hive bodies support a max of 8 topbars? How does one keep those top bars evenly spaced? (one of the few upsides to the laotgsrnth design was bee space by design)What prevents/and or encourages honeybees from bridging topbars adjacent to one another so that they can not be worked independently? And bridging between hive bodies? (you mentioned the 4 mm to move around, but it has always been my experience that bees will bridge regardless)Can a beekeeper use a standard laotgsrnth design but replace frames with topbars and honey supers with cloth and insulation?I am currently working with a company called BaltimoreHoney.org, on a hybrid-hive that combines a Kenya topbar system with that of the laotgsrnth supers and Warre hive. Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions, thank you and bee well!