There is much talk these days of the decline in pollinator numbers and governments around the world are investing scarce resources into finding out why bees and other insects are disappearing, but maybe it doesn’t matter! US scientists have devised tiny winged robots inspired by flies that could one day help pollinate crops or [...]
It’s always good to get some good news. Global warming may be slightly milder than prevailing estimates predict
A new study reveals that it effectively inhibits the growth of cancerous tumours in the breast, skin and colon. The long march of manuka honey towards becoming a new, natural superdrug continues
All social species ultimately evolved from a solitary ancestor. How does the ancestral solitary phenotype split to produce specialised reproducers (queens) and brood carers (workers) when a species becomes social?
Honey bee rental company wins 2013 China business plan competition.
There’s always a new idea out there somewhere. MBA students with the best pitches for China businesses won $10,000 in cash prizes recently from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business in the 2013 China Business Plan Competition. The annual competition [...]
Most beekeepers are ardent supporters of environmental protection and would no doubt support any groups advocating methods of protecting our valuable environment and ecosystems. So how about this one? An unlikely group is distributing condoms this holiday season. In the USA, the Center for Biological Diversity wants to make family planning an environmental issue. [...]
Need rescuing? Trapped in a mine? Need extra pollination? You won’t have long to wait until ‘robobee’ comes to the rescue.
Sometimes real science sounds more like science fiction. Just the phrase “bionic bees” sounds like something out of an old paperback. But that’s the goal of a new project from the University [...]
Worker bees have become a highly skilled and specialized work force because the genes that determine their behaviour are shuffled frequently, helping natural selection to build a better bee, research from York University suggests.
A study, published in the October 15 PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), sheds light on how worker [...]
EU and US say neonicotinoids could be dangerous for bees
Earlier this year APiSUK published an article written by Michael McCarthy for the Guardian on the decline of pollinating insects and later we also published information on how it was thought that neonicotinoid insecticides that act on the nervous system may be having a harmful [...]
The biota of island archipelagos is of considerable interest to biologists. These isolated areas often act as ‘evolutionary laboratories’, spawning biological diversity rapidly and permitting many mechanisms to be observed and studied over relatively short periods of time. Such islands are often the places of new discoveries, including the documentation of new species.
A New Zealand schoolgirl stood before world leaders and media in Rio last month and called for an end to broken environmental promises. Brittany Trilford, 17, was one of the opening speakers at the Rio+20 Earth Summit in Brazil. She was selected after submitting an impassioned video that impressed a jury including Hollywood heavyweights [...]
USA 2011. Honey production down but prices at record highs
2011 Honey Statistics from the USA
Released March 30, 2012, by the National Agricultural Statistics Service
(NASS), Agricultural Statistics Board, United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA).
United States Honey Production Down 16 Percent
Honey production in 2011 from producers with five [...]
GM Company Buys Bee Protection Company
There has been a lot of controversy in the States after the GE company giant, Monsanto which has often been blamed for contributing to the dwindling bee population, has bought up one of the leading bee research organizations. Beelogics is an organisation recognized by the USDA, the USDA-ARS, [...]
A team of researchers headed by Prof. Annette Menzel at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen reports that pollen counts have already risen across Europe in recent years. Their findings are based on an analysis of pollen time series in 13 countries. This trend is more pronounced in urban areas, where pollen counts are rising by [...]
Some of the UK’s rarest bumblebees are at risk of becoming extinct as a result of inbreeding, research suggests.The lack of genetic diversity is making the bees more vulnerable to a number of threats, including parasitic infection, say scientists in Scotland. They warn that some populations of bees are [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Cockerell’s Bumblebee Was Last Seen in the United States in 1956. A team of scientists from the University of California, Riverside recently rediscovered the rarest species of bumblebee in the United States, last seen in 1956, living in the White Mountains of south-central New Mexico.
Known as “Cockerell’s Bumblebee,” the bee was originally described in [...]
It never surprises me when new species of bee are found. I was amazed at Cardiff years ago when told how many thousands of species of bee had been found and that it probably wasn’t the half of it yet I still delight in any new find.
Now Smithsonian scientists have discovered two new, [...]
CAN HONEY BEES TOLERATE SOME SYNTHETIC PESTICIDES
There has been much talk recently about pesticides being a cause of CCD and other bee problems, especially in the commercial beekeeping environment, but do the supposed facts stack up?
Can in fact the honey bee Tolerate some synthetic pesticides and if so, how? It seems that [...]
Apis UK has been reporting on the increasingly global issue of bee deaths/CCD for many months. The problem was summed up recently in a UN report on the matter and it is well worth reading.
Mass deaths of bee colonies in many parts of the world may be part [...]
This report was issued by
Lantra Awards Press Office
Samuel Zelmer-Jackson, PR Co-ordinator
Tel: 02476 858 418 or email press@lantra-awards.co.uk
Honey bees impact the life of everyone in the UK and make an important contribution to agriculture, biosecurity and the environment. Whether as a hobby or a career, those interested [...]
FIRST OUTBREAK OF NOSEMA CERANAE IN SCOTLAND
An outbreak of Nosema ceranae has been confirmed in Scotland for the first time.
Three samples of bees sent to experts at Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) for analysis have tested positive for Nosema ceranae. Related to Nosema apis, which is is linked to spring [...]
HIGH FLYERS OF THE URBAN BEE MOVEMENT
As urban beekeeping starts to take off around the world, even the high flyers of the financial world are doing their bit. London Stock Exchange has just housed thousands bees this month, by introducing bees to its rooftop in the City.
Europe’s largest stock exchange, [...]
For those who haven’t yet received their copy, here is the pre-view of the latest issue. It looks good.
Contents No 104 • June 2011
EDITORIAL 2
The UK Insect Pollinator Initiative;
Nosema; Swarms and Swarming;
Beekeeping Development; & Ron Brown
OBE and David Cushman.
OBITUARIES 12
Ron Brown OBE and David Cushman.
[...]
A report on the BBC tells us that in a discovery that may help save honey bee, Cardiff researchers say that beekeepers could hold the key to fighting a variety of drug-resistant superbugs. It has long been thought that honey’s acidic qualities and low water content are antiseptic factors in its makeup and now [...]
Total losses from managed honey bee colonies nationwide were 30 percent from all causes for the 2010/2011 winter, according to the annual survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA).
This is roughly similar to total losses reported in similar surveys done in the four previous [...]
