Beekeeping news

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Bee hive hums recorded to monitor insects' health
By Mark Ward
BBC - February 1, 2012
Honey bees use vibration to communicate while inside the hive. Monitoring devices are being put in bee hives across Scotland as part of a project to keep an eye on their health. The monitors record temperature and use a microphone to record the hum the bees make while working and resting. Already the project has started to show the many different hums bees use to co-ordinate their work. The project is also helping to work out which environmental forces and factors are behind the decline in bees and other pollinators.
Link to article (and audio) on BBC

Pesticides blamed for bee decline
By Jonathan Own
Independent - January 20, 2012
Compelling new evidence from the US government's top bee expert that modern pesticides may be a major cause of collapsing bee populations led to calls yesterday for the chemicals to be banned. A study published in the current issue of the German science journal Naturwissenschaften, reveals how bees given minute doses of the widely used pesticide imidacloprid became more vulnerable to infections from a deadly parasite, nosema.
Link to article on Independent

Getting Started in Bee Improvement
January 28, 2012
Saturday, 9.30 am to 4.00 pm atDobwalls Memorial Hall, Higher Meadow, Dobwalls PL14 6LS A one-day event, organised by BIPCo (Bee Improvement Programme for Cornwall).
Topics covered will include: assessment of colonies, breeding within a strain or sub-species, morphometry, queen rearing, queen mating and the use of nucs & mini-nucs. A programme for all those interested in improving the quality of their bees through assessment, selection and the rearing of new queens. Tickets are £10.00 for those registered before the day or £15.00 on the day. Please confirm your place by emailing info@bipco.org.uk or by post to: BIPCo, 4 West Street, Millbrook, Torpoint PL10 1AA.
Payment on the day.

Chemical treatment for colony collapse disorder temporarily worsens viral infections in honeybees
PhysOrg - January 20, 2012
Acaricide, a chemical used against Varroa mites that infect honeybees, appears to render bees more susceptible to deformed wing virus infections, according to research published in the January issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Like the mites, these viruses have been identified as potential causes of colony collapse disorder.
Link to article in PhysOrg
Link to article in EurekAlert

Bees 'could deter vandals' at Greenfield heritage park
BBC - January 20, 2012
Heritage park bosses could use bees to act as a deterrent to stop vandal attacks on historic buildings. They are looking for sustainable ways to protect old mill buildings at Greenfield Valley Heritage Park, near Holywell, Flintshire. One idea already tabled is using bees to deter people from going into the protected buildings. A planning application is due to be submitted to Flintshire council to erect fencing around some of the sites. An area around Greenfield Mill had to close last summer due to concerns it was in a dangerous condition, with surrounding footpaths also shut to walkers. Park manager Chris Wright said the deterioration was partly due to age as well as vandal attacks. He said it would be difficult to deter people determined to get into buildings on the free access public site, making the idea to use bees "seem sensible".
Link to article on BBC

Bring Back the Black Bee
Slowfood - January 19, 2012
The Sicilian black bee or Nera Sicula (Apis mellifera siciliana) is native to the island. Descended from an African strain, it was very common until the 1970s, and then almost completely abandoned in favor of the Italian bee (Apis mellifera ligustica), which was more suited to commercial apiculture. Italian bees now produce almost all of Sicily’s honey. The bees used to be kept in rectangular wooden beehives, but with the switch to the Italian bee, these were replaced with modern hives. During the following decades, the Sicilian bee risked total extinction, but was saved thanks to the work of a Sicilian entomologist, Pietro Genduso, who studied the bee for many years following Montagano’s classification in 1911.
Link to article on Slowfood
Link to article on Terra Madre

Honeybee problem nearing a 'critical point'
By Claire Thompson
Guardian - January 13, 2012
Unusual honeybee die-offs have become so severe that some US beekeepers will qualify for disaster relief funds. Anyone who's been stung by a bee knows they can inflict an outsized pain for such tiny insects. It makes a strange kind of sense, then, that their demise would create an outsized problem for the food system by placing the more than 70 crops they pollinate -- from almonds to apples to blueberries -- in peril. Although news about Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has died down, commercial beekeepers have seen average population losses of about 30 percent each year since 2006, said Paul Towers, of the Pesticide Action Network. Towers was one of the organizers of a conference that brought together beekeepers and environmental groups this week to tackle the challenges facing the beekeeping industry and the agricultural economy by proxy.
Link to article in the Guardian

Honeybee deaths linked to seed insecticide exposure
PhysOrg - January 12, 2012
Honeybee populations have been in serious decline for years, and Purdue University scientists may have identified one of the factors that cause bee deaths around agricultural fields. Analyses of bees found dead in and around hives from several apiaries over two years in Indiana showed the presence of neonicotinoid insecticides, which are commonly used to coat corn and soybean seeds before planting. The research showed that those insecticides were present at high concentrations in waste talc that is exhausted from farm machinery during planting. The insecticides clothianidin and thiamethoxam were also consistently found at low levels in soil - up to two years after treated seed was planted - on nearby dandelion flowers and in corn pollen gathered by the bees, according to the findings released in the journal PLoS One this month.
Link to article in PhysOrg

Scientists discover soldier bees
By Victoria Gill
BBC - January 10, 2012
You may have heard of soldier ants - whose primary function is to guard their nest from intruders. Now, scientists have discovered a new soldier, in the usually much less confrontational world of bees. A University of Sussex team found that, in colonies of Jatai bees (Tetragonisca angustula), some insects are born soldiers. The study, reported in the journal PNAS, is the first known example of a soldier bee. While the caste system is common in ants and termites, with insects of different shapes and sizes assuming defined roles, the division of labour in bees is usually much more transient.
Link to article on BBC

An early spring may be bad news for honey-poor bees
By Alison Benjamin
Guardian - January 7, 2012
Sightings of snowdrops and hazel catkins mean spring may be nearly here, but bees' honey stocks are low after a tough 2011. Just hours after the National Trust released its annual survey showing how the unseasonal weather in 2011 affected Britain's flora and fauna, its wildlife adviser, Matthew Oates, was tweeting about hazel catkins being out early, and snowdrops having already been sighted. This premature spring could be bad news for honeybees. We heard there were more winners than losers from last year's confusing weather, including the mining bee which emerged from its burrow in garden lawns just as flowers bloomed early. But the drought-like conditions in much of the UK and a poor summer, followed by an exceptionally warm autumn did honeybees few favours. They went into winter low on food after poor honey yields.
Link to article in the Guardian

“Zombie” Fly Parasite Killing Honeybees
By Katherine Harmon
Scientific American - January 3, 2012
A heap of dead bees was supposed to become food for a newly captured praying mantis. Instead, the pile ended up revealing a previously unrecognized suspect in colony collapse disorder—a mysterious condition that for several years has been causing declines in U.S. honeybee populations, which are needed to pollinate many important crops. This new potential culprit is a bizarre—and potentially devastating—parasitic fly that has been taking over the bodies of honeybees (Apis mellifera) in Northern California. John Hafernik, a biology professor at San Francisco State University, had collected some belly-up bees from the ground underneath lights around the University’s biology building. “But being an absent-minded professor,” he noted in a prepared statement, “I left them in a vial on my desk and forgot about them.” He soon got a shock. “The next time I looked at the vial, there were all these fly pupae surrounding the bees,” he said. A fly (Apocephalus borealis) had inserted its eggs into the bees, using their bodies as a home for its developing larvae. And the invaders had somehow led the bees from their hives to their deaths. A detailed description of the newly documented relationship was published online Tuesday in PLoS ONE
Link to article in Scientific American
Link to article on EurekAlert
Link to article on LiveScience.msn

Cellular Phones, WiFi and Bee Collapse? Israeli Bee Boss Not Buying It
Green Prophet - December 31, 2011
Bee colony collapse disorder is a worldwide phenomenon decimating bee colonies worldwide. Bees, you see, are pretty important. Without them much of our food can’t be pollinated. And the true reason why America lost about one third of its bees last year is largely unknown. Some believe it’s because there is lack of pollen as crops producing nectar decline. Some others say conventional pesticides, while more recently European researchers are blaming cellular phone antennas and WiFi connections (which is also now linked to male infertility). But Israeli bee scientists aren’t buying the “radiation” link.
Link to article on Green Prophet

Video: Threatened Bermuda Honey Bee
Bernews - December 28, 2011
Honey bees are among Bermuda’s oldest inhabitants, introduced to the island from England in 1616 — just four years after its permanent settlement. They were not imported into the American colonies until six years later. In recent decades virtually all Bermuda’s honey bees have been kept in frame hives [pictured] but the long-term future for beekeeping in Bermuda is not bright.
Link to article in Bermuda News (Bernews)

Social or solitary: It’s in bees’ genes
Futurity - December 15, 2011
A new study of different types of bees—bumble bees, honey bees, stingless bees, and solitary bees—offers a first look at the genetic underpinnings of their different lifestyles. Most people have trouble telling them apart, but these different bee species have home lives that are as different from one another as a monarch’s palace is from a hippie commune or a hermit’s cabin in the woods.
Link to article on Futurity
(Futurity - Research news from top universities in the US, UK, Canada and Australia)

House-hunting honey bees shed light on how human brains come to a decision
University of Bristol - December 8, 2011
Avoiding deadlock in group decision making is a common problem for committees – but house-hunting honey bees may hold the answer, according to new research from Cornell University, the University of Cailfornia-Riverside, the University of Sheffield and the University of Bristol. The study, published today in Science Express, also reveals a striking similarity between how honey bee swarms and our own brains choose between alternatives.
Link to press release on University of Bristol
Link to article in Engineering Capacity
Link to article in EurekAlert
Link to article in PysOrg

Why Saving The Bees Might Be Simpler Than We Think
Green Answers - December 7, 2011
You may already be familiar with the disappearance of our world’s honey bees, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), and the grave dilemma it presents: one third of our food, including nearly all our fruits and vegetables, relies on bees for pollination somewhere along the chain of production. Scientists have been unable to pinpoint a single cause of the declining bee population, which has been dying off at annual rates of around 30%. Autopsied bees have shown a variety of diseases and health complications, but one Argentine beekeeper may just have a way of saving the bees from all of these problems.
Link to article on Green Answers

Beekeepers help fight loss of colonies
The Tennessean - December 7, 2011
Beekeeping has grown increasingly popular as a pastime in Middle Tennessee as scientists ratchet up efforts to understand diseases taking a toll on the vital insects. One of the least understood afflictions — Colony Collapse Disorder, in which masses of honeybees disappear — was a key topic at a gathering in Nashville this week of veterinary pathologists from around the country. The American College of Veterinary Pathologists, which is holding its annual meeting through today at the Nashville Convention Center, is on the front lines of environmental and wildlife diseases, including swine flu, pseudorabies, tuberculosis and avian influenza. Many can affect pets or humans, too.
Link to article in the Tennessean (US)

Honey Monsters
Isle of Man Today - November 26
STEPHEN Guest from the British Beekeepers’ Association travelled from Cheshire to assess entries in the Isle of Man Beekeepers’ annual convention and exhibition at St John’s Church hall. He carried out ‘open judging’, which meant that entrants could observe the judging and listen to his comments. He said that the honey entries were some of the best he had seen at any show and were worthy of exhibiting at the National Honey Show in the UK and would win prizes.
Link to article in Isle of Man today

Hives' mite problem exposed by 'sugar roll'
By Meredith May
San Francisco Chronicle - November 24, 2011
Nothing like nature to put you back in your place. We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves after bottling 150 jars of honey in our first year of beekeeping on The Chronicle rooftop. Then, as we approached our two hives on a routine check in late October - we saw carnage. Dead bees were scattered in a wide circle around the entrance to both hives.
Link to article in San Francisco Chronicle

Bees Abroad give others a happy Christmas with their cards
Smallholder - November 24, 2011
'Bees Abroad' is a UK charity that seeks to relieve poverty in developing countries through beekeeping. Bees offer a low cost opportunity to not only provide honey and beeswax which can be used in the home or sold, but they also improve crop pollination in the vicinity of their hives. This has the knock-on effect of improving crop yields and hence the food available for the beekeeper's family.
Link to article in Smallholder

UK researcher honored for beehive fence
UPI.com - November 23, 2011
BERGEN, Norway, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- A British biologist was honored by the United Nations for research that led to the development of a beehive fence to keep elephants from raiding crops. African Savannah elephants tend to be frightened by the sting of the honey bee, and biologist Lucy King used that knowledge for behavioral research that led to the development of the unusual deterrence device.
Link to article on UPI.com