DBKA - News archive, 2009

Please note - as some of these entries age, their respective links may become broken as external websites change.

Bayer ‘Disappointed’ in Ruling on Chemical That May Harm Bees
By Alan Bjerga
Bloomberg - December 29, 2009
Bayer is “disappointed” by a U.S. judge’s ruling that may prevent distribution of its spirotetramat insecticide, a spokesman said. Environmental groups say the chemical causes harm to honeybees. U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote on Dec. 23 ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to rescind approval for spirotetramat, which inhibits cell reproduction in insects. Cote said the EPA didn’t properly seek comments or publicize the review process.
Link to article on Bloomberg

Safeguarding the forests from a Vietnam bee explosion
Vietnam.net - December 25, 2009
VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam’s woodlands face a new foe. It’s not illegal deforestation, the expansion of hydro-power projects, or the establishment of coffee or rubber farms – it’s bee keeping.
Link to article on Vietnam.net

How bees perform perfect landing
BBC - December 24, 2009
High-speed footage has revealed how a honeybee performs the perfect landing. Researchers found that the insect switches from "flight mode" to a more stable "hover mode", where it then assesses the landing ground using its eyes, antennae and legs.
Link to article and video on BBC
Link to Journal of Experimental Biology

Expect Another 35% Loss in U.S. Bees to Colony Collapse Disorder This Winter
By Kim Flottum
Daily Green - December 21, 2009
Beekeepers faced a devil's bargain this year: Honey and money now, at the expense of their hive's health.
Link to article in Daily Green

Wiggling and waggling: Study sheds light on amazing bee brain
PhysOrg.com - December 21, 2009
Their brains are tiny - about the size of sesame seeds - and yet the behaviour of the humble honey bee is so advanced it has scientists scratching their heads in disbelief.
Link to article in PhysOrg.com

Small Hive Beetle defeated by species of Australian bee
By Matt Walker
BBC - December 17, 2009
A species of bee in Australia has found a gruesome way to deal with a parasitic interloper that can damage its hives. The stingless bee 'mummifies' any hive beetle that tries to enter its domain - wrapping the live parasite in resin, wax and mud until it can move no more. The mummified beetles eventually starve and shrivel on the spot, researchers report in the journal Naturwissenschaften.
Link to article on BBC
Link to Abstract in Natur wissenschaftn

Ethiopean Parliament passes Honey Bee Bill
AllAfrica.com - December 14, 2009
Parliament passed a bill Thursday, December 10, 2009, prohibiting the export of live honey bees except by those who have specifically been licensed and the importation of live bee species and used beekeeping and processing equipment.
Link to article in AllAfrica.com

New Holland joins forces with the Beekeepers to save the bees
New Holland - December 7, 2009
New Holland, one of the UK’s leading agricultural manufacturers, has announced that it has joined the fight to find solutions to the problems which are threatening and killing dramatically high numbers of Britain’s honeybees.
Link to article on New Holland website
Link to article on BBKA website

MSU research may lead to new ways to control honeybee parasite
MSU News - December 7, 2009
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Ground-breaking discoveries by Michigan State University researchers could help protect honeybees from deadly parasites that have devastated commercial colonies. The MSU researchers for the first time were able to produce in the laboratory proteins that help channel sodium ions through cell membranes of parasites known as Varroa mites. The research, using cellular frog eggs, also found that these proteins react to chemicals differently than the sodium channel proteins in honeybees, a finding that could be a key to controlling the mites.
Link to article in Michigan State University News

Bees Release Deadly Odor That Shortens Sibling Lifespans
By Janelle Weaver
Wired Science - December 2, 2009
Here’s one way to get back at your sibling: Release a deadly odor. Honeybee researchers have discovered the first example of a pheromone that shortens the lifespan of other family members — in this case, older sisters. “Just one little sniff can change your life,” said biologist Gro Amdam of Arizona State University, co-author of a study published Dec. 1 in The Journal of Experimental Biology. “That’s kind of cool.”
Link to article in Wired Science
Link to article in the Journal of Experimental Biology

Bees mean boxes after charity talk
Herald Express - December 2, 2009
Beekeepers in the Bay have boosted the ShelterBox honey pot of funds with a £500 donation. Torbay honey collectors were so impressed with a talk given by South Devon-based ShelterBox coordinator Linda Dewis that, after the meeting, they voted to donate money to the cause. Jim Mogridge, chairman of the Torbay branch of the Devon Beekeepers Association, said: "We always have a speaker at the annual meeting and this year we invited Linda Dewis.
Link to article in Herald Express

Habitat loss and disease are bees' bane, not pesticides
Mike Abram
Farmers Weekly November 12, 2009
Loss of habitat and diseases are the key causes of honey bee deaths in the UK, the British Crop Production Council congress has been told. Francis Ratnieks, the only professor of apiculture in the country, claimed that popular issues picked up in the media, such as pesticides and climate change, were distractions.
Link to Farmers Weekly

Localization of deformed wing virus (DWV) in the brains of the honeybee, Apis mellifera Linnaeus
By Author: Karan Shah, Elizabeth Evans and Marie Pizzorno
Credits/Source: Virology Journal 2009, 6:182
7th Space - October 31, 2009
Deformed wing virus (DWV) is a positive-strand RNA virus that infects European honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) and has been isolated from the brains of aggressive bees in Japan. DWV is known to be transmitted both vertically and horizontally between bees in a colony and can lead to both symptomatic and asymptomatic infections in bees.
Link to article on 7th Space

Resistance to varroa mite treatment reported
RadioNz - October 31, 2009
The $3 billion pollination industry is under renewed threat from the varroa mite which destroys bee colonies, with reports of resistance to treatment. The National Beekeepers Association says bees tested from a hive near Auckland have shown resistance to synthethic pyrethroid treatments. Varroa has been in New Zealand for nine years.
Link to article on RadioNz

Propolis exhibits antioxidant and anti-microbial properties that are beneficial to human health
Medical News - October 28, 2009
Growing concerns about health has caused the scientific community to focus their interest on investigating functional foods which contribute to boosting the prevention and reduction of the risk of suffering from certain illnesses. The benefits of this product lies in its composition and, thus, its study, identification and subsequent extraction provides a useful tool which enables making high added-value products, given their high concentration of biologically active compounds.
Link to article in Medical News
(also link to Propolis - Basque Research)

The Plight of the Bumblebee
By Louise Batchelor
BBC Radio 4 - October 21, 2009
It is commonly known that honeybees have been dying in large numbers, but much less well known that bumblebees are just as important when it comes to pollinating crops and flowers, and that they too are in serious decline. Louise Batchelor investigates the reasons for their plight and looks at efforts to conserve the most threatened species - and even reverse the last extinction. The programme also features the world's first working bumblebee sniffer dog, trained to find their elusive nests, which is a vital part of the research.
Link to article on BBC
Listen to the articel on BBC iPlayear (30 minutes)

The truth about the disappearing honeybees
By Marcelo Aizen and Lawrence Harder
New Scientist - October 21, 2009
A MOVIE called Vanishing of the Bees opened in cinemas across the UK earlier this month. It's a feature-length documentary about the "mysterious collapse" of the honeybee population across the planet - a phenomenon that has recently attracted a great deal of attention and hand-wringing. The idea that bees are disappearing for reasons unknown has embedded itself in the public consciousness. It is also a great story that taps into the anxieties of our age. But is it true? We think not, at least not yet.
Link to article on New Scientist

For Beekeepers, It's Been the Best of Times and the Worst of Times
By Kim Flottum
The Daily Green - October 21, 2009
Honey stocks are at an all time low, colony collapse disorder highlights pervasive problems ... but hobby beekeeping is on the rise.
Link to article on Daily Green

Grant gives money for the bees
Berrow's Worcester Journal - October 21, 2009
A collection of six new bee hives will be established at Pershore College thanks to a conservation grant. The £1,500 grant was awarded to the Evesham Beekeeping Association by the Cotswold Conservation Board and will be used to set up the apiary and provide training for new and existing beekeepers.
Link to article on Berrow's Worcester Journal

Beekeeper takes sting out of youth crime
By Daisy Dumas
This is London - October 20, 2009
A beekeeper is to tackle youth crime with the help of his craft. Orlando Clarke's initiative will teach troubled 16 to 19-year-olds how to maintain hives and harvest honey. He is in talks with youth offending programmes and intends to place 2,000 hives across London by 2012. Mr Clarke, 40, has kept bees for nine years and owns hives near King's Cross and in Peckham. He believes that nature, and getting involved in a positive project, may help reform offenders' behaviour.
Link to article on This is London

Plight of the honeybee stung by funding from the chemical industry
Guardian - October 14, 2009
Syngenta produces a pesticide linked to bee deaths. So why has it been allowed to contribute towards research into the collapse of bee colonies?
Link to article on the Guardian

Review - Vanishing of the Bees
By Philip Coppell
Click Liverpool - October 14, 2009
Review of the film 'Vanishing of the Bees'.
There are many on the internet - this is one.
Link to review on Click Liverpool

Where have all the Bees gone?
New Internationalist - September 2009 edition
A collection of 7 articles about 'vanishing bees'. Why they are in decline and various solutions from around the world.
Read the articles online:
Link to articles in New Internationalist

Physicist gets buzz from better bee behaviour model
University of Manchester - October 13, 2009
A physicist at the University of Manchester has paved the way for better research into how honey bees choose where to live. Dr Tobias Galla has used methods from statistical physics to mathematically ‘solve’ a computer model developed by other researchers, which shows how a swarm of honey bees collectively decide on a new home and accurately pick the best.
Link to article on University of Manchester

Agri-chemical companies are both breeding and killing bees
By Tom Levitt
Ecologist - October 13, 2009
Agri-chemical companies like Syngenta don’t just make the chemicals that have been blamed for the decline in bees; they also breed the bees that are being used as a replacement for wild pollinators
The new documentary, ‘Vanishing of the Bees’ - out in UK cinemas this week - once again blames the spread of neonicotinoid pesticides for the decline in honeybee populations.
Link to article on Ecologist

Virus linked to bee colony collapse:
Dr Declan Schroeder, a virologist at the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth.
By Sara Coelho
Planet Earth Online - October 8, 2009
A change in the behaviour of a bee virus may be responsible for honeybee colony collapses in Britain. The results are worrying but open the way to new strategies to protect bee colonies from disease.
Link to article on Planet Earth Online

£1m award to investigate bee decline
By James Andrews
Farmers Weekly Interactive - October 5, 2009
Scientists at Rothamsted Research and Warwick University have received £1 million from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and Syngenta to fund research into declining honeybee numbers.
According to UK government figures, bee numbers have fallen by 10-15% over the last two years and the British Beekeepers' Association quotes a figure nearer 30% for 2008. Since the decline was first reported a number of factors have been suggested, but most scientists now believe a complex of interacting factors is the most likely cause.
Link to article on Farmers Weekly Interactive

In Poland, honey - again - grows on trees
By Bernard Osser
AFP - October 4, 2009
SPALA, Poland — Perched in a lofty pine tree a dozen metres (around 30 feet) from the forest floor, Tomasz Dzierzanowski carefully removed a clump of dry grass from a hole in the wood and wafted smoke into a bees' nest.
Link to article on AFP

Beekeeping diary: By Ian Douglas, Telegraph
June 25, 2009 - A less than auspicious start
June 29, 2009 - Goodbye colony A
July 1, 2009 - The hard life of a bee
July 7, 2009 - Nice weather for bees
July 15, 2009 - Trouble with queens
July 21, 2009 - Hopes for a new queen
August 4, 2009 - Making new friends
August 12, 2009 - A week of growth
August 19, 2009 - Staying away
August 26, 2009 - Autumn reconnaisance
September 2, 2009 - Feeding the bees
September 8, 2009 - End of the season

Where have all the Bees gone?
New Internationalist - September 2009 edition
A collection of 7 articles about 'vanishing bees'. Why they are in decline and various solutions from around the world.
Read the articles online:
Link to articles in New Internationalist

Bees attack crash victims
By James Ellingworth
Telegraph - September 29, 2009
A swarm of bees attacked victims and rescue workers after a van carrying the beehives crashed near the Turkish resort of Marmaris.
Link to article on Telegraph

Focus On The Wild Could Avert Plant Pollination Threat
ScienceDaily - September 28, 2009
The global threat to the pollination of flowers and food production crops, highlighted by a dramatic decline in honeybee colonies, could be eased by a renewed focus on ‘wild' pollinators. Agri-environment schemes that encourage farmers to create bee-friendly habitats could be the key to increasing numbers of valuable wild pollinators like bumblebees in the wider countryside.
Link to article on Science Daily

Bicton College aids honey bee survival
Exmouth Journal - September 18, 2009
WITH honey bee numbers in decline, Bicton College is encouraging anyone interested in the insects to join an introductory course to find out why the honey bee is essential to ensuring the survival of Britain's plants and crops.
Link to article on Exmouth Journal
Link to Bicton College

Bee deaths set apiculture congress abuzz
By Emmanuel Angleys
AFP – September 17, 2009
MONTPELLIER, France — Pesticides, viruses, industrialised farming, fungus... what on Earth is killing our bees? That's the big question being asked at Apimondia, the 41st world apiculture congress, where 10,000 beekeepers, entomologists and other actors in the honey business are gathered in this southern French city until Sunday.
Link to article on AFP

Sex life of queen bees probed
Metro - September 14, 2009
The sex life of queen bees is to be explored Scientists were investigating today whether the worldwide decline in the honeybee population is due to a lack of variety in the sex life of queen bees. Researchers at the University of Leeds are beginning a three-year project to try to discover the possible causes of a recent increase in bee deaths around the world.
Link to article in Metro

Soil Association takes pesticide battle to Number 10
Farmers Weekly - September 11, 2009
The Soil Association has taken its fight to ban a group of insecticidal seed treatments in the UK to 10 Downing Street, claiming that new research proves that the chemicals are to blame for declining bee populations.Findings from the project, produced by insect research charity, Buglife, were presented to the Prime Minister's special adviser, Michael Jacobs, during a meeting at Number 10. Soil Association policy co-ordinator Emma Hockridge who attended the meeting said Mr Jacobs agreed to give the report "consideration."
Link to article on Farmers Weekly
Link to article on Buglife

Bees Throw Out Mites
By Alfredo Flores
PhysOrg (US) - September 11, 2009
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) researchers have developed honey bees that more aggressively deal with varroa mites, a parasite that is one of the major problems damaging honey bees today. Honey bees are now fighting back aggressively against Varroa mites, thanks to ARS efforts to develop bees with a genetic trait that allows them to more easily find the mites and toss them out of the broodnest.
Link to article in PhysOrg (US)

Evidence on pesticides does not support ban to protect bees
FarmingUK - September 11, 2009
The NFU has today called for an independent and comprehensive assessment of the impact of neonicotinoids after Buglife issued a report implicating these insecticides in the decline of our honey bees. The report, backed by the Soil Association and the Pesticide Action Network UK, reappraises a selection of existing evidence and recommends a precautionary suspension on the use of all neonicotinoid products pending a review of this group of insecticides. However, the NFU remains fundamentally opposed to this approach which is not based on clear and sound scientific evidence.
Link to article on FarmingUK
More about this on TimesOnline

Bee Afraid, Bee Very Afraid
Posted by Naiomi Solomon
Ethiopian Review - September 11th, 2009
May Berenbaum, entomologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign and inspiration for the X Files fictional entomologist Bambi Berenbaum, talks about colony collapse disorder and disappearing bees, as well as the importance of honeybees in agriculture.
Link to Podcast Transcription on Ethiopian Review

British Waterways pilots community beekeeping
British Waterways - September 10, 2009
Following the publication of a report from the British Beekeepers
Association showing that Britain's bee colonies are suffering unsustainably high losses, British Waterways is looking at how land adjoining its canals and rivers can be used for community beekeeping.
Link to article on British Waterways

Getting a buzz out of making honey
By Tammy McAllister
BBC Somerset - September 8, 2009
The novice beekeepers checking hives for the veroa mite
Despite a disappointing summer novice beekeepers in Somerset are feeling positive about building their colonies and producing honey in the future. The Rent-a-Hive scheme has been running for four years at the Taunton and District Division of the Somerset Beekeepers Association and in the past year its popularity has grown.
Link to article on BBC Somerset
Link to Somerset Beekeepers Association

Saving Bees: What We Know Now
New York Times - September 2, 2009
What have entomologists and beekeepers learned in the last few years of dealing with the crisis? We asked May R. Berenbaum, an author of the study, and other experts for an update.
Kim Flottum, editor, Bee Culture
Joe Traynor, California bee broker
May R. Berenbaum, entomologist, University of Illinois
Marla Spivak, entomologist, University of Minnesota
Diana Cox-Foster, entomologist, Pennsylvania State University
Link to articles in New York Times

Mobile phone towers a threat to honey bees: Study
Times of India - August 31, 2009
NEW DELHI: The electromagnetic waves emitted by mobile phone towers and cellphones can pose a threat to honey bees, a study published in India has concluded. An experiment conducted in the southern state of Kerala found that a sudden fall in the bee population was caused by towers installed across the state by cellphone companies to increase their network.
Link to article on Times of India
Reader please note - this 'study' appears to contradict the findings of a report published in Bee Culture, and reported in the July edition of 'Beekeeping'
Read more...

Buzz of excitement over bumblebee
BBC - August 25, 2009
The great yellow bumblebee - one of Britain's rarest bees - has been found at its most southerly site in 30 years. Once widespread, its numbers declined in the face of intensive farming and has clung to survival on Orkney and the Western Isles.
Link to article on BBC

Scientists discover virus that could explain drop in bee population
TimesOnline - August 25, 2009
A mysterious disease that has reduced honeybee populations in Europe and the United States could be caused in part by a virus, according to research. Scientists have discovered a characteristic pattern of cell damage in bees affected by colony collapse disorder (CCD), which suggests that a virus contributes to a condition that killed off more than a third of American honeybees in 2007-08.
Link to article on TimesOnline

3 Deadly Crops for Bees
By Kim Flottum (Editor of Bee Culture)
The DailyGreen - August 25, 2009
Pesticides used to grow three key U.S. crops are killing bees ... but beekeepers are learning how to keep their bees safe, through better nutrition and abstinence from foraging on the affected farms.
Link to article in the DailyGreen

Fifth of [UK] honeybees died in winter
BBC - August 24, 2009
Almost a fifth of the UK's honeybees died last winter, the British Beekeepers' Association has said. Combined with an average 30% loss the year before, it means beekeepers are struggling to keep colonies going.
Link to article on BBC
Link to article on BBKA

Somerset Beekeeper has the wax factor
by Melissa Viney
Guardian - August 22, 2009
Chris Harries was bitten by the honey bug at an early age. Melissa Viney hears how a hobby became a business and samples some of the amber nectar.
Link to article on Guardian

The bee’s needs
By Hazel Sillver
Financial Times - August 22 2009
While most of us loathe wasps, we have a soft spot for bees and their soporific hum, which fills the garden as they meander from flower to flower gathering nectar and pollen. Sadly this beloved creature is struggling worldwide; most countries lost about 30 per cent of their bees last winter according to the International Bee Research Assocation. The cause is thought to be a complex combination of climate change, pests, disease and a decline in wildflowers due to intensive agricultural practices.
Link to article on financial Times

Stinging bees given animal Asbo
BBC - August 21, 2009
David Dickman has been given a month to move his hives
A beekeeper has been told to buzz off with his hives after his neighbours took him to court to have an animal Asbo imposed on his swarm. David Dickman was ordered to find a new home for his bees by a court after the family next door were stung repeatedly.
Link to article on BBC

The innate immune and systemic response in honey bees to a bacterial pathogen, Paenibacillus larvae
7thSpace Interactive - August 21, 2009
There is a major paradox in our understanding of honey bee immunity: the high population density in a bee colony implies a high rate of disease transmission among individuals, yet bees are predicted to express only two-thirds as many immunity genes as solitary insects, e.g ., mosquito or fruit fly. This suggests that the immune response in bees is subdued in favor of social immunity, yet some specific immune factors are up-regulated in response to infection.
Link to article on 7thSpace Interactive

Plan Bee from the Co-Op pairs film release with environmental strategy
by Nicol Wistreich
Netribution - August 20, 2009
Vanishing of the Bees - Documentary exploring the mysterious collapse of the bee population across the plant - Releasing in UK cinemas on October 9, 2009
Link to article on Netribution

France worried by hornet invasion
BBC - August 19, 2009
France faces an invasion of Chinese hornets that could hasten the decline of the honeybee population. The wasps, known by their scientific name Vespa velutina, could also threaten bee-keepers' livelihoods, researchers say. They have spread rapidly in south-western France - a region popular with tourists - and could reach other European countries soon.
Link to article on BBC

Honey-bee Aggression Study Suggests Nurture Alters Nature
ScienceDaily - August 18, 2009
A new study reveals that changes in gene expression in the brain of the honey bee in response to an immediate threat have much in common with more long-term and even evolutionary differences in honey-bee aggression. The findings lend support to the idea that nurture (an organism's environment) may ultimately influence nature (its genetic inheritance).
Link to article on ScienceDaily

Higher Pathogen Loads In Collapsed Honeybee Colonies, Study Finds
ScienceDaily - August 13, 2009
Honeybees in colonies affected by colony collapse disorder (CCD) have higher levels of pathogens and are co-infected with a greater number of pathogens than their non-CCD counterparts, but no individual pathogen can be singled out as the cause of CCD, according to a study by an international team of researchers.
Link to article in ScienceDaily

Sting that kills cancer: Tiny 'nanobee' particles full of venom target diseased cells
By Fiona Macrae
Mail Online - August 11, 2009
It's a terrifying prospect - a swarm of bees engulfing a victim to inflict hundreds of potentially lethal stings. Scientists, however, have taken the idea and used it to inspire a treatment to take on cancer tumours. They have developed microscopic 'bees' armed with the poison that causes the pain of stings to target cancer cells while leaving healthy tissue unharmed.
Link to article on Mail Online

The new buzz in cities: beekeeping
Reuters - Aug 5, 2009
People living in urban areas are being urged to keep bees in their gardens, on rooftops and on balconies to help combat their shrinking population. Natural England, the government's advisor on the natural environment, wants to encourage homeowners to install their own mini hives to help with the decline of almost all of the UK's 250 species of bees.
Link to article on Reuters
Link to Omlet (beehaus beehives)

Honeybee “Warning Waggle” Is a Unique Form of Animal Communication
by Haley A. Lovett
findingdulcinea - August 03, 2009
Scientists have known that honeybees can dance directions to food, but they recently found that bees can also communicate danger. Other animals have been found to express many complex emotions.
Link to article in findingdulcinea.com

Silver Gilt for the BBKA at the RHS Tatton Park
British Beekeepers' Association (BBKA) July 31, 2009
The BBKA was delighted to acheive a silver gilt medal for its entry at the RHS Tatton Park show. The stand, organised and manned by Cheshire Beekeepers Association on behalf of the BBKA, was visited by hundreds of people interested both in starting beekeeping and those keen to learn what they could do to help arest the decline of the honey bee.
Link to article on BBKA

Wasp hordes poised to invade British gardens
Telegraph - July 28, 2009
Wasps are likely to invade Britain in large numbers this week according to research which suggests the last few days of July is the peak time for the nuisance.
Link to article on Telegraph

New bait lures varroa mite to its doom
Farm Press (US) - July 27, 2009
Varroa mites could literally be walking into a trap — thanks to a new attractant developed by Agricultural Research Service scientists in Gainesville, Fla. The 1/16-inch long parasite, Varroa destructor, is a top pest of honey bees nationwide, hindering the beneficial insects’ ability to pollinate almonds, blueberries, apples, zucchini and many other flowering crops. At the ARS Chemistry Research Unit in Gainesville, research leader Peter Teal and colleagues are testing a bait-and-kill approach using sticky boards and natural chemical attractants called semiochemicals.
Link to article on Farm Press

Beekeepers on alert as deadly disease found in Scots hives
By Jenny Haworth
Scotsman - July 24, 2009
BELEAGUERED beekeepers are witnessing an outbreak of a devastating disease that is spreading through Scotland. European foulbrood – a bacterium that infests bee larvae – has taken hold in Perthshire and Angus, and experts fear Fife and Aberdeenshire are also at risk. Already about 100 hives have been burned due to infection by the deadly bacteria, which can be spotted by its distinctive rotten-fish smell.
Link to article in the Scotsman

Honeybees sterilise their hives
By Matt Walker
BBC - July 23, 2009
Honeybees sterilise their hives with antimicrobial resin, scientists have discovered. In doing so, they give the whole colony a form of "social immunity", which lessens the need for each individual bee to have a strong immune system. Although honeybee resin is known to kill a range of pathogens, this is the first time that bees themselves have been shown to utilise its properties. The team published details of their discovery in the journal Evolution.
Link to article on BBC
Link to abstract on Evolution (International Journal of Organic Evolution)

Bee-keeper is buzzing as plinth date looms
By Ruth Scammell
The News (Portsmouth) - July 21, 2009
Maureen Webster will wear a costume to highlight the plight of bees when she stands on the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square tomorrow morning during the rush hour. The 54-year-old is making a special costume and will be dressed in an old-fashioned honey hive with a bee head-dress.
Link to article in The News (Portsmouth)

The bee business: An amateur apiary revolution
by Jonathon Owen
Independent - July 19, 2009
Colonies are being destroyed by disease, but a new wave of hobbyists with hives in their gardens could hold the key to restocking the population. Beekeeping is booming. Britain's leading association for the insects is struggling to meet demand from would-be apiarists. Despite fears that British bees are at risk of falling into a catastrophic decline from which they may not recover, a growing number of celebrity beekeepers are helping to fuel interest.
Link to article in Independent

Help call for vanishing honeybees
BBC - July 13, 2009
Bees have been hit by disease, climate change and pesticide use. Britain's honeybees are disappearing at an "alarming" rate, yet the government is taking "little interest" in the problem, a group of MPs has said. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) says bees, vital for pollinating crops, are worth £200m a year to the economy.
Link to article on BBC
Link to Public Accounts Committee

Bee business is buzzing
NFU - July 13, 2009
The number of beekeepers has grown over the last year, according to the National Bee Unit, which runs BeeBase, the national beekeepers' database. Increasing the numbers of registered beekeepers is an important feature of 'Healthy Bees' - a long term plan to protect and improve bee health. More than 1,500 new beekeepers have registered on BeeBase this year and much of this has been attributed to the increased publicity on bee health, leading to more people donning bee suits and picking up smokers for the first time.
Link to article on NFU

More information on the National Bee Unit is available at www.nationalbeeunit.com, and the Government's Healthy Bees plan can be found on the Defra website here.

National database starting to have positive impact on UK's beekeepers
PublicTechnology.net - July 13,2009
The number of beekeepers has grown over the last year, according to the National Bee Unit, which runs BeeBase, the national beekeepers’ database. Increasing the numbers of registered beekeepers is an important feature of ‘Healthy Bees’, the long term plan to protect and improve bee health. More than 1,500 new beekeepers have registered on BeeBase this year and much of this has been attributed to the increased publicity on bee health, leading to more people donning bee suits and picking up smokers for the first time.
Link to article on PublicTechnology.net

Success is sweet for the honey that spreads good health
By Sarah Freeman
Yorkshire Post - July 7, 2009
It sounds like just another old wives' tale.
However, while eating carrots might not help you see in the dark, it seems a spoonful of honey not only helps the medicine go down, but it can ease sore throats, soothe digestive problems and, perhaps most impressively of all, fight off MRSA.
Link to article in Yorkshire Post

An introduction to beekeeping
The Hampton Court Palace Flower Show
By Sally Nex
BBC - July 7, 2009
Hampton Court is really buzzing this year – and not just with the chatter of 170,000 visitors pouring through the gates. This is the year of the honeybee: not only is there a show garden dedicated to beekeeping, there's also a host of bee-related activities for parents and kids going on in the Children's Zone, courtesy of the British Beekeepers' Association (BBKA).
Link to article on BBC

Last ever Royal Show to be ‘biggest and best’
By Alistair Driver
Farmers Guardian - July 6, 2009
THE 160th and last ever Royal Show is set to be the ‘biggest and best’ in recent years, according to the show organisers. The Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE) expect 100,000 people through the gates at Stoneleigh Park, in Warwickshire, for the event that starts today (July 7) and ends, for good, on Friday (July 10).
Link to article in Farmers Guardian
Link to The Royal Show

MPs fight for honeybee funding
By Alison Benjamin
Guardian - July 6, 2009
Honeybee parlimentary group to hold its first meeting amid fears that £10m funding will fail to stop the insect's decline. A third of the UK's honeybees were wiped out last year. A group of MPs will on Wednesday join forces to fight for funding save the honeybee. Led by the Conservative MP, John Penrose, the all-party parliamentary group on honeybees will hold its inaugural meeting amid fears that the £10m of funding announced this year for research into pollinators will fail to tackle the decline in our most important pollinator, the honeybee.
Link to article on Guardian

More wild flowers to be planted to save honeybees
Telegraph - July 4, 2009
In a resolution passed on Wednesday at their Annual General Meeting, the Women's Institute called on its own members to plant bee-friendly flowers – or set up their own hives – as well as urging local authorities to plant derelict spaces, roadside verges and even car parks with trees or flowers that feed the bee population.
Link to article in Telegraph
Link to SOS for Honeybees on WI website

'Bee sting honey' for arthritis
BBC - July 3, 2009
The honey may offer the gain without the pain
A New Zealand company is seeking EU approval to market honeybee venom to help people with arthritis ease their pain.
Link to article on BBC News
Link to Nelson Honey and Marketing

Honeybee mobs overpower hornets
BBC - July 3, 2009
Honeybee hordes use two weapons - heat and carbon dioxide - to kill their natural enemies, giant hornets. Japanese honeybees form "bee balls" - mobbing and smothering the predators. This has previously been referred to as "heat-balling", but a study has now shown that carbon dioxide also plays a role in its lethal effectiveness.
Link to video and article on BBC

Parasite tied to global bee deaths
National Centre for Policy Analysis - June 23, 2009
The sudden collapse of honeybee colonies around the world, a condition identified in 2004, is most likely caused by the parasite Nosema ceranae, not the human causes alleged by environmental activist groups, Spanish researchers have reported in Environmental Microbiology Reports, a journal of the Society for Applied Microbiology.
Link to article in NCPA (US)

Honeybees ordered off council allotment
by Caroline Davies
The Observer - June 21, 2009 Article historyHoneybees have been evicted from an allotment because a council has defined them as "livestock". IT consultant Jason Clegg has been ordered to remove five hives containing 100,000 bees from his plot in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, by Kirklees council. Quoting the 1950 Allotment Act, the council wrote: "Permission must be sought before any livestock is allowed on allotments." Livestock is usually defined as domestic animals raised for home use or profit.
Link to article in the Observer

Mersea: Why bees are so important
By Claire Owen
Essex County Standard - June 20, 2009
When we think about endangered species, animals like pandas and tigers might spring to mind. But what about the humble honey bee?
Link to article in Essex County Standard

MEP backs beekeepers in helping to control disease
Whitby Gazette - June 19, 2009
WHITBY beekeepers who are fighting a disease which threatens to wipe out bees throughout the world have gained the support of North Yorkshire MEP Edward MacMillan-Scott.
Link to article in Whitby Gazette

Honeybees return to Kew Gardens
Telegraph - June 16, 2009
Honeybees are making a comeback to Kew Gardens as part of a campaign to encourage people to grow bee-friendly flowers in their gardens. Beekeepers have reported unusually high losses of honeybees in recent years. Around 20,000 honeybees have been released into two hives in a wild flower meadow at the world famous botanical gardens in London, marking a return after a year without the insects.
Link to article in the Telegraph

Colony Collapse Disorder Research Is (Finally) Gearing Up
The Daily Green - June 16, 2009
A year later, here's how $4.1 million in new federal honey bee research money is being spent. Interview with Dr Keith Delaplane.
Link to article in The Daily Green

Bees swarm on Berrow beach
This is Westcountry - June 16, 2009
HEARD the buzz about Berrow beach? A swarm of bees created holiday havoc for tourists at the popular sands on Saturday. The bees took over a small section of beach - pitching up camp on a beach umbrella.
Link to article in ThisisWestcountry

There’s a buzz going on at Glastonbury Festival…
Smallholder News - June 16, 2009
Exmoor to Uganda via Glastonbury Festival. Bees Abroad - Supporting beekeeping projects in developing countries A Ugandan bee-keeper with his family, and Julian Willford of UK charity Bees Abroad This month a team of six people from Bees Abroad charity make the journey to Glastonbury Festival to raise awareness of bees around the world and support 600 beekeepers and their families in Kisoro, south west of Uganda.
Link to article in Smallholder News

Calcium: The Secret To Honeybees' Memory
ScienceDaily - June 15, 2009
Long-term memory formation in honeybees is instigated by a calcium ion cascade. Researchers have shown that calcium acts as a switch between short- and long-term storage of learned information.
Link to article in ScienceDaily

Beekeepers seek to solve colony problems
by Spence Gunn
Horticulture Week - June 12, 2009
Pests and poor summers, not agricultural pesticides, are to blame for falling bee numbers
Link to article in Horticulture Week

Call for research into decline of honey bees
This is Somerset - June 10, 2009
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative parliamentary candidate for North East Somerset, is calling for more research into the disappearance of honey bees from the countryside. Mr Rees-Mogg has met the secretary of the International Bee Research Association, David Smith, to discuss the problem.
Link to article in This is Somerset

Prince Charles Stung By Spate Of Bee Thefts
by Sara Merchant
Sky News - June 09, 2009
Half a million honey bees bound for the Prince of Wales have been stolen from a royal beekeeper in Scotland. The bees were destined for the Balmoral royal estate to make honey for Prince Charles's Duchy Originals food label.
Link to article in Sky News

Womens Institute votes yes to 'SOS' for Honey Bees
British Beekeepers' Association - June 3, 2009
The 'SOS for Honey Bees' resolution was passed with an overwhelming majority of 99.4% at the AGM of the Women's Institute. "SOS for Honey Bees – honey bees play a vital role in the pollination of food crops and in our environment. In view of concerns about the accelerating decline in the UK honey bee population, this meeting urges HM Government to increase funding for research into bee health."
Link to article in BBKA
Link to Resolution (doc)

Bee swarm brings Bishopthorpe Road to standstill
By richard catton
The Press - June 3, 2009
A CYCLIST got a “swarm” reception after leaving his bike outside shops in York. The owner of the bike had been visiting shops in Bishopthorpe Road, but on returning, he found his seat swarming with bees, which showed no signs of leaving the busy shopping area.
Link to article in the [York] Press

Honey farmer in 500,000 bee sting
BBC - June 2, 2009
The hundreds of thousands of bees could have been stolen to order. About 500,000 honey bees have been stolen from a West Lothian farm, sparking a police investigation. Royal beekeeper, Murray McGregor, has lost eight hives worth £5,000 from Learilaw Farm near Broxburn. He told BBC Scotland he believes they were taken by someone with specialist beekeeping knowledge for profit.
Link to article on BBC

Rare bumblebee coming back to UK
BBC - May 31, 2009
Bumblebee numbers have been dropping around the world
A bumblebee which is extinct in the UK, is to be reintroduced from New Zealand under plans being announced.
Link to article on BBC

Bees prefer blue to red, according to research.
BBC - May 26, 2009
Jessica Forrest and her University of Toronto colleagues are investigating how flowering plants adapt to encourage pollinators. Their latest study suggests some red flowers evolved to deter bees and encourage their preferred pollinators - hummingbirds.
Link to photo on BBC
Profile of Jessica Forrest at Univ Toronto, (CA)

Consumer confusion allows manuka honey 'rip-offs'
By Niko Kloeten
National Business Review - May 25 2009
A New Zealand manuka honey producer who has offered to test what he calls a “rip-off” of manuka honey says fake versions of the health product cost the industry millions. And he says educating consumers is the key to fighting the misleading claims on the labels of these shonky products.
Link to article in the National Business Review (Nz)

More money to fight bee decline
BBC - May 23, 2009
The money will help to address gaps in knowledge about beekeeping. Nearly half a million pounds of funding to protect honeybees has been announced by the Welsh Assembly Government. The £486,000 will go to the National Bee Unit (NBU), which works to protect the honeybee in Wales and England.
Link to article on BBC

Worries over the huge winter loss of bees:
Terry Clarke and Bill Finnemore at the Devon County Show
Western Morning News - May 22, 2009
BEEKEEPERS believe pesticides could be primarily to blame for huge losses in hives over the past winter. Across Devon, bee populations dropped by a fifth, a situation keepers have branded "critical" for the wider environment, with fruits such as apples almost entirely reliant on the insects for pollination. Speaking at the Devon County Show's bee feature yesterday, members of the Devon Beekeepers' Association said a combination of factors was to blame, including stress, environmental impact and disease – but increasingly, they are pointing the figure at pesticides.
Link to article on thisiswesternmorningnews

The Earl and Countess of Wessex visit the bee exhibit at the Devon County Show
Western Morning News - May 22, 2009
The Earl handed out awards to pig rearers and the pair visited the bee exhibit. The royal couple also visited the food tent, and during their tour they were presented with a hamper of Devonian produce.
Link to article on Thisiswestcountry

Weather Eye: can a bee foresee a rainstorm?
By Paul Simons
Times Online - May 22, 2009
Bees have had a rough time in recent times. Last year in the UK we lost nearly a third of our bees, and for all sorts of reasons. Two wet summers kept them cooped up in their hives away from flowers, but added to that has been the onslaught from the varroa mite and its viruses, and pesticides are also thought to be a threat as well. So it is a relief to see bees buzzing in the sunshine this month, as an old saying goes: “A swarm in May, worth a load of hay.”
Link to article in Times Online

University to run a course in beekeeping
By Kelly Eve
Cumberland News - May 22, 2009
THE University of Cumbria is launching a beekeeping course to help boost populations of the insect.
Link to article on Cumberland News

Beekeepers stung by loss of colonies
SwissInfo - May 21, 2009
In the rolling, green countryside of western Switzerland, behind a 400-year-old granary, Beat Aebischer spends most evenings tending to his bee colonies. "It's a passion but I'm trying to turn it into a business," Aebischer says, still cheerful despite losing ten of his 32 colonies this winter.
Link to article on SwissInfo

Call to tackle Scots bee decline
BBC - May 20, 2009
The plight of honey bees will be discussed during a Holyrood debate.
Scottish ministers have been warned that failing to tackle falling bee numbers could spell disaster for the human species. Labour MSP Peter Peacock has urged the government to boost research on the issue and take action by bringing in new policies to help solve the problem.
Link to article on BBC

Beekeeper stung by theft of hives
ThisisSomerset - May 19, 2009
A beekeeper in Wells has been stung by thieves who stole four of his empty hives. Nigel Bell had put the hives in a field near Callow Hill 10 years ago, but has not kept bees for several years. A wild swarm of bees adopted the hives as their home last year and Nigel was preparing to introduce new bees to them later this year. He said: "The hives were empty but I was hoping to prepare them for colonies this year. "It will cost me around £600 to replace them."
Link to article in ThisisSomerset

Manuka honey costing £55 a jar creates a buzz
by Steven Morris
Guardian - May 18, 2009
Cornwall-made manuka honey has healing qualities, say creators.
Tregothnan manuka honey from Cornwall costs £55 a pot. It looks good, apparently tastes great and is said to ease all sorts of ailments. The only sticky issue is the price: estimated at £5 a teaspoon.
But the Tregothnan Estate in Cornwall, which already does well selling tea grown on its warm, dampish slopes, is confident the honey will find its niche among aficionados of all things sweet.
Link to article on Guardian
Link to Tregothnan Estate

Local hero: Tony Spacey of Littleover Apiaries
by Jeremy Smith
Ecologist - May 18, 2009
Tony Spacey is a former paratrooper turned expert beekeeper with decidedly un-honeyed words for just about everything. No matter, argues Jeremy Smith, when the real proof is in the honey.
Link to article in the Ecologist
Link to Littleover Apiaries

New life for the ancient black honeybee
UK hive population slumps 30 per cent in a single winter
By Martin Hickman
Independent - May 18, 2009
For decades, Britain's native black bee has been an outcast. The Victorians threw Apis mellifera mellifera out of hives in favour of more industrious foreign species. Modern beekeepers brand it lazy and aggressive.
Link to article in the Independent

Co-op donation creates buzz around British black bees
by Alison Benjamin
Guardian - May 18, 2009
Group contributes £10,000 towards research into hardy native bee variety mooted as potential saviour to population crisis
Link to article in Guardian

Honeybee Numbers Expand Worldwide as U.S. Decline Continues
By Katherine Harmon
Scientific American - May 18, 2009
Despite serious losses to colonies in the U.S. and Europe, honeybees are on the rise in other parts of the world--although hardly keeping pace with growing demand
Link to article in Scientific American (US)

Tourist stung 500 times as bees invade French art gallery
By Peter Allen
Mail Online - May 18, 2009
A British tourist was recovering last night after being stung more than 500 times when a swarm of bees attacked visitors to an art gallery in France. In what witnesses described as a 'scene from an Alfred Hitchcock film', thousands of bees suddenly descended on a dozen tourists - said to be mainly British.
Link to article on Mail Online

The BBKA garden, designed by Philippa O’Brien.

Bees need gardeners to help them stay alive
BBKA - May 17, 2009
Today, at the Chelsea Flower Show (Plot GPH 9), the British Beekeepers’ Association (BBKA) is asking all the nation’s gardeners to dig deep to help the UK’s honey bees. Honey bees (Apis melifera) are essential to our way of life. They are the most effective pollinator of many fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants and trees.
Link to press release on British Beekeepers Association
Download Press Release from BBKA (pdf)

Bee population collapse 'could be saved by British species'
By Ian Johnston
Telegraph - May 17, 2009
Britain could be saved from the devastating effects of a collapse in its bee population by turning to a native British species, which is more aggressive and hairier than the southern European honeybees favoured by apiarists. One in three hives were lost over the last winter alone for reasons that are not clearly understood although bad weather, the use of insecticides, a lack of wildflowers and the varroa mite, which has spread rapidly since arriving in Britain in 1992, are thought to be partly to blame.
Link to article in the Telegraph

Cosmetics industry threatened by bee demise
Marie Claire - May 16, 2009
Cosmetics which rely on the honeybee for production are facing a crisis as the British insect - whose numbers have dropped by 80% in some areas - is dying out. According to the Co-operative Group, almost 4000 of the UK's favourite cosmetics are under threat, including 643 brands of mascara, 589 lipsticks and at least 453 moisturisers.
Link to article in Marie Claire

Vince Cable supports action to save the honey bee
by Chris Jones.
Click Green - May 15, 2009
The decline in UK honey bee populations has far-reaching implications In 1912, Rupert Brooke asked in his poem The Old Vicarage, Granchester, "Stands the Church clock at ten to three? And is there honey still for tea?" The answer these days is, "Perhaps not”. Vince Cable, MP for Twickenham and Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, met with Rowse Honey this week to hear firsthand how the company is at the forefront of tackling the honey bee crisis in the UK.
Link to article in Click Green

Velcro petals help bees hang on
By Victoria Gill
BBC - May 15, 2009
Have you ever marvelled at how a stalwart little bee clings on to a flower during a howling gale? Researchers have now found the answer, and discovered that flowers have evolved to help it.
Link to article on BBC website

Ardingly students taught about bee keeping
Bexhill Observer - May 14, 2009
"The bees at Ardingly are Buckfast Bees, first bred by German monk Brother Adam, who had joined the Benedictine abbey at Buckfast in Devon early in the 20th century. His bees are still known today for their industrious nature and for the high quantity of honey they produce. We hope that, here at Ardingly, they live up to their reputation!"
Link to article in Bexhill Observer

Queensland 'super' honey sweet for global medical application
Australia.to News - May 14, 2009
A Queensland company has commenced exporting high-grade honey to the huge European market, but you won't find this 'super' honey topping English muffins or French toast. Trade Minister Stephen Robertson today congratulated Berringa Honey on developing a highly valuable niche export market for its world standard medical grade honey, and pledged continued assistance from the Bligh Government's export agency, Trade Queensland, to enter new overseas markets including the USA.
Link to article in Australia.to News (Au)

Bad buzz for dwindling colonies of honeybees
by William Reville
Irish Times - May 14, 2009
ONE THIRD of global agricultural production depends on pollination by the European honeybee, Apis mellifera . Unfortunately, a mysterious ailment called colony collapse disorder (CCD) has recently afflicted bees worldwide, putting nearly 100 crops that require pollination at risk. Research points to a complex disease in which a combination of factors make the bees vulnerable to viruses. The situation is described by Diana Cox-Foster and Dennis vanEngelsdorp in Scientific American (April 2009).
Link to article in Irish Times

Kitsap Bee Population Still Buzzing, Despite National Collapse
By Chris Henry
Kitsap Sun - May 13, 2009
By day, Paul Lundy of Kingston works as a corporate health-care administrator. In his leisure time, Lundy and his wife Lisa Knox get buzzed in their backyard apiary. The couple harvests more than 200 pounds of honey each year from their three on-site hives and three more at another property. It's enough for their own consumption with plenty left over to sell at local feed and gift stores.
Link to article (and video) in Kitsap Sun (US)

Is honey vegan?
by Adam Kochanowicz
Examiner - May 12, 2009
This isn't the first time a vegan writer has addressed this question but I'm dissatisfied by the approaches I've observed so far. The debate over the veganity of honey considers whether or not one is cruel or exploitative in harvesting honey from bees.
Link to article in Examiner

Sticky subject has clear appeal
Western Morning News - May 09, 2009
If you are lucky enough to stay at Combe House at Gittisham, you may be in for a special breakfast treat – honey from owner Ken Hunt's hives, which can be found in the hotel's walled kitchen garden. This is lovely fragrant honey as the bees have fed on a mix of plants and flowers in the walled garden and the wild flower meadows and woods beyond.
Link to article in Western Morning News

Fears of global decline in bees dismissed as demand for honey grows
by Chris Smyth
Times Online - May 8, 2009
World honeybee colonies have actually increased by almost half over the past 50 years. The threat of a world without bees has been described as more serious than climate change. But world honeybee colonies have actually increased by almost half over the past 50 years, according to an analysis of UN figures.
Link to article in Times Online

New Method Used To Detect Antibiotics In Honey
Science Daily - May 8, 2009
A team of chemists from the University of Almería (UAL) has developed a method to simultaneously detect the presence of 17 antibiotics in honey within less than 10 minutes. The researchers have shown that traces of antibiotics used to treat diseases among bees can be found in some commercial honey brands.
Link to article in Science Daily

EMR applauds bee funding
Freshinfo - May 6, 2009
Scientists at East Malling Research (EMR) have welcomed the announcement of £10 million to boost research to try and halt the declining number of bees and other pollinating insects.
Link to article in Freshinfo
Link to East Malling Research

bid4bees.co.uk - New Auction Site for Beekeepers
bid4bees - May 5, 2009
Online auction site for apicultural goods and all things related to bees. The site will offer its members a comprehensive, safe and easy way, to buy and sell beekeeping supplies and equipment, either by auction or by fixed price. Official launch May 15th 2009, until then the site will be view-able to the public to browse around and pre-registration.
www.bid4bees.co.uk

A Register of Beekeepers ? The Way Forward
Bee Farmers Association of the UK - May 5, 2009
(Original thread started March 24, 2009)
It has become apparent from comments made that the idea of a register of beekeepers is not universally popular. It also appears that a major reason for this is that it has not been made clear as to what is meant by a register. As far as the BFA is concerned we mean a register of beekeepers names and addresses, and a private record of sites. Nothing lower, at hive level. How members record these details is and will remain their own affair.
Link to Forum Thread on BFA

The Public urged to save bee swarms for beekeepers
By Chris Deaves
BBKA - May 1, 2009
Today (Friday 1 May) the British Beekeepers’ Association (BBKA) is putting out a mayday call urging the public not to interfere, but to immediately notify their local beekeeping association, council or police station, when they see a swarm of honey bees. The sooner a swarm is collected the safer it is for both the bees and the public.
Link to article in British Beekeepers Association website

Farming Today
BBC Radio 4 - April 30, 2009
Charlotte Smith explores threats to the survival of bees. One controversial theory is that bees are being weakened by exposure to a type of pesticides
Link to audio file on BBC Radio 4

Dorset beekeeper says threat still exists
By Nick Bradford
Poole People - April 28, 2009
A DORSET beekeeper said there is “some exaggeration” in today’s announcement from influential beekeeping body Apimondia which has predicted a dire future for beekeeping in Europe, revealing fears that the whole industry could be wiped out within a decade.
Link to article in Poole People

Honeybee Collapse Strikes Japan,
Up to Fifty Percent of Honeybees Gone…
Natural News - April 28, 2009
For the firs time, Japan has been hit with a large-scale collapse of the honeybee populations like that experienced in other countries around the world.
Link to article in Natural News

Bee burglers plunder hives to sell on growing black market
By Kaya Burgess
Times - April 27, 2009
Thieves are braving stings and swarms to steal vast numbers of honey bees from beekeepers in Britain, and may be selling them on an apian black market.
Link to article in Times online

Jordan's Big Buzz Project
April 24, 2009
Jordans Cereals have just launched their ‘Big Buzz’ campaign and they need YOU to get involved. The Big Buzz campaign allows you to help Britain’s bees thrive by filling your garden with free, bee-friendly plants, and that’s just for starters…
Link to the Big Buzz website

The economic value of honeybees
By Nick Holland
BBC - April 23, 2009
"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man." There is some debate about who actually made this remark. It is often attributed to Albert Einstein, but few scientists now believe this doomsday scenario will actually happen.
Link to video and article on BBC

£10 million initiative launched to tackle bee and pollinator decline
defra - April 21, 2009
Up to £10 million is to be invested to help to identify the main threats to bees and other insect pollinators, under a major project announced today [April 21, 2009]. Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said: “I announced in January that Defra would put an extra £2m into research funding, and I am delighted our partners have agreed to boost this to up to £10m."
The funding will be made available to research teams across the UK under the Living With Environmental Change (LWEC) partnership, the major initiative by UK funders to help the UK respond effectively to changes to our environment. This is a joint initiative from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Defra, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Wellcome Trust and the Scottish Government.
Link to News Release on Defra
Link to response by British Beekeepers Association
Link to British Biotechnology and Biological Research Council
Link to National Environmental Research Council
Link to the Wellcome Trust
Link to Living with Environmental Change
Link to video report and article on BBC

Video report - Pesticides, a real threat?
BBC Countryfile - April 19, 2009
Are neonicotinoids responsible for the demise of bees? Interview with Dr Jean-Marc Bonmatin, Centre for Scientific Research, France and Dr Julian Little, Bayer Crop Science.
Link to video on BBC (only 3 days left [from April 19]

South Africa - Decline in Bee Numbers
By Haylee Robins
Farming UK - April 18, 2009
It’s unclear how a highly contagious brood disease entered South Africa, but it could devastate commercial and hobby apiarists, and farmers depending on bees for pollination.
Link to article in Farming UK
Link to South African Bee Industry Organisation

VIDEO: Inside a hive with Worthing beekeepers
By Sarah Dale
Worthing Herald - April 16, 2009
AS honey bees are busy collecting nectar and pollen, members of Worthing Beekeepers are making the most of the bee season.
Link to Video in Worthing Herald

VIDEO: A lifetime's hobby – would you bee-lieve it
By Greg Miles
Chichester Observer - April 16, 2009
Not many people can claim to have kept up a hobby for more than 50 years, but two men from the Chichester area have done exactly that.
Link to article and video in Chichester Observer

Fight of the honeybees
By Kate McDonald (Australian Life Scientist)
Life Scientist - April 16, 2009
Spanish researchers may have found a cure for honeybee colony collapse disorder. A team of Spanish researchers who first tracked down an emerging pathogen in western honeybee populations may have found a cure for honeybee colony collapse disorder.
Link to article in LifeScience

Honey company stung by bee theft
BBC - April 15, 2009
A million bees and their hives have been stolen from a honey company in Shropshire.
Link to video on BBC

Honeybees don't fall for cheap perfume
By Jennifer Viegas
msnbc (US) - April 15, 2009
Honeybees quickly and continuously learn which scents yield the best nectar, research finds.
Link to articl on msnbc (US)

Tributes paid to Westcountry Beekeeper
By David Hemming
Thisiswestcountry - April 14, 2009
Christiane told the Weekly News: “Julie had recently given up active beekeeping and had handed on her equipment to Mike David, a new beekeeper and her hives ...
Link to article in thisisthewestcountry

Are honeybees dying from advances in science?
By Susan Wilson
Blorge - April 13, 2009
Without honeybees, many of the crops America plants would never make it to harvest. Pollinating crops is so important that farmers are importing bees from outside the country.
Link to article in Blorge

The decline of bumblebees - and what we can do to help
By Neil Cunningham
MinnPost (US) - April 13, 2009
bumblebees are important pollinators of many soft fruit crops, tomatoes, peppers, curcurbits, runner beans and wildflowers. Bumblebees can fly at lower temperatures than honeybees, which makes them useful in colder climates.
Link to article in MinnPost (US)

Queen Bee
Expressindia - April 12, 2009
One of India’s first women beekeepers, Bimla Devi Yadav tells V Shoba how she acquired a taste for honey...
Link to article in expressindia

Here 'bee' dragons at Arlington Court
Devon 24 - April 10, 2009
The National Trust property recently took delivery of the hives, owned by local beekeepers, David and Eileen Brown of Lynton and assistant gardener, Sue Luker went on a beekeeping course to prepare for their arrival. "The hives have been brought here to help pollinate the fruit and vegetables we grow in our recently restored Victorian walled kitchen garden."
Link to article on Devon 24

Pesticides not a threat to honey bees - Benn
By William Surman
Farmers Guardian - April 8, 2009
HILARY Benn, Defra Secretary, has rejected calls from the organic lobby to ban insecticides they say damage the health of honey bees.
The Soil Association, the UK’s biggest organic certifiers, wrote to Mr Benn asking him to prohibit the use of a group of pesticides, called neonicotinoids, which have already been withdrawn in France, Germany and Italy.
Link to article in Farmers Guardian

'Hygienic bee' breeding plan to save species
By Emily Beament
Scotsman - April 6, 2009
SCIENTISTS are aiming to breed "hygienic" honeybees in an effort to tackle the diseases in hives contributing to the insect's decline in the UK. Researchers at the £1.9 million "bee lab" at Sussex University, officially launched this week, will also study the dances of the honeybees to decode where they are able to get food, as part of moves to make the country more "bee-friendly".
Link to article in the Scotsman

Dance of the honeybee holds key to survival
By Alison Benjamin
The Observer - April 5, 2009
Vidoe of the "waggle dance" of honeybees - one of nature's great wonders: a sophisticated communication system that conveys distances and directions from the hive to sources of nectar. Now a British scientist is hoping to read the dance in order to reverse the honeybee's critical decline. Francis Ratnieks, the UK's only professor of apiculture, is undertaking pioneering research using observation hives and video cameras to determine the plants and flowers that honeybees visit. In the process he hopes to learn how the countryside and urban areas can be made more bee-friendly.
Link to video and article on Guardian website

Bees' Brains Morph to Avoid Mid-Life Crisis
By Robert Britt
Live Science - April 3, 2009
A honeybee (Apis mellifera) forages for pollen on a daisy-like flower in a cultivated garden on a winter day in Africa. A person changing jobs at mid-life might wish for a redesigned brain up to the fresh task. Honeybees go through just such a metamorphosis, a new study finds.
Link to article in LiveScience

Charles' call to save red squirrels [and honeybees]
The Press Association - April 3, 2009
Drawing attention to the threat also facing the British honeybee, Charles said: "The plight of the red squirrel and the honeybee too is yet another example of man's short-sightedness in an increasingly throwaway society."
Link to article in Press Association

Beekeepers buzzing with excitement over research
Smallholder - April 2, 2009
Beekeepers in East Anglia are buzzing with excitement, as a £100,000 bee research project gets underway.
Link to article in the Smallholder

The Curious Case of Bees
By David Biello
Scientific American - April 2, 3009
Honeybees--a European import vital to food production, or are they? reports.
Link to article in Scientific American

Honeybees in crisis
Defra, Farming Link - April 1, 2009
Over the past 12 months the problems affecting the UK’s honeybee population have made the front pages. After surveying a proportion of its membership, the British Beekeepers’ Association concluded that 30% of the UK’s honeybee colonies were lost during the autumn, winter or early spring of 2007/08 for a variety of reasons. Beekeepers normally expect winter losses of about 5-10% each year.
Link to article on Defra, Farming Link
Related link:
Click here to register on BeeBase >>

Plan Bee: As Honeybees Die Out, Will Other Species Take Their Place?
By Christopher Mims
Scientific American - March 31, 2009
In a race against time, researchers propagate native solitary bees as an alternative to our most important pollinators.
Link to article in Scientific American

Better news on the bee front
Farming UK - March 31, 2009
Roger Williams, MP for Brecon and Radnorshire, whose responsibility as a DEFRA Shadow Minister includes Bee Health and Bee Keepers, recently visited the Welsh Beekeepers Convention Association at Llanelwedd.
Link to article in Farming UK

L'Oréal Paris joins quarantine fight to save our honeybees
Farmonline - March 30, 2009
The world's leading cosmetics manufacturer, L'Oréal Paris, has become the first corporation to help finance the fight to save Australia's honeybee population, promising $50,000 towards protecting local bees from the Varroa Destructor mite.
Link to article on Farmonline

Seed treatment error bring pesticides into bee debate
by Mike Abram
Farmers Weekly - March 30, 2009
Around this time last year in Germany a catastrophic error was being made during the treating of maize seed with the insecticide clothianidin.
Link to article in Farmers Weekly

The BeeKeepers Quarterly can now be seen on the web
at www.bkq.org.uk This will be a free, try it and see service to beekeepers for the March & May 2009 editions. There will be a small charge to subscribe after this time.
www.bkq.org.uk

Croatian beekeeping centre to be founded
Croatian Times (HR) - March 27, 2009
The University of Zagreb and the Croatian Beekeepers Association will found a beekeeping centre in Mrzlo Polje in Zumberak municipality. The two sides signed an agreement to that effect on Wednesday this week. The centre's primar goal will be to improve beekeeping.
Link to article in Croatian Times (HR)

Black market corruption, deadly plagues, stings - a tough 90 years for beekeepers
Harrow Observer - Mar 26, 2009
Harrow Beekeepers Association celebrates its 90th birthday this year. Theirs is a story featuring heartbreak, the black market, mysterious green sugar and the triumphant resurgence of the borough's bees. Member NAJMA KAZI takes us through the group's history.
Link to article in Harrow Observer

Sweet! Honeybees are in hives
Decimated by mysterious disorder, population shows signs of rebounding
By Brian Murray
New Jersey News (US) - March 25, 2009
Agriculture officials said they were hopeful yesterday that New Jersey's honeybees are recovering from a die-off that has plagued colonies throughout the nation, as they inspected some of the 30 hives kept on the Trapani Farms in Monmouth County yesterday.
Link to New Jersey News (US)

News from the world of bees
By Matt Ford
ars technica (US) - March 25, 2009
A pair of stories from the world of bees: determining their flight path from plant to plant, and looking at whether certain agro-industries can get by without honeybees, which are having some population problems.
Link to article in ars technica (US)

U.S. Growers Foster Wild Bees and Bee-Friendly Gardens
Environment News Service (US) - March 24, 2009
Lansing, Michigan - Honeybees across the country are dying by the millions due to colony collapse disorder and other environmental factors, causing many growers of fruits, nuts and vegetables to wonder how their future crops will be pollinated. A study released today shows that wild bees, which are not affected by the deadly disorder, may become a pollination alternative.
Link to article in Environment News Service (US)

Save our Bees
BBC - March 24, 2009
As part of National Science Week, the BBC have been giving away thousands of packets of bee-friendly seeds. They have joined forces with Blue Peter to try to save UK bees and they need your help!
Link to BBC save our bees

White House gardens to get some beehives
ecorazzi (US) - March 23, 2009
“The inclusion of two beehives in the White House garden sends a very powerful message about the importance of bees to our food supply,” says Karen Wasmer
Link to article in ecorazzi (US)

Might of the bumblebee
by Sanjida O'Connell
Telegraph - March 23, 2009
Their brains are the size of grass seeds, but bees are surprisingly intelligent.
Link to article in Telegraph

Bees and ants 'operate in teams'
BBC - March 23, 2009
Bees and ants are true team players unlike other creatures who seek safety in numbers for selfish reasons, according to researchers.
Link to article in BBC

PLEASE NOTE CSL IS MERGING AND CHANGING ITS NAME:
CSL is merging with Defra's Plant Health Division (including Bee Health and the Plant Health and Seeds Inspectorate) and the Plant Variety Rights Office and Seeds Division on 1 April 2009 to form a new Agency called: The Food and Environment Research Agency.
For more information visit http://services.csl.gov.uk/fera

Bees Prefer Shortest Distance Between Two Flowers
RedOrbit - March 22, 2009
Insects such as honeybees and bumble bees are predictable in the way they move among flowers, typically moving directly from one flower to an adjacent cluster of flowers in the same row of plants.
Link to article in RedOrbit

Beekeepers told to take bees to clinics
Western Morning News - March 19, 2009
BEEKEEPERS have been urged to take their insects in for a "health check", to see if they are harbouring a disease which may have contributed to wiping out a quarter of the Devon population. Interview with Glyn Davies.
Link to article in Western Morning News

Keepers urged to take bee health check
Herald Express - March 19, 2009
FACED with a crisis that has decimated colonies all over the county, Devon Beekeepers' Association has sent out a rallying call to everyone involved in the hobby: 'Bring your bees in for a health check to make sure they are not harbouring disease'. Interview with Glyn Davies
Link to article in Herald Express

Political thoughts at keepers’ meeting
Okehampton Times - March 19 2009
OKEHAMPTON Beekeepers welcomed a special guest at their last meeting when prospective Conservative candidate for Central Devon Mel Stride joined members to hear concerns of the beekeepers.
Link to article in Okehampton Times

Dying bees 'were not a priority'
BBC - March 18, 2009
The government is investigating why bee numbers are declining
A top civil servant has admitted research into bee disease has not been a "top priority" despite mounting concern about declining populations.
Link to article in BBC

Group's 10-year plan to safeguard future of bees
Craven Herald & Pioneer - March 15, 2009
Wharfedale beekeepers are looking for signs that their bees have survived the winter and are healthy for the coming year.
Link to article in Craven Herald & Pioneer
Link to Wharfedale Beekeepers Association

Beekeepers fight for sweeter future
Watton and Swaffham Times - March 14, 2009
East Anglia's beekeepers have launched a trailblazing initiative worth more than £100,000 to secure the future of the nation's honey bees.
Link to article in Watton and Swaffham Times

Honeybee Health Research Concepts published
British Beekeepers Association - March 13, 2009
The BBKA has been putting together a comprehensive programme indicating the research needed to help deal with bee health challenges and threats. “Honey Bee Health Research Concepts” was published in late February and is now available on the BBKA web-site
Download BBKA Research Concepts (pdf)

‘CSI’ Bee Deaths May Wane as Scientists Probe Diet, Hunt Killer
By Alan Bjerga
Bloomberg (US) - March 13, 2009
Ron Spears, a California beekeeper, says he’s breathing easier about his hives this year because the threat of honeybee extinction may be subsiding.
Link to article in Bloomberg (US)

Battle to save the honey bee
Western Daily Press - March 12, 2009
Conservative MEP Neil Parish, who chairs the European Parliament's agriculture committee, says the cash earmarked by the British Government simply won't be enough to do the job properly.
Link to the article in Western Daily Press

REDBRIDGE: Beekeepers tell government to buzz off
By Crystal Wilde
Epping, Waltham Forest Guardian - March 10, 2009
BEEKEEPERS across north east London and Essex have hit back at a new report which claims their hobby could be doing more harm than good.
Link to artical in Epping, Waltham Forest Guardian

Healthy Bees - Jane Kennedy Launches Plan to Halt Declining Bee Numbers
defra - March 9, 2009
This new 10 year plan was drafted in consultation with beekeeping organisations and aims to sustain honey bee populations by supporting beekeepers to ensure effective biosecurity measures are adopted to minimise risk from pests and diseases. (Jane Kennedy is the Food and Farming Minister).
Link to defra article
Click here to view/download the Healthy Bees 10 Year Plan.

Defra bee plan to boost agriculture
By William Surman
Farmers Guardian - March 9, 2009
A NEW strategy to protect honey bees will help safeguard crop yields and put food on the table, Defra has announced today (Monday, March 9). Bees contribute £165 million to the agricultural economy every year both through direct food production and their pollination of plants and crops, according to the British Beekeepers Association.
Link to article in Farmers Guardian

WildCare farmers help save threatened bees
by Marianka Swain
Country Life - March 5, 2009
Home Countryside WildCare farmers help save threatened bees
British farmers are helping to preserve bee colonies at a time when numbers are falling dramatically.
Link to article in Country Life

The bees are back in town
Economist - March 5, 2009
The economic crisis has contributed to a glut of bees in California. That raises questions about whether a supposed global pollination crisis is real.
(Includes interview with Professor Francis Ratnieks - Sussex University)
Link to the article in the Economist

'No proof' of bee killer theory
By Matt McGrath
BBC World Service - March 5, 2009
Bee hives were left deserted by adult worker bees
Scientists say there is no proof that a mysterious disease blamed for the deaths of billions of bees actually exists, the BBC has been told.
Link to article on BBC

Don't blame amateur keepers for declining bees
by Alison Benjamin
The Guardian, Thursday 5 March 2009
The reason the buzz of bees was quieter last summer is because the government's bee inspectors can't keep tabs on us hobby beekeepers. That, at least, was the conclusion of a report yesterday from the National Audit Office.
Link to article in the Guardian

The health of livestock and honeybees in England
Defra and The National Audit Office - March 4, 2009
'There are also an estimated 250,000 colonies of honeybees in England and Wales, and beekeepers have reported unusually high losses in recent years. Honeybees are affected by diseases, such as Foulbrood, and parasites, such as Varroa. Varroa is now endemic in the United Kingdom, and can make bee colonies more vulnerable to disease.'
Link to news on NAO website

Honeybees under threat from amateur keepers who fail to spot parasite
by Valerie Elliott, Countryside Editor
Timesonline - March 4, 2009
The survival of honeybees is under threat from an unknown army of 20,000 beekeepers who keep hives as a hobby. In a hard-hitting report today, the National Audit Office (NAO) suggests that unless these amateurs are identified and taught how to spot disease in bees, the country’s food production capacity will be reduced.
link to article in Timesonline

NAO report on safeguarding the future of the honeybee
NFU - March 4, 2009
Safeguarding the future health of the honeybee needs an effective national register to help disseminate good practice and combat disease issues according to a report out today by the National Audit Office.
Link to article in NFU

Beekeepers can register for free now with the National Bee Unit's live online database 'BeeBase' at: https://secure.csl.gov.uk/beebase/. Registering with BeeBase gives beekeepers access to other free services, such as a home visit by a fully qualified Bee-inspector, the latest pest and disease information, advisory leaflets, and online apiary and diagnostic histories for your own apiary. (advice from NFU)

Bee parasite devastates colonies as hives go unregistered and uninspected
by David Hencke
Guardian - March 4, 2009
Millions of insects could be wiped out because thinly staffed inspectorate does not know where half the country's beekeepers are.
Link to article in Guardian

Honeybee shortage threatens fruit and vegetable producers in Japan
Mainichi Japan - March 4, 2009
"The honeybees just don't gather," laments Osamu Mamuro, president of Mamuro Bee Farm in Yoshimi, Saitama Prefecture. (Mainichi)There are too few honeybees in Japan. While one immediately associates the busy yellow and black insects with honey, Japan's honey production is not the area of agriculture most threatened by the decline in the bee population. Fruit and vegetable farmers also depend on honeybees to pollinate their plants, and the shortage of bees has gone so far as to create fears of a produce shortage, one that could threaten dinner tables across Japan.
Link to article in Mainichi Daily News (Japan)

Bee collapse could have been handled better - auditors
By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent
Telegraph - March 3, 2009
The loss of honey bees to a deadly disease could have been controlled better by the Government, according to inspectors.
Link to article in Telegraph

Haagen-Dazs half-million dollar investment for bees
by Lisa Baertlein
Reuters - February 27th, 2009
Ice cream seller Haagen-Dazs is investing a half-million dollars to save the honeybees – and to save us from a future of feeding on gruel.
Link to article on Reuters website

Liverpool City Council looks to launch beekeeping drive
by Marc Waddington
Liverpool Echo - February 26, 2009
City bosses are taking to bee-keeping to try to stop an “alarming food shortage” if bee numbers continue to decline.
Link to article in Liverpool Echo

Buzzing about honey
Make a beeline to nature’s sweetener for flowery taste
By Linda Whitmore
Capital Press (US) - February 26, 2009
Since man first walked the earth, honey has been revered for its sweet and delicate flavor. The Bible talks of the "land of milk and honey" as being an earthly paradise. Honey is the primary sweetener for foods in many cultures and is featured in breakfast, lunch and dinner recipes.
Link to article on Capital Press (US)

New regs sting citrus growers who seek to ban bees
By Tracie Cone - Associated Press Writer
Mecury News (US) - February 25, 2009
FRESNO, Calif.—California agriculture officials proposed new regulations Wednesday that call for beekeepers and seedless tangerine growers to work out disputes on their own over where the insects can be in relation to citrus groves.
Link to article in MercuryNews.com (US)

Bee populations continue to disappear
by Terri Alderfer
Times Herald (US) - February 23, 2009
A well-rounded article about a lecture by Jim Bobb, past president of the Pennsylvania State Beekeeper's Association giving perspectives on CCD, pesticides, monocultures and how to get started with bee-keeping.
Link to article in Times Herald (US)

So You Want To Keep Bees?
by Phil Chandler
The Big Green Idea - February 20, 2009
Whether you approach it from the point of view of conservation, entomology, crop pollination or simply a love of honey, beekeeping is an engaging pursuit and a fascinating window on the natural world.
Link to article on The Big Green Idea

Declining bee populations: what are the causes?
submitted by Jeff Bull
The Linnean Society of London was delighted to welcome Mr Norman Carreck on 19th February 2009 to speak on “Declining bee populations: what are the causes?”
Link to article on Linnean Society

Call for £6m fund to research bee deaths
The Herald - February 18, 2009
Urgent research is needed to save bee colonies in the UK that are being devastated by mystery diseases, beekeepers said yesterday. Deaths of honey bees almost doubled last winter leading to the loss of one in three of the country's colonies.
Link to article in the Herald (Scotland)

Extra funding for bee health research is welcomed by North Devon bee keepers
thisisnorthdevon - February 15, 2009
BEEKEEPERS in North Devon have welcomed a Government announcement that will see £4.3 million spent on research into bee health over the next five years.
Link to article in thisisnorthdevon.co.uk

Taking care of the bees in your garden
by Joe Eaton, Ron Sullivan
San Francisco Chronical (US) - February 14, 2009
Every edible garden or orchard is a partnership. We can plant, water, fertilize and weed, but without insect pollinators we'd never see a strawberry or a tomato.
Link to article in San Francisco Chronicle

The Save Our Bees Campaign - register for free seeds!
Rowse Honey - February 9, 2009
Plant Bee friendly plants! As part of the celebrations of National Science and Engineering Week 2009, we want you to help save our UK Bees by planting bee friendly plants across the country! This will make them healthier, helping them survive infection, changing weather patterns and more. Rowse Honey is engaged in a range of strategies for addressing the decline in bees:
Click here to read more at their website
Link to the British Science Association
Link to the Save Our Bees campaign website

Bees killed by Neo-nicotinoids in expressed Maize sap
From Karl Maresch - German Professional Beekeeping Association
Farming UK - February 4, 2009
Professor Girolami’s research has demonstrated that the resulting maize plants themselves present a danger to bees. For several weeks the plants, growing from the pesticide-coated seeds, represent a danger to bees through their expression of ’guttation droplets’ and the dew on their leaves, both of which provide sources of liquid that forager bees collect to drink.
Link to article in FarmingUK

Banning insecticides will not save British bees
Farming UK - February 2, 2009
Dr Ruscoe, Chairman of BCPC, criticises the Cooperative Group's initiative to ban neonicotinoid insecticides.
Link to article in Farming UK

Plight of the humble bee
by Richard Girling
Sunday Times - February 1, 2009
Native British bees are dying out — and with them will go flora, fauna and one-third of our diet. We may have less than a decade to save them and avert catastrophe. So why is nothing being done?
Link to article in Sunday Times

Victorian Farm - Alex tries his hand at beekeeping
posted - January 31, 2009
Historical observational documentary series following a team who live the life of Victorian farmers for a year.
To be screened:
February 5, 2009 (21:00) and again on
February 7, 2009 (19:00)
Link to BBC website - Victorian Farm
Did you miss the programme?
Click here to view it now (need BBC iPlayer for this)

Women's Institute has bees on the agenda
WI - January 29,2009
The resolution 'SOS for Honey Bees' which states, "Honey Bees play a vital role in the pollination of food crops and in our environment. In view of concerns about the accelerating decline in the UK honey bee population, this meeting urges HM Government to increase funding for research into Bee Health," is on the short list of resolutions for the 2009 AGM. On 11 February the Resolution Selection Committee and the Board of Trustees will meet to choose which of the 5 shortlisted resolutions will be taken to the AGM. It will be announced after 11 February 2009 whether the above resolution will be on the final list of resolutions taken to the 2009 AGM.
Link to WI
Follow up news February 11, 2009: WI vote to select the 'SOS for Honey Bees' resolution to take for ratification at the AGM on June 3, 2009. Updated and extended briefing notes will be made available .

The Co-operative prohibits eight pesticides...
and announces largest ever private donation to honeybee health research
Co-Operative Group - January 28, 2009
The Co-operative today [28 January] became the first UK retailer to prohibit the use of a group of eight pesticides as part of a radical new ten-point plan designed to help reverse the worrying decline in the British honeybee population.
News release link (pdf)
Link to lots more information on Co-Operative website
See our local news and events page for review

The Cooperative interview with Tom Feiden
BBC - January 28, 2009
Link to BBC

Bees can 'count', new study shows
by Mathew Moore
Telegraph - January 27, 2009
Bees are able to recognise numbers up to four, according to the results of an Australian study into insect numeracy.
Link to article in Telegraph

German Scientists Say Pest-Fighting Bees Could Protect Crops
DW-World.de - January 24, 2009
Bees could replace insecticides in the crop-protection industry
German scientists believe that honey bees could be used to protect crops from pests such as caterpillars, a finding that could eliminate the necessity for potentially harmful insecticides. The scientific study, conducted at the University of Wuerzburg in Germany, showed that insecticides, which can be highly toxic to humans and alter ecosystems, were bested by bee swarms when it came to ridding gardens of insects.
Link to article on DW-World.de

Torbay Beekeepers in the News
There's a buzz about this happy hive of beeple
by Mike Baker
Herald Express - January 21, 2009
I was worried about the bees. The news had told us a while ago about how they were all dying out because of a combination of wet summers and a killer bug...
Link to article in Herald Express

£4.3 million bee health funding increase announced
DEFRA News Release - January 21, 2009
An extra £4.3 million to safeguard and undertake more research into the health of bees was announced by Environment Secretary Hilary Benn today.
Mr Benn said that nearly £2.3 million over the next two years would support the work of the National Bee Unit in its efforts to help England’s beekeepers deal with the problems facing their bee colonies.
Link to DEFRA News Release
Link to BBKA response

Still buzzing over beekeeping
by Blair Ensor
The Marlborough Express (NZ)- January 16, 2009
Reporter Blair Ensor catches up with a beekeeper learning to cope with the varroa mite
Link to article in Marlborough Express (NZ)

Give us a buzz if you see bees
Weston Mercury (& North Somerset Times) - January 14, 2009
A BEEKEEPING couple from Weston are urging residents to keep an eye out for swarms of honeybees to help the struggling honey trade.
Link to the article in the Weston Mercury

It Isn't Easy Being Green
BBC2 - January 14, 2009 8.00pm
Dick Strawbridge tries to understand why honey bees are having a tough time at the moment.
Did you miss the programme?
Click here to view it now (need BBC iPlayer for this)

BBKA vote to retain the pesticides endorsement policy
January 10, 2009
The understanding is that there will be a statement on the pesticide debate after the Executive Committee Meeting on January 17, 2009
Link to British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) website

Follow up - February BBKA News carries statement

Bee keepers abuzz over pesticides cash
Yorkshire Post - January 10, 2009
BEE keepers are gathering for what promises to be a stormy conference this weekend, including a showdown over whether they should take money from pesticides manufacturers.
Link to article in the Yorkshire Post

Bees make them buzz
Herald Express - January 09, 2009, 09:38
BAY MP Adrian Sanders is bothered about bees.
He has joined a Parliamentary campaign to get the Government to spend more money on research into the threats facing our bee population.
Link to article in Herald Express

Bees see flower colour coding invisible to humans
by Lewis Smith
The Times - January 2, 2009
Flowers crowed into a border may be more colourful than even the keenest gardeners suspect - but it helps to be a bee to appreciate them.
Link to article in the Times

After the freeze, a warmer year awaits
Western Morning News - January 3, 2009
THE Westcountry has endured sub-zero temperatures over the first few days and nights of the New Year – but forecasters predict 2009 could be one of the warmest years on record.
Link to article on Western Morning News