Please note - as some of these entries age, their respective links may become broken as external websites change.
The nerve poison harming our bees
By Ken Thompson
Telegraph - May 11, 2012
Neonicotinoids were hailed as safe and effective, but they are far from benign. Victorian gardeners were familiar with the alkaloid nicotine as a pesticide, and very good it is too at killing almost anything that moves. Unfortunately that includes people – the nicotine in three or four cigarettes would kill you if you absorbed all of it. As a result, nicotine has not been available to amateur gardeners for some time, and approval for professional use was withdrawn in 2009. But in the Seventies chemists developed a new class of insecticides that, although not closely related chemically to nicotine, share the same mode of action and were thus christened neonicotinoids.
Link to article on Telegraph
Bee deaths linked to common pesticides
Guardian Blog - May 8, 2012
Two recently published scientific studies show that bee populations are being ravaged by widespread use of a particular type of pesticide, the neonicotinoids. Our love of pesticides has been nothing short of disastrous for our insect friends, the honeybees along with the bumblebees and other wild native bee species. Two recent scientific studies point to modern pesticides as the main culprit for the often dramatic declines in both domestic honeybees, Apis mellifera, as well as native wild bee populations.
Link to article on Guardian blog
Hive and Seek: Domestic Honeybees Keep Disappearing, but Are Their Wild Cousins in Trouble, Too?
By Sarah Fecht
Scientific American - May 8, 2012
Is colony collapse disorder just the visible part of a "global pollinator crisis"? The answer is surprisingly murky. To help answer the question, scientists have created an inexpensive, nationwide wild bee monitoring program
Link to article on Scientific American
Beekeeping diary: rain and bees
Ian Douglas
Telegraph - May 8, 2012
The rain shows no sign of stopping and I’m starting to think the bees might be going hungry, so I’m heading towards their little space beside the allotments again.
Very dry weather is bad (the flowers don’t produce as much nectar, even if they’re not withering away to nothing) and very wet weather is bad because the bees are less likely to leave the hive and can soon run out of food. As we seem to be careering between one extreme and the other this year, I’ve decided to give the hive a helping hand.
Link to article in Telegraph
How UK's humble bee project led to Swedish outrage
By Emma Kasprzak
BBC - May 5, 2012
It all sounded so promising when UK scientists announced "exciting" plans to collect 100 bees from Sweden. The bombus subterraneus or short-haired bumblebee has been extinct in Britain for a quarter of a century. Conservationists planned to travel to Skåne province, in southern Sweden, to collect bumblebee queens for release in a Kent nature reserve. But a "misunderstanding" led to Swedes reacting in anger to the plans to take their bees. The international argument is now thought to have been resolved but how did it happen in the first place?
Link to article on BBC
Beehive Glue Stops Prostate Cancer in Mice
ABC News - May 4, 2012
Researchers at the University of Chicago found that a compound made in honeybee hives seems to stop the spread of prostate cancer cells in mice.
The compound, called caffeic acid phenethyl ester or CAPE, is made from propolis, the resin honeybees use to patch holes in their hives. The product has been known and used for centuries as a natural remedy for teeth and skin, as well as a defense against viruses and bacteria.
Link to article in ABC News
Workers can rebel against their queen
BBC - May 1, 2012
Family disputes create rebel bees. Worker bees rebel when faced with the prospect of raising their nephews and nieces, research has found. Scientists in Poland have studied post-swarm bee colonies to understand how workers react to a change in queen. They discovered that when a daughter replaces her mother as head of the colony, some worker bees reproduce instead of caring for their monarch's offspring.
Link to article on BBC
Nz bees now totally dependent on humans for survival
Radio New Zealand News - April 27, 2012
A leading bee scientist says the spread of the varroa mite to Southland, marks a turning point for the beekeeping industry. The first discovery in New Zealand of the parasite which kills unprotected bee colonies, was near Auckland in April 2000. It took another four years for varroa to spread to the South Island. The latest discovery in a hobby beekeeper's hive on the outskirts of Invercargill, followed a MAF Biosecurity surveillance programme for exotic pests and diseases.
Link to article on Radio New Zealand News
Lifeform of the week: Death's-head hawkmoth is stranger than fiction
By Alex Reshanov
earthsky - April 25, 2012
...the death’s-head moth has been shown to disguise itself by chemically mimicking the smell of bees (A. atropos specializes in robbing a particular species of bee, Apis mellifera). As a result, they encounter little resistance once they make their way past the outside guards. In the past, the death’s-head moth was sometimes called the “bee tiger”, thanks to its bullying of the industrious insect.
Link to article on earthsky
Selenium impacts honey bee behaviour and survival
eScienceNews - April 25, 2012
Entomologists at the University of California, Riverside have a "proof of concept" that selenium, a nonmetal chemical element, can disrupt the foraging behavior and survival of honey bees. Selenium in very low concentrations is necessary for the normal development of insects and humans but becomes toxic at only slightly higher concentrations when it replaces sulfur in amino acids. In soils, particularly in Pacific Rim countries and near coal-fired power plants worldwide, it occurs most often in soluble forms, such as selenate.
Link to article on eScienceNews
Link to article on EurekAlert
Link to article on PhysOrg
Beekeepers hope to lead vital research with £175,000 Somerset hub
Western Morning News - April 20, 2012
Plans for a South West centre of beekeeping excellence which could ultimately help save the species have won support from an MEP. Julie Girling has pledged to try to secure European funding towards the £175,000 cost of the new beekeeping hub planned for Taunton in Somerset. The new development would replace the existing ageing wooden apiary at Heatherton Park, and would mean it can offer better training opportunities, and a chance to research some of the mortal threats to bees.
Link to article on Western Morning News
Simulating a base population honey bee for molecular genetic studies
7th Space Interactive - April 20, 2012
Over the past years, reports have indicated that honey bee populations are declining and thatinfestation by an ecto-parasitic mite (Varroa destructor) is one of the main causes. Selectivebreeding of resistant bees can help to prevent losses due to the parasite, but it requires that arobust breeding program and genetic evaluation are implemented.
Link to article on 7th Space Interactive
Encap Donates to the Foundation for the Preservation of Honeybees
PRUrgent - April 20, 2012
Green Bay, WI - With the approach of Earth Day 2012, Encap is thrilled to celebrate another successful year of contributing to a healthier planet. This year, in celebration of Earth Day, they have donated to The Foundation for the Preservation of Honey Bees. Most of the world’s food plants are pollinated by honey bees, making them an integral part of the world’s food supply chain. Over the past twenty years, many factors such as the use of pesticides and herbicides, and other habitat damaging activities, have caused honey bee numbers to decrease drastically. The Foundation for the Preservation of Honey Bees supports research, education, improvements, and advancements in honey bee culture in order to help lessen the problems faced by these little critters. In addition to pollinating food plants, honey bees also play an important role in pollinating other plants and flowers that make our environment healthy and beautiful.
Link to article on PRUrgent
Can behaviour be controlled by genes?
The case of honeybee work assignments
eScience News - April 18, 2012
What worker bees do depends on how old they are. A worker a few days old will become a nurse bee that devotes herself to feeding larvae (brood), secreting beeswax to seal the cells that contain brood and attending to the queen. After about a week, she will progress to other tasks, such as grooming nest mates, ventilating the nest and packing pollen. Only at the end of her life will she become a forager, venturing forth to collect nectar and pollen for the colony.
Link to article in eScience News
Breeding a better bee
By Eoin Burke-Kennedy
Irish Times - April 19, 2012
Bees are under threat from a species of mite, but beekeepers in Tipperary are breeding bees that can resist the parasite, in an effort to save the prolific pollinators from extinction. Breeding colonies of disease-resistant superbees to safeguard the pollination of vital food crops sounds like the stuff of science fiction. However, it’s a strategy that is fast becoming a reality in some countries, and one that is soon to be adopted here.
Link to article in Irish Times
Black honeybees rediscovered in Britain
By Alison Benjamin
Guardian - April 18, 2012
Native black honeybees, previously thought all but extinct in the UK, are better suited to surviving the British climate and could hold the key to reversing colony collapse. The native black honeybee, feared to have died out in all but the remote reaches of northern Britain, has been found in north Wales, east Anglia and as far south as West Sussex. The Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders' Association (Bibba) claims the black honeybee could hold the key to reversing the dramatic decline in honeybee colonies in Britain because it is more adapted to the UK climate than the southern European honeybee subspecies used by many UK beekeepers.
Link to article in Guardian
Link to article on the Scotsman
Link to article on the Independent
Gravity disturbs bees' dancing
By Ella Davies
BBC - April 18, 2012
Honey bees that dance to give directions to flowers make more errors when performing horizontally due to gravity, say researchers. Female foragers perform "waggle runs" on the hive's honeycomb for other bees. The intricate movements display the direction and distance of the flowers from the hive. Researchers from the University of Sussex are "eavesdropping" on bees to find out more about where they feed in Britain.
Link to article on BBC
Drugged Honeybees do the time warp
By Jane J Lee
Science Now - April 16, 2012
Waking up from surgery can be disorienting. One minute you're in an operating room counting backwards from 10, the next you're in the recovery ward sans appendix, tonsils, or wisdom teeth. And unlike getting up from a good night's sleep, where you know that you've been out for hours, waking from anesthesia feels like hardly any time has passed. Now, thanks to the humble honeybee (Apis mellifera), scientists are starting to understand this sense of time loss. New research shows that general anesthetics disrupt the social insect's circadian rhythm, or internal clock, delaying the onset of timed behaviors such as foraging and mucking up their sense of direction.
Link to article on Science Now
Beekeeping: a hive of activity for the young
By Jake Wallis Simons
Telegraph - April 16, 2012
The smells of inner London are usually characterised by exhaust fumes, kebab shops and other unmentionables. In a hidden corner of Islington, however, a very different scent is in the air: the distinctive manure-and-straw of a farm.
“Islington has the least green space of any London borough,” says Liz McAllister, manager of Freightliners Farm, as we shelter from the rain in a grubby marquee and watch the chickens pecking outside. “Our main aim is to bring a piece of countryside into the city.”
Link to article in Telegraph
A Pasco County beekeeper knows why bees are dying and colonies are collapsing
By Dan DeWitt
Tampa Bay Times - April 1, 2012
...But scientists, farmers and especially chemical companies did not listen when Hackenberg said the disorder might not really be so mysterious, that it was almost certainly caused by a relatively new class of pesticides called neonicotinoids. And now, it seems, people are finally paying attention.
Link to article in Tampa Bay Times
Bees 'self-medicate' when infected with some pathogens
PhysOrg - March 30, 2012
Research from North Carolina State University shows that honey bees "self-medicate" when their colony is infected with a harmful fungus, bringing in increased amounts of antifungal plant resins to ward off the pathogen.
Link to article on PhysOrg
Bee Colony Collapse Could Be Caused by ... wait for it ... Pesticides!
By Greg Laden
ScienceBlogs.com - March 30.2012
A commonly used insecticide, and possibly an increasingly widely used form of that pesticide, could be causing bee colony collapse. It is not 100% certain that this pesticide causes this problem, but there is a very good chance of a relationship. From the paper's abstract: 'Nonlethal exposure of honey bees to thiamethoxam (neonicotinoid systemic pesticide) causes high mortality due to homing failure at levels that could put a colony at risk of collapse. Simulated exposure events on free-ranging foragers labeled with an RFID tag suggest that homing is impaired by thiamethoxam intoxication. These experiments offer new insights into the consequences of common neonicotinoid pesticides used worldwide.'
Link to article in ScienceBlogs.com
Toxic pollen and the mad bee disease disaster
By Alison Benjamin
Guardian - March 29, 2012
Beekeepers have long felt pesticides were to blame for colony collapse disorder, but culpability was difficult to prove – until now. In July 1994, French beekeepers reported that their honeybee population had displayed strange, agitated behaviour and had "melted away". "Mad bee disease," as it quickly became known, was thought to have caused the death of 40% of bee colonies and beekeepers looking for an explanation for the catastrophe began pointing the finger at a new type of pesticide. Systemic pesticides are those that are transported in the sap of a plant from the seed up through the stem into the leaves and flowers. Here, they contaminate nectar and pollen and hence any insect that picks them up – including bees. Since then, imidacloprid and other neonicotinoid systemic pesticides, such as thiamethoxam, have been implicated in the worldwide collapse of honeybee colonies.
Link to article on Guardian
Insecticide blamed for bee deaths by Stirling University study
BBC - March 29, 2012
Use of a specific group of insecticides is having a serious impact on bumblebee populations, according to a team of Scottish scientists. The Stirling University researchers found exposure even to low levels of neonicotinoid pesticides had a serious impact on the health of bumblebees.
Link to article on BBC
Link to article on Telegraph
Link to article on Wired Science
Pesticides hit queen bee numbers
By Richard Black
BBC - March 29, 2012
Some of the world's most commonly used pesticides are killing bees by damaging their ability to navigate and reducing numbers of queens, research suggests. Scientific groups in the UK and France studied the effects of neonicotinoids, which are used in more than 100 nations on farm crops and in gardens.
Link to article on BBC
Virulence of mixed fungal infections in honey bee brood
7th Space Interactive - March 23, 2012
Honey bees, Apis mellifera, have a diverse community of pathogens. Previous research has mostly focused on bacterial brood diseases of high virulence, but milder diseases caused by fungal pathogens have recently attracted more attention.This interest has been triggered by partial evidence that co-infection with multiple pathogens has the potential to accelerate honey bee mortality. In the present study we tested whether co-infection with closely related fungal brood-pathogen species that are either specialists or non-specialist results in higher host mortality than infections with a single specialist.
Link to article on 7th Space Interactive
Honeybee decline blamed on lethal combination of chemicals and disease
By Louise Gray
Telegraph - March 22, 2012
Honeybees face a double whammy from insecticides and disease, according to a new study that could explain the global decline in the insects. The sudden drop in honeybees in recent years has led to widespread debate over the cause, with many blaming intensive farming methods that use more pesticides.However this was dismissed by other studies that found disease is just as damaging. Now a French study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, suggests that it could be a combination of both, as pesticides weaken honeybees and they then die of disease.
Link to article in Telegraph
New York beekeepers quadruple
By Alison Benjamin
Guardian - March 16, 2012
Apiarist numbers in New York city have surged since the ban on keeping bees was lifted two years ago. The number of beekeepers in New York city has quadrupled since the ban on keeping bees was lifted two years ago, figures show. NYCBeekeeping, the city's largest beekeeping group, reports that membership has grown from around 325 to more than 1,300 people and there are now hives on skyscraper rooftops, in community gardens, and school backyards across the five boroughs.
Link to article in the Guardian
Latvian beekeepers seek Danish Embassy's help over damage caused by Danish company
By Nina Kolyako
The Baltic Course - March 13, 2012
Latvian Beekeepers Union has turned to the Danish Embassy in Latvia and to Danish farming and food processing associations over Danish businessman Jon Jacobsen's refusal to cover Latvian beekeepers' losses caused by substances he used for spraying crops and poisoning insects, the Beekeepers Union's CEO Armands Krauze told Nozare.lv.
Link to article on the Baltic Course
Honeybees stay healthy in probiotic hives
Futurity - March 13, 2012
Greater genetic diversity among workers leads to honey bee colonies with fewer pathogens and more abundant helpful bacteria. The new work describes the communities of active bacteria harbored by honey bee colonies. Led by Indiana University Bloomington assistant professor Irene L. G. Newton and Wellesley College assistant professor Heather Mattila, the study is reported in the journal PLoS ONE.
Link to article on Futurity
Link to report in PLoS ONE
Honey bees in need of greater genetic diversity
By Kathy Keatley Garvey, UC Davis
Farm Press - March 13, 2012
Increasing the overall genetic diversity of honey bees will lead to healthier and hardier bees that can better fight off parasites, pathogens and pests, says bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey of the University of California, Davis and Washington State University.
Link to article in Farm Press
Beekeeping Diary: Springtime
Telegraph - March 12, 2012
Ian Douglas celebrates the coming of spring with a trip to his beehives. It’s cold and the rain is coming down in occasional large drops, muddying the path and leaving splashes on my coat. The bees aren’t flying today, not here in Hampstead anyway. I’ve been away from my hives for just over two months. I fed them in the depths of winter, a sticky Christmas present of sugar fondant. Now it’s time to feed them again and I have two large plastic pouches full of light plain syrup in my bag. The solid food sustains them, liquid encourages them to breed now the warmer weather’s coming.
Link to article on Telegraph
Honey bees study finds that insects have personality too
PhysOrg - March 8, 2012
New research indicates that individual honey bees differ in personality traits such as novelty-seeking. A new study in Science suggests that thrill-seeking is not limited to humans and other vertebrates. Some honey bees, too, are more likely than others to seek adventure. The brains of these novelty-seeking bees exhibit distinct patterns of gene activity in molecular pathways known to be associated with thrill-seeking in humans, researchers report.
Link to article on PhysOrg
Fallen oak tree reveals nest of over 6,000 bees
Harrogate News - March 7, 2012
A 200 year-old oak tree has fallen in Jacob Smith Park in Scriven, near Knaresborough and has revealed a nest of over 6,000 honeybees.
Link to article on Harrogate News
Keeping Bali’s wild honey bees
by Robin Dua
akarumput — Mar 1, 2012
It’s not easy to find bee colonies in Bali that are actively being used for honey production even though beekeeping is a great way to bring positive impacts for the unique ecology of this island. Founder of Yayasan Tri Hita Karana (THK) Bali, Chakra Widia, promotes how beekeeping benefits the growth of vegetables, fruits and flowers. “Bees are one of nature’s most productive pollinators and can have a dramatic beneficial effect on yields in terms of seed yield and fruit yield in many crops,” says Chakra. “And best of all you get the honey. In fact, we’d say beekeeping is a honey of a hobby.”
Link to article on akarumput
First Steps in Beekeeping at RHS Rosemoor
RHS - March 1, 2012
If you’ve ever wanted to try beekeeping, buzz along to RHS Garden Rosemoor on March 21. First Steps in Beekeeping will cover where to locate a beehive, bee behaviour, what equipment you need and much more. Honey and beeswax products for sale.
Link to notice on RHS Rosemoor
Understanding Honeybee Diseases
By Marlene Cimons, National Science Foundation
USNews - March 1, 2012
Virtually all living things, from the smallest organisms to humans, are vulnerable to infectious diseases. Most humans know they have to stay away from other infected people if they don’t want to get sick themselves. But how does nature figure it out? The social behavior of honeybees may provide some important clues.
Link to article in USNews
Lebanon's bees are freezing to death
by Tafline Laylin
Green Prophet - February 29, 2012
Huge bee die offs do not bode well for agriculture in Lebanon. A staggering proportion of bees in an important agricultural hub have frozen to death in Lebanon. A recent influx of extreme weather that produced ice and frost combined with a series of diseases has wiped out up to 75% of the bees in Hasbaya and Arqoub, according to The Daily Star. As pollinators, bees are essential to the agricultural industry, which accounts for approximately 7% of Lebanon’s GDP and employs up to 15% of the country’s population.
Link to article on Green Prophet
A killer hornet is casting its shadow over the honeybees of the West Country
ThisIsSomerset - February 28, 2012
The Asian hornet, or vespa velutina, could bring death to the hives of the area this summer if the weather continues to be mild and dry. The hornets kill honeybees and take them away to feed them to their young. Already seen in Brittany, reports of its arrival in the West are expected at any time. The dangers of the invading hornet was one of the subjects covered in talks at the annual meeting of the Somerset Beekeepers Association at Kings of Wessex Academy, Cheddar.
Link to article in ThisIsSomerset
Bayer initiates global “Bee Care Program” to further promote bee health
4Traders - February 21, 2012
Bayer initiates a global "Bee Care Program" to further promote bee health. As part of the program, two dedicated "Bayer Bee Care Centers" are to be established. In Europe, one center is scheduled to open in Monheim, Germany, in mid-summer. A second center, which will focus on North America, is planned for later in the year in North Carolina, United States.
Link to article on 4Trader
Beekeepers get £2,000 grant towards centre
SomersetCountyGazette - February 20, 2012
PLANS to create a centre of excellence for beekeepers at Heatherton Park near Taunton have progressed. Taunton and District Beekeepers received a £2,000 grant from the Co-operative Community Fund towards their £175,000 target. Link to article on SomersetCountyGazette
In pictures: Bee-friendly garden
BBC - February 19, 2012
Scientists at the University of Sussex have created an experimental garden to test which flowering plants bees and other pollinators have a preference for. The team focused on plants that flower in July and August, as this appears to be the time of year when bees have to travel the furthest distance to forage.
Read more on BBC
Micahel Wale meets Charlie Dimmock and discusses her new interest - bee keeping!
Smallholder - February 17, 2012
Charlie Dimmock has always lived deep within the New Forest, where her love for gardening began and continues, but she confesses to another interest that has begun to fascinate her….bees. “At first”, she tells me, “ I wanted to find out about the solitary bee. I went to Holland three years ago where a guy shoed me around these amazing gardens. He showed me these solitary bees. I thought ‘I’ll do that’. But I took James’s advice. He had jumped into it big time, he told me to do some basic research, and get in touch with my local bee association. There are winter night courses, and outdoors in the spring”.
Link to article on Smallholder
Poor manuka season offsets good news
Health News (Nz) - February 15, 2012
A poor summer means manuka honey production will be down this year, just as more research points to the benefits of the unique New Zealand product. But one beekeeper is warning the manuka "gold rush" may be spreading itself too thinly, which could force some beekeepers out.
Link to article on Health News (NZ)
Bumblebees get by with a little help from their honeybee rivals
EurekAlert - February 14, 2012
Bumblebees can use cues from their rivals the honeybees to learn where the best food resources are, according to new research from Queen Mary, University of London. Writing in the journal PLoS ONE, the team from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences explain how they trained a colony of bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) to use cues provided by a different species, the honeybee (Apis mellifera), as well as cues provided by fellow bumblebees to locate food resources on artificial flowers. They found that the bumblebees were able to learn the information from the honeybees just as efficiently as when the information came from their own species, demonstrating that social learning is not a unique process limited members of the same species.
Link to article on EurekAlert
Link to article on SciNews
Link to abstract and text in PLoS ONE
Honeybees tell hornet predators to buzz off
By Victoria Gill
BBC - February 13, 2012
Asian honeybees signal to their enemies - bee-eating hornets - to let them know they have been spotted. An international team of scientists watched the bees as they guarded the entrance to their hive. The researchers described how the bees shook their abdomens when a hornet approached, a signal that triggered the hornet to retreat. They published their findings in the journal Animal behaviour. Researchers already knew of this "characteristic shaking signal", in which all the guards bees simultaneously vibrate their abdomens from side-to-side for a few seconds when a hornet approaches the colony. In the wild, this produces a spectacular "Mexican wave" of vibrating bees.
Link to article on BBC
Inner city beehives and bat boxes unveiled
Telegraph - February 11, 2012
The three contenders, including architecture firms, engineers and landscape designers, have all submitted plans for homes for bees, bats, birds and plants that would sit on the pavements and rooftops of the Holborn, Bloomsbury and St Giles districts of London.
The third contender, by architects Archmongers and engineers Buchanan Partnership, imagines a series of beehives on tall poles to be set in public parks and gardens, which would swing down to ground level for inspection and maintenance. Planters filled with flowers would mark the places where the hives would reach the ground.
Link to article on Telegraph
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
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
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Beekeeping diary: By Ian Douglas
Beekeeping Diary: Winding down for autumn
By Ian Douglas
Telegraph - September 30, 2011
It’s a little chilly but the bees are still flying, making the most of their last days of foraging. My bag is heavy with their second feed, two plastic pouches with 2.5kg of sugar syrup in each, and I wonder where all the allotment holders have gone as I put my tunic on over my jumper in the abandoned plot. I can see my neighbour Farokh’s hives through the trees, piled high with honey supers and looking prosperous. I have a little envy, but mostly I’m thinking about my own (admittedly tiny) honey harvest with pride.
Link to article on the Telegraph
September 30, 2011 - Winding down for autumn
September 16, 2011 - Wasp season
September 7, 2011 - Honey at last
September 11, 2011 - Honey and pests
August 25, 2011 - The honey harvest to come
August 23, 2011 - The London Honey Festival
August 4, 2011 - The scent of bees
July 29, 2011 - Beekeeping past
July 22, 2011 - Lunchtime Beekeeping
July 8, 2011 - Crowds and a puzzling sight
June 29, 2011 - Robin's bee-loud glade and the importance of socks
June 24, 2011 - Making room for growth
June 16, 2011 - Rain stops play
June 10, 2011 - An inspector calls
June 1, 2011 - More gardening than beekeeping
May 27, 2011 - The new colonies arrive
January 13, 2011 - Winter loss
October 13, 2010 - Autumn Closing
October 5, 2010 - Feeding time
September 28, 2010 - Rain, shine and bees that eat honey
September 23, 2010 - Back in buzzness
May 28, 2010 - A terrible Hush
May 19, 2010 - Even domesticated bees are wild
May 12, 2010 - Queen bee finds a home
May 5, 2010 - The queen that loves her cage
April 27, 2010 - Long live the queen. I hope
April 16, 2010 - The wrong kind of breeding
April 12, 2010 - Smoking out hopes for a new queen
April 6, 2010 - The falling rise of a beloved insect
February 3, 2010 - A tentative winter feed
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
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