In 1995, Professor Ingemar Fries of the Swedish Agricultural University, Uppsala and an expert on Nosema in bees, visited China where he described a new microsporidium, Nosema ceranae, in indigenous honey bees Apis cerana.
Research, presented at a Department of Biology colloquium on Jan. 17, shows evidence that bees rely on a quorum, rather than a consensus, to choose a new nest.
Researchers trying to figure out what is causing honeybees across the nation to disappear from their hives need two things along with their expertise – time and money.
Swarms of giant hornets renowned for their vicious stings and skill at massacring honeybees have settled in France. And there are now so many of the insects that entomologists fear it will just be a matter of time before they cross to Britain.
A study of 36 Spanish honeys from different floral origins revealed that honeys generated by bees feeding on honeydew have greater antioxidant properties than those produced by bees feeding on nectar.
Alberta has 250,000 bee colonies, more than any other province. If the bee population in the province shrinks, there will be a drop in the pollination of canola crops.
There may be hope for cultivating a different type of bee, called the blue orchard bee. The bee usually doesn’t emerge from its hive early enough for almond bloom, but there may be ways to manipulate its life cycle to make it a supplement to standard bee colonies used in the almond industry.
Studying how bees do this has long stymied researchers, because bees fly too far and too fast to watch with the naked eye, and they are too small to wear energy-emitting devices required for radio tracking. But a newly developed radar system, in which bees wear ultra-light reflectors, allowed researchers of the University of Illinois and the University of Greenwich and the Rothamsted Institute in the United Kingdom to track the bees.
An anticipated shortage of honey bees to pollinate California crops is not expected to have a big impact on the Central Coast, as there are few crops here that require pollination, agriculture officials said.
A mysterious illness is killing tens of thousands of honeybee colonies across the country, threatening honey production, the livelihood of beekeepers and possibly crops that need bees for pollination.
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