News about bees and beekeeping from around the world
Number of news: 760 and counting
Pollinators are vital to agriculture yet are often taken for granted. The number of pollinators has been steadily declining, a dismal prospect that could have unexpected consequences for oilseed crop production and bioenergy as a whole.
An international study of the number of bees and other pollinators has found that, so far, their worldwide decline isn’t limiting crop yields.
Numbers of bees, birds and other pollinating animals are declining, posing a threat to the survival of thousands of plants used for food, fibers and medicines, according to scientists and government officials at the eighth annual international conference of the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC).
Yields from a number of sunflower and melon crops in Western Australia’s Ord Valley have been slashed due to a lack of bees showing up to pollinate.
The global decline of bee populations is said to have dramatic
consequences for our food production. Research now shows that
agriculture is largely unaffected by this phenomenon.
Growers frequently hire beekeepers to bring in honeybee hives to improve the cross-pollination they would get if they just relied on wild bees.
British apples and pears are under threat because of a dramatic decline in honeybee numbers, experts have warned.
Los Banos beekeeper Gene Brandi made a decision last year that cut into his bottom line, but he thinks it may ensure the survival of his bees. He will no longer allow his bees to pollinate watermelon crops - no matter how badly the growers need him.
For 3,000 years, farmers in China’s Sichuan province pollinated their fruit trees the old-fashioned way: they let the bees do it. Flowers produce nectar that attracts bees, which inadvertently transfer sticky grains of pollen from one flower to another, fertilizing them so they bear fruit. When China rapidly expanded its pear orchards in the 1980s, it stepped up its use of pesticides, and this age-old system of pollination began to unravel.
Oregon State University researchers hope that a fluorescent dye can attract more native bumblebees to farm fields to replace declining honeybees and boost the numbers of an insect essential to agriculture.