News from the world of beekeeping

Pollen reverses decreased lifespan, altered nutritional metabolism, and suppressed immunity in honey bees (Apis mellifera) treated with antibiotics Jianghong Li et al. Abstract Nutrition is involved in regulating multiple aspects of honeybee biology such as caste, immunity, lifespan, growth and behavioral development. Deformed wing virus (DWV) is a major pathogenic factor which threatens honeybee populations, and its replication is regulated by nutrition status and immune responses of honeybees. The alimentary canal of the honeybee is home to a diverse microbial community that provides essential nutrients and serves to bolster immune responses. However, to what extent gut bacteria affect . . .

From: Journal of Experimental Biology 2019 : jeb.202077 doi: 10.1242/jeb.202077 Published 7 March 2019

To continue reading: http://jeb.biologists.org/content/early/2019/03/06/jeb.202077?download=true

———

Honeybee Pollen Load: Phenolic Composition and Antimicrobial Activity and Antioxidant Capacity

Raquel Bridi et al.

Abstract: Honeybee pollen loads result from the agglutination of pollen grains and salivary secretions of bees. The potential use of honeybee pollen as a food supplement greatly depends on its chemical composition, which varies depending on the botanical and geographical origin of the pollen grains. This study aimed to characterize the . . .

To continue reading: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jnatprod.8b00945

———

CORN BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

Field corn is grown on more acres than any other crop in the U.S. and is one of the most widely farmed crops throughout North America. Although honey bees are not essential to corn production, they are commonly found foraging in corn fields, especially in . . .

To continue reading: https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/cornbmps/

———

Commercial honeybees threaten to displace Utah’s native bees

Federal lands could offer hives a respite from pesticides.

Nick Bowlin

Although a beehive adorns Utah’s state seal, honeybees are not native to the “Beehive State.” They arrived in Utah with Mormon settlers, who held the honeybee in high regard for what they considered its industrious nature and collective spirit, virtues they saw embodied in their own community. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leader Brigham Young initially named the region “Deseret,” the Book of Mormon’s word for honeybee.

Less celebrated is the state’s notable native bee diversity. . . .

To continue reading: https://www.hcn.org/issues/51.5/public-lands-commercial-honeybees-threaten-to-displace-utahs-native-bees-pesticides

——

Are Honey Bees Bad for Wild Bees?

James MacDonald

Commercial bees—usually Apis Mellifera honey bees, native to Europe and the Middle East—are big business. They are vital to food crops and as such have been widely introduced around the world. Now that their population faces threats such as pesticides and diseases, it’s no wonder that farmers and biologists put a lot of effort into keeping bees healthy. Backyard beekeeping has also grown in popularity, especially in urban areas. But when honey bees and wild native bees overlap, the honey bees aren’t always the good guys. . . .

To continue reading: https://daily.jstor.org/are-honey-bees-bad-for-wild-bees/

———

A new species of bee has been recorded on Island

Leanne Cooke

UNESCO Biosphere Isle of Man took to social media this week to say Steve Crellin spotted the Bull-Headed Furrow Bee at the Close Sartfeld Nature Reserve. . . .

To continue reading: https://www.three.fm/news/isle-of-man-news/a-new-species-of-bee-has-been-recorded-on-island/

and

The Bull-headed Furrow bee was spotted at Manx Wildlife Trust Close Sartfield Nature Reserve by wildlife recorder Steve Crellin.

The bee was found on a Devil’s-bit Scabious, which grows in damp acid grassland, an increasingly scarce habitat on the Island.

A solitary, as opposed to colonial, bee, it is a very good pollinator and therefore key to biodiversity.

The find demonstrates . . .

To continue reading: https://www.facebook.com/biosphereisleofman/posts/2238701693034422

———

Behind the Forecast: Buzz behind weather’s impact on bees

Tawana Andrew

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – Bees are key to the sustainability of our planet. They are an important pollinator for not just wild plants about also crops. Without the 30,000 bee species around the world, we wouldn’t have our morning coffee or that eggplant parmesan for dinner. Ninetycommercially grown crops in North America rely on honeybees. More than $15 billion worth of crops each year are pollinated by honey bees in the United States. So basically fewer bees can contribute to a less productive harvest.

Most of us have heard about pesticides and disease affecting bees but our weather and an evolving climate can have an effect on bees. . . .

To continue reading: http://www.wave3.com/2019/03/08/behind-forecast-buzz-behind-weathers-impact-bees/

———

GET GROWING: Plan for long-blooming perennials

Niki Jabbour

After a long, cold white winter, I’m craving colour and have been busy planning an extension to our perennial border. When designing a perennial flower garden, plan to have something in bloom from early spring through late autumn.

And while certain perennials do bloom for several months, it’s rare to find a plant that blooms all season long. Instead plant a mixture of spring, early summer, late summer, and autumn flowering perennials in your garden so that there is colour and interest for all the seasons. Providing non-stop colour also has a side benefit: feeding the bees, butterflies and other pollinators.

To prolong the blooming period of perennials like coneflowers, rudbeckia, and Shasta daisies deadhead the plants regularly. Deadheading is simply the removal of spent flowers. Leaving them on the plant slows flower production and reduces overall bloom time.

Here are some of my favourite long-flowering perennials for Nova Scotia gardens . . .

To continue reading: https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/living/get-growing-plan-for-long-blooming-perennials-290614/

———

Monte Vista 5th Graders Lobby NM Lawmakers to Pass Bill Protecting Pollinators

Fifth graders from Monte Vista Elementary recently visited the state Legislature to promote a bill they helped draft to protect pollinators like bees and butterflies.

The students are among hundreds statewide taking part in . . .

To continue reading: https://www.krwg.org/post/monte-vista-5th-graders-lobby-nm-lawmakers-pass-bill-protecting-pollinators

———

Impact of urbanization on wild bees underestimated

University of Michigan

Wild bees are indispensable pollinators, supporting both agricultural productivity and the diversity of flowering plants worldwide.

But wild bees are experiencing widespread declines resulting from multiple interacting factors. A new University of Michigan-led study suggests that the effects of one of those factors—urbanization—may have been underestimated.

———

Pollinator-Friendly Varieties, and Why Consumers Should Care About Pollinators

Brian Sparks

In late February, the National Pollinator Garden Network (NPGN) announced that it had not only met, but exceeded, its Million Pollinator Garden Challenge goal. In just three years, 1,040,000 gardens have been registered with the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge, involving an estimated eight million people, concentrated in the U.S. and Canada, with some in Mexico, and across the globe. From tiny yards to public gardens, the million-plus gardens add up to a network of . . .

To continue reading: https://www.greenhousegrower.com/varieties/pollinator-friendly-varieties-and-why-consumers-should-care-about-pollinators/

———

Extreme, prolonged cold weather may affect Alberta honeybee population

Anna Junker

Honeybees are not native to Alberta, having been brought over by European settlers and then spread across North America. Therefore, they need a little bit of extra help to survive our “normal” cold winters, said Ron Miksha, a beekeeper based in Calgary.

This means one would be hard-pressed to find a feral honeybee survive one of Alberta’s winters.

Miksha said beekeepers will . . .

To continue reading: https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/extreme-prolonged-cold-weather-may-affect-alberta-honeybee-population

———

A review of academically substantiated guidelines for designing honey bee habitat in residential yards

Jessica Mckenzie

Abstract

Honey bee Apis mellifera populations are under threat globally. Honey bees provide important ecosystem services through . . .

To continue reading: https://researcharchive.lincoln.ac.nz/handle/10182/10492

———

A winter pollinator habitat scavenger hunt

Kirsten Carlson

The weekend of Jan. 19-20 was quite blustery, but Sunday’s sunshine called me to go outside and enjoy the day. I humored the sun and answered the call (albeit a very chilly and windy call). With camera in hand, I decided to investigate my pollinator habitats and see what I could find on this winter day. See if you can identify what I found. There are clues in each story.

1. I remembered seeing these in the fall with . . .

To continue reading: https://www.batesvilleheraldtribune.com/news/local_news/a-winter-pollinator-habitat-scavenger-hunt/article_01171dea-9681-5141-bd95-90341267c472.html

———

Pollinators in decline

Sophie Cook

Ecosystem services are defined as the numerous and varied benefits which we as humans gain from the natural world. Pollination is one such service which has an enormous impact on agricultural systems. According to the UN, at least one third of the world’s agricultural crops depend on the work of pollinators. . . .

To continue reading: https://www.varsity.co.uk/science/17267

———

‘Bee’ Aware: USCA Issues Best Management Practices for Pollinator Health

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Bees love canola and canola loves bees. That’s why canola farmers and beekeepers have a vested interest in cooperating and protecting bees as much as possible. To this end, the U.S. Canola Association (USCA) – in partnership with the Honey Bee Health Coalition – is issuing “Best Management Practices (BMPs) for Pollinator Health in Canola Fields” with related materials for growers and beekeepers. . . .

To continue reading: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bee-aware-usca-issues-best-management-practices-for-pollinator-health-300804172.html

———

Bringing pollinators home: Insect population decline and what we can do

Alena Steen

Hidden along the coast of Carpinteria stands a grove of eucalyptus trees that provide a sheltering winter home for monarch butterflies gathering from points throughout the western United States. Early in the morning, giant clusters of monarchs huddle together, hundreds or thousands softly fluttering, waiting for the air to warm their flight muscles. As the day’s warmth grows, butterflies open their wings, catching the rising thermals that send them aloft seeking food and mates.

The monarch butterfly life cycle is intimately linked to the seasons and landmarks of coastal California, where the entire Western monarch population over-winters . . .

To continue reading: http://www.coastalview.com/opinion/bringing-pollinators-home-insect-population-decline-and-what-we-can/article_cec91bd0-3f97-11e9-a913-a7949d39f53e.html

———

FROM Catch the Buzz: 1. HEALTHY HIVES 2020 GETS A $325,000 BOOST FROM BAYER BEE CARE AND PROJECT APIS M., FOR HONEY BEE HEALTH RESEARCH

Research Triangle Park, N.C. Bayer and Project Apis m. today announced an additional $325,000 funding for Healthy Hives 2020, an initiative dedicated to improving honey bee health, raising Bayer’s total investment in the program to $1.3 million. Additionally, the two organizations are releasing an educational booklet, Research for Tangible Bee-Health Solutions, to coincide with the three-year anniversary of the program’s first request for proposals.

The digital booklet features profiles of all current Healthy Hives 2020 research projects, which include:

Getting to the Root of . . .

To continue reading: https://www.beeculture.com/catch-the-buzz-healthy-hives-2020-gets-a-325000-boost-from-bayer-bee-care-and-project-apis-m-for-honey-bee-health-research

2. EARNING A BEE’S WINGS. IN HIVES, GRADUATING TO FORAGER A REQUIREMENT FOR SOCIAL MEMBERSHIP IT IS A CLASSIC COMING-OF-AGE STORY, IN MANY WAYS

A 3-week-old foraging bee also has a very different job to support the hive than a younger bee — one who spends her time as a nurse caring for bee larvae and building the waxy honeycomb structures in the hive

A honey bee hatches and grows up deep inside a hive. Surrounded by 40,000 of her closest relatives, this dark and constantly buzzing place is all that she knows. Only after she turns 21 days old does she leave the nest to look for pollen and nectar. For her, this is a moment of great risk, and great reward.

It’s also the moment at which she becomes recognizable to other bees . . .

To continue reading: https://www.beeculture.com/catch-the-buzz-earning-a-bees-wings-in-hives-graduating-to-forager-a-requirement-for-social-membership-it-is-a-classic-coming-of-age-story-in-many-ways

3. MICROSCOPIC NANOCRYSTALS, THE SIZE OF POLLEN GRAINS, USED TO TRACK THE PATH OF POLLEN FROM FLOWER TO FLOWER

A pollination biologist from Stellenbosch University is using quantum dots to track the fate of individual pollen grains. This is breaking new ground in a field of research that has been hampered by the lack of a universal method to track pollen for over a century.

In an article published in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution recently, Dr Corneile Minnaar describes this novel method, which will enable pollination biologists to track the whole pollination process from the first visit by a pollinator to its endpoint – either successfully transferred to another flower’s stigma or lost along the way.

Despite over two hundred years of detailed research on pollination . . .

To continue reading: https://www.beeculture.com/catch-the-buzz-microscopic-nanocrystals-the-size-of-pollen-grains-used-to-track-the-path-of-pollen-from-flower-to-flower

4. Urban Gardens and Allotments Provide Especially Good Habitat for Pollinator Communities

Mike Gaworecki

Many pollinator insect species like bees, butterflies, and hoverflies are on the decline, due in large part to habitat destruction driven by conversion of land to agricultural fields and urbanization. But, while cities are generally considered to be poorer in biodiversity than rural areas, new research finds that urban areas could actually play a key role in conserving pollinator communities.

A team of researchers led by scientists at the United Kingdom’s University of Bristol studied pollinators and floral resources at 360 sites

To continue reading: https://www.beeculture.com/catch-the-buzz-urban-gardens-and-allotments-provide-especially-good-habitat-for-pollinator-communities/?

5. A MOBILE PHONE MICROSCOPE IS GOOD ENOUGH TO FIND NOSEMA SPORES IN THE FIELD

Researchers at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, in collaboration with the Department of Biology at Barnard College, have developed a mobile-phone microscope that enables rapid and automated detection of Nosema spores in honey bees in field settings. This mobile and cost-effective platform, weighing only 0.8 pounds, is composed of a smartphone based fluorescence microscope, a custom-developed smartphone application and an easy to perform sample preparation protocol that enables . . .

To continue reading: https://www.beeculture.com/catch-the-buzz-a-mobile-phone-microscope-is-good-enough-to-find-nosema-spores-in-the-field

6. “THERE IS A PROTEIN IN ROYAL JELLY THAT CAUSES BEE STEM CELLS TO RENEW THEMSELVES, SO QUEEN BEES ARE BIGGER AND CONTAIN MORE CELLS THAN WORKER BEES”

Inside a hive, all females are the same when they are larval bees. Then, one female is selected as the queen bee, and she is fed a special diet of royal bee jelly. The jelly nurtures her into becoming the queen bee. The other females get a non-royal diet. Royal bee jelly is made by worker bees, for the sole purpose of developing a queen. As a result, adult queens are larger than the other bees, live longer and are the only fertile ones in the hive.

The reason is that a queen’s stem cells can self-renew, but worker bees cannot. Just as . . .

To continue reading: https://www.beeculture.com/catch-the-buzz-there-is-a-protein-in-royal-jelly-that-causes-bee-stem-cells-to-renew-themselves-so-queen-bees-are-bigger-and-contain-more-cells-than-worker-bees

7. NEW RESEARCH DEMONSTRATES A HIGHLY SENSITIVE APPROACH THAT WILL IMPROVE PESTICIDE EVALUATION BEFORE IT GETS RELEASED

British scientists are urgently calling for stricter regulations on pesticides after finding that they are affecting genes in bumblebees.

Research led by Queen Mary University of London with Imperial College London for the first time, applied a biomedically inspired approach to examine changes in the 12,000 genes that make up bumblebee workers and queens after pesticide exposure.

It found genes that may be involved in . . .

To continue reading: https://www.beeculture.com/catch-the-buzz-new-research-demonstrates-a-highly-sensitive-approach-that-will-improve-pesticide-evaluation-before-it-gets-released/

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE for APIMONDIA:

15^th March 2019