You often hear us talk about the plight of the honey bee, but wild bees are facing what many will tell you is an even bigger problem than the honey bee. There are estimates that if something does not dramatically change, more than 40 percent of the wild bee species could become extinct within the…
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With the current threats facing bees and other pollinators, including pesticides, diseases, and habitat loss, various nations and leaders are doing what they can to help increase population numbers. At the same time, however, some initiatives can be helpful while others may have unforeseen consequences. For example, the government of Israel intends to pass a…
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The High Line, a park located in New York City, is a beautiful place to visit where you can admire trees and flowers inside a concrete-heavy city. While it is doubtful for a small patch of soil in between two concrete slabs to catch your attention, Maryanne Stubs knows better. Stubs is an NYC gardener…
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The honeybee’s cousins are gaining more attention this week due to new research from the University of California Riverside. Wild bee species are quickly becoming more important to the pollination and honey-making process due to the growing increase in colony collapse disorder (CCD), which is negatively affecting millions of honeybees all over the world. Bearing…
DetailsWith awareness growing for colony collapse disorder (CCD) and declining honeybee populations, the safe assumption would be that great efforts have been made in saving bees and preventing the loss of one of our most important pollinators. However, according to the word of some in the field, the exponential growth in the number of beekeepers…
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With spring in full swing, many large scale orchards have begun working with beekeepers, in that beekeepers set up their colonies to pollinate the orchard’s crop while ensuring their honeybees have ample sources of nectar during blooming season. Whether it’s apple or almond production, the honeybees form mutually beneficially relationships with the crops. Of course,…
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Many know about beekeeping as the way in which honey is made available for typical grocery stores or the local farmer’s market—done by those men and women raising and caring for honeybees and gathering surplus honey from the hives to sell on the market, with beekeepers ideally having enough colonies to not affect the bees’ winter…
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Over the last two or three months, there has definitely been an uptick in the concern level for our favorite pollinator. Not so long ago, we were lucky to find one or two stories about honey bees, but now there are dozens of publications covering bees almost every day. While some of these are “interest”…
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There is nothing more devastating to a beekeeper than to check on your hives and see nothing but dead bees on the ground. These days, we seem to be hearing these stories far too often and it is the exact scenario Idaho beekeepers are experiencing right now. Tony Kaneaster of the Kaneaster Apiary, stated, “It’s…
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In addition to our managed honey bee hives, we also have to be concerned about the wild bee and pollinator population in our country and around the world. There is just as much danger for them as there are in our managed hives. We can actually learn a lot from wild hives, however, as they…
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There truly is beauty in everything… even an old trash dumpsite. Last year, the SeaPoint Industrial Terminal Complex made the news for converting a portion of the complex to a solar installation. Now, the complex is in the news again, but this time it is for converting the old dump to a home for four…
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The Australian government has stepped up in a major way to help rectify the problems honey bees are facing in its country. The grant for $1 million (1.5 million Australian dollars) that was just issued by the Australian government is to “ensure bee health and longevity.” The grant was issued to AgriFutures Australia and the…
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For those of you that are looking for more ways to get the word out about the honey bee crisis, you may want to check out “The Pollinators.” The new documentary goes into detail on the existence of the honey bee and its importance to our food supply. The film does not hold back on…
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It was only yesterday we made a post about American Foulbrood and a possible treatment. Today, count officials in San Mateo announced there is a possible outbreak of the disease in the area. They are telling local beekeepers to keep an eye out for the disease within their hives. There has already been one confirmed…
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Michael Thiele, a German native that now lives in California, is echoing sentiments by bee experts that hives are a major problem in the beekeeping industry. Thiele believes one of the contributors to the massive decline in the honey bee population is the domestication of honey bees, something he hopes more beekeepers will address by…
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Something we have seen far too often is swarms or hives being destroyed simply because people have no idea what to do in these cases. Earlier this year, we reported on a swarm being killed off at a San Diego Padres game. Rather than call a local beekeeper to remove the swarm, an exterminator was…
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We all know how dangerous pesticides are to our honey bee friends and we also know how challenging this past winter has been to them. There is a third problem for the honey bee that does not seem to be going away anytime soon, and that is the Varroa mite. This, however, is something beekeepers…
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The “green” world is about all repurposing, but this is taking it to an extreme, a very good extreme! Our little friend the honey bee has a new place to stay, at least in Sweden. McDonald’s throughout the country is using its billboard space to create a home for honey bees, in essence, creating honey…
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This is now the 10th year Buffalo Beer Week has been held but there is definitely a new twist to the festival this year. In addition to the slew of local craft beers that will be featured, those attending are also going to be treated to a new local brew… mead. For those of you…
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Over the last decade, the Varroa mite has been decimating honey bee hives. Many believe more than anything else, this parasite is responsible for the colony collapse disorder. This past winter has put more stress on honey bee populations, with beekeepers reporting record losses after the winter, with some businesses being completely wiped out. Could…
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Over the last year, some real progress has been made in understanding why we are seeing such a decline in the bee population. One of the more interesting studies recently done that has put a huge spotlight on the problem was conducted at James Cook University. In this study, researchers found the flowers honey bees…
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Over the past year, there has been a lot of talk in the media and on blogs like ours regarding the plight of the honey bee. With recent government cutbacks on bee surveys, the honey bee has made its way into the political realm. This has introduced the honey bee to an entirely different audience.…
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For all the negative stories about the plight of honey bees right now, it is so refreshing when we see or hear about a story where even a few people are trying to make a difference. Such is the story of Will Hatchel, who has created a sort of “bee oasis” in the backyard of…
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The decline of honey bee populations over this past winter is beginning to get the attention of scientists around the world, and that is not exactly a good thing. The reason so much attention is being paid to the subject is that these experts believe we may truly have a crisis on our hands that…
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Something beekeepers have feared for some time may finally be happening. New reports have revealed that the bumblebee community may now be facing the same virus problems that are decimating the honey bee community. If this is happening, two major pollinators are now facing significant danger and possible extinction in years to come. Sound the…
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Thomas Seeley is arguably one of the most respected voices in the world on the behavior of bees. His new book, “The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild,” is already drawing wide acclaim. The good news for bee lovers is you do not have to have a master’s…
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As a way of helping commercial and hobbyist beekeepers track the many environmental stressors honey bees experience, Penn State’s Pollinator Research Center and the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, as well as several other collaborators, developed an app called Beescape, which can be used for monitoring environmental factors around hives, farms, and gardens where…
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Despite there being a beehive on the state seal of Utah, honey bees aren’t “Beehive State” natives, having arrived with Brigham Young and the rest of the Mormon settlers in the 1840s. Young even called this new region “Deseret,” which means “honey bee” in the Book of Mormon. Considerably less renown would be Utah’s prominent…
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At 81 years of age, Morgan Freeman is one of the most recognizable faces—and voices—in the acting industry as well as the world in general. He’s taken on so many different roles in his long career that it’s hard to remember them all, but it’s one of his newer, lesser-known roles that could be the…
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In the year 1981, the largest known bee in the world was believed to have gone extinct, and it wasn’t the first time this had occurred. The Wallace giant bee, which originated in the Indonesian rainforests, is roughly four times the size of a regular honey bee, with the females (males being half their size)…
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Since 2017, the state of Assam, India has seen a unique technique develop straight out of nature, and it has specifically protected countless elephants from losing their lives on railway tracks. This innovation, put in place by the Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR), involved using the amplified sounds of honey bees, and the downloaded noises eventually…
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As we all remember, Hurricanes Maria and Irma knocked out the electricity in Puerto Rico and uprooted thousands, but the storms wreaked havoc upon the island’s smaller community members as well—billions of domesticated and wild honey bees were displaced or killed as a result of the storms and the aftermath. Now, roughly 18 months later,…
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After examining a century of bumblebee records, a newly published study in the Journal of Insect Conservation has revealed that nearly half of the species in the state of Vermont, all of which are crucial pollinators like their honey bee cousins, are either in severe decline or have vanished entirely. This study, which was led…
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When Australian beekeeper Scott Whitaker cut into a bathroom ceiling in the Queensland town of Sunshine Coast, he encountered something he could describe only “as a monster” — the biggest honey bee colony he ever had to remove from someone’s home. Over 50,000 honey bees were packed into the bathroom ceiling, along with so much…
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Down in Cape Town, South Africa, a suspected poisoning took place in a wine-making area of the region, and this incident led to roughly one million honeybees dying. According to Brendan Ashley-Cooper, a beekeeper and farmer, an insecticide the wine farmers often use called Fipronil was believed to have caused the bees on his land…
DetailsIn the past 10-15 years, honey bees and other bee species all over the world have been seeing declining numbers, much to the dismay of beekeepers everywhere as well as anyone who enjoys the sweet taste of natural raw honey. With this knowledge in mind, many nations are making efforts to help the ailing pollinators,…
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While research into neonicotinoid pesticides, which have proven to be harmful to pollinators like honey bees, has brought about many new revelations, scientists announced recent findings that provide new insight into how these pesticides affect the declining pollinating species around the world. It turns out exposure to a specific neonicotinoid pesticide called imidacloprid causes complex…
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According to a study recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the weed-killer known as glyphosate decreases the microorganisms in a honey bee’s guts, and such changes leave the insects much more likely to die an early death. These lost but helpful microorganisms in the guts of honey bees are directly…
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For those who live in Southwest Florida, it’s likely you know about the region’s algae problem, and it turns out more than just the wildlife in the Gulf are being affected by it. According to local bee experts, honey bees are experiencing problems in areas with blue-green and red tide algae. Keith Councell, the vice…
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For beekeepers, smoke is one of their secret weapons for keeping bee stings to a minimum and has been for thousands of years, with some 2,500-year-old ancient Egyptian artwork depicting the practice. Despite how long smoke has been used to calm honey bees, however, it’s still unknown why it occurs—though some new research that was…
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