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Although an unfamiliar term to most, “zootherapy”, the use of animals for medicinal purposes, has been a defining component of health and wellness traditions for the greater part of human history. In the modern era, development of advanced biotechnology and pharmaceuticals have mostly replaced this once common form of treatment.…
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Genetically modified (GMO) bees could be the long sought answer to the honey bee health crisis, but should they be? With bee populations struggling all across the globe due to a multitude of factors, there is a large demand for potential solutions. Some are looking at genetically modified bees as…
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Guest blog post by Eileen Guest. Convincing my kids to care about bees wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I try to engage with my boys when we go outside to play. However, I constantly find myself being drawn to my garden to pull one more weed…
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In the American agricultural industry, pesticides are often liberally applied to crops in order to help keep common pests away. One group of pesticide compounds called neonicotinoids is highly toxic to honeybees. They were first introduced in the 1980s by the chemical company Bayer, and as of 2008 comprise a…
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Starting the practice of beekeeping can be a daunting task, especially considering the dire state of bee populations worldwide today. Beekeepers in Johannesburg, South Africa, are facing the same declining bee populations that are being seen in the United States. Not only are South African honey bees afflicted by the…
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Recently a lot of attention has been given to breeding varroa mite resistant honey bees, but there has also been concern that this good-intentioned method could come with a downside. One main way honey bee workers deal with parasites is by socially grooming one-another. Researchers hope that we can create…
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Honeybees are essential to our food supply as a major pollinator species. Unfortunately, colony health is threatened by many factors including pesticides, diseases, and mites. Among these threats is the fungus Nosema ceranae. If a honeybee eats the spores of this fungus, it will reproduce inside the cells of the…
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HoneyDNA is a service offered by The Best Bees Company that shows you what plants make up your raw honey. It all starts with a small sample of honey straight from the hive (or your favorite jar). The DNA from pollen-proteins in the honey is extracted and multiplied using a…
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A recent article published in Nature discussed the effects of migratory management and environmental conditions on the lifespan and oxidative stress of honey bees (Apis mellifera). Migratory management is the transportation of honey bees across the country for pollination purposes in large-scale agriculture. Frequent moves such as these may cause high levels of…
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Honey bees constantly struggle against various bacterial and fungal species. For example, Nosema species are very detrimental parasitic fungi that infect honey bees and can cause great harm to an entire colony in a very short amount of time. A hive that is heavily infected with nosema will often collapse, leading to robbing behavior by other colonies and a…
