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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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For many of us, computers play an important role in everyday life. From news, to entertainment, to our jobs, computers make many things easier. We’re hoping to include beekeeping on this list of computer-aided tasks. As in fields such as agriculture, forestry, and medicine, monitoring beehives with shared control techniques…
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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…
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A recent study out of Queen Mary University of London shows that bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) can learn to pull a string for a reward then teach others to do the same. This suggests that that bumblebees engage in cultural transmission, a form of social learning. The Experiment In this experiment, individual bumblebees were…
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A single worker bee may have multiple mites such as this one attached to its body. Image credit Andrew BradleyWith cold months approaching, beekeepers are preparing their hives to overwinter. This includes fighting off parasitic varroa mite infestations, which often lead to honeybee colony deaths from late fall to early spring. A 2016 USDA survey reports that among honeybee management operations of both greater and less than five colonies, varroa…
