Bees
The keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams ― Henry David Thoreau
image by: Center for Food Safety
HWN Suggests
Pesticides and Bees: It's Complex
Bees are weird. A honey bee hive is an entire insect society dedicated to stealing plant sperm (some of you call that pollen).
Adult bees take pollen back to their hive where they store and ferment it into "bee bread." They chew up the pollen, mix it with a bit of honey and gland secretions, and then stuff it into a honeycomb cell. Then, in a few weeks, the adult bees chew up the bee bread again, and regurgitate it to their babies as food.
That is just one tiny bit of the complex honey bee life cycle. I mean, I haven't even mentioned the exploding penises, ritualized dancing, and secretion of home construction materials by their abdomens. Bees are f___ complicated.
It's…
Resources
What Would Happen if All the Bees Went Extinct?
It's almost impossible to overstate the importance of pollinators in our ecosystem.
What the Honeybees Showed Me
The colony entered my dreams, my thoughts, my conversations. Something about me had changed.
You’re a Bee. This Is What It Feels Like
Set your meetings, phone calls and emails aside, at least for the next several minutes. That’s because today you’re a bee.
A Bee Mogul Confronts the Crisis in His Field
Beekeeping on an industrial scale is central to American agriculture, and “colony collapse” has proved to be a severe test.
A Bumblebee Gets New Protection on Obama’s Way Out
The rusty-patched bumblebee, once common across the continental United States, has been designated an endangered species by the Fish and Wildlife Service: the country’s first bumblebee, and the first bee from the lower 48 states, to be added to the register. Seven bees were previously listed as endangered, but they are found only in Hawaii.
A Vaccine to Shield Threatened Honeybees from Disease
Researchers have learned how bees kick-start immune systems in offspring, and think it could lead to a protective drug
An Ingenious Invention That Turns Beehives Into Flowing Honey Taps
Harvesting honey has been a sticky, messy job that's changed very little from the earliest days of beekeeping. But it's about to get a whole lot cleaner with the Flow Hive, an ingenious re-engineering of one of nature's most perfect creations that makes getting that golden nectar as easy as turning on a tap.
Bee Deaths Put Crops at Risk
Mounting toll on pollinating insects imperils over $20 billion a year in harvests.
Bees and Neonicotinoids - Another Study Promoting a Media Meme
Nature is complex, why is it so hard to say, we don’t know and we're going to study it some more? Because science won't get you on the cover of Mother Jones, that's why.
Can A Mushroom Save Honey Bees?
It's no secret that the domesticated European honey bee, Apis mellifera, is in big trouble. The not-for-profit Bee Informed Partnership estimates that 28.1% of the colonies managed in the United States were lost during the winter of 2015-2016.
EPA Says Insecticide May Pose Risk to Bees
Report says chemical known as imidacloprid can harm bee colonies in certain situations.
Here’s Why Scientists Are Giving Honeybees Tiny ‘Backpacks’
An international research team, leading the Global Initiative for Honeybee Health, is addressing the global decline of honeybee populations by equipping the insects with tiny high-tech backpacks.
Meet The Bee Keepers
For the respect inherent in their work, the dedication to preserving and rebuilding resilient local communities, and their open willingness to teach others and spread their craft, these beekeepers are truly the bee’s knees.
Preserving Honey Bees Means Protecting Our Food Supply
With honey bees pollinating one-third of our food supply, these insects play a critical role in moving our food system forward.
Return of the Natives: How Wild Bees Will Save Our Agricultural System
As colony collapse disorder and other maladies continue to devastate honeybee populations, researchers are turning their attention to alternative pollinators—the thousands of native bee species throughout the country—and are looking for ways to make croplands more attractive to these wild bees.
The World’s Most Popular Insecticides Are Messing With Bees
They’re turning them into incompetent pollinators, which is bad news for plants—and humans.
Why dying bees may cause a public health problem
A new study published in The Lancet examines what might happen to humans’ health if there are not enough bees, birds, insects and other animals to pollinate the food that humans rely on for important vitamins and nutrients.
Why Protecting Pollinators Is Top Of Mind
It’s hard to imagine a world without honey bees. After all, vast swaths of our agricultural system rely on this amazing pollinator. Food as we know it depends on bees.
You're Worrying About The Wrong Bees
“Save the Bees!” is a common refrain these days, and it’s great to see people interested in the little animals critical for our food supply around the globe. But I have one quibble: you’re talking about the wrong bees.
Pesticides and Bees: It's Complex
Bees are weird. A honey bee hive is an entire insect society dedicated to stealing plant sperm (some of you call that pollen).
Bee Informed
The Bee Informed Partnership is dedicated to working with beekeepers to better understand which management practices work best. We gather survey data from thousands of beekeepers every season to understand how different management practices affect honey bee health, and we report our findings back to the industry.
Global Initiative for Honey bee Health
The Global Initiative for Honey bee Health (GIHH) is an international collaboration of researchers, beekeepers, farmers, industry and technology companies set up to research the threats to bee health in order to better understand bee colony collapse and find solutions that will help secure crop pollination.
Honey Bee Health Coalition
Our mission is to collaboratively implement solutions that will help to achieve a healthy population of honey bees while also supporting healthy populations of native and managed pollinators in the context of productive agricultural systems and thriving ecosystems.
North American Pollinator Protection Campaign
NAPPC's mission is to encourage the health of resident and migratory pollinating animals in North America. NAPPC partners gather from throughout the North American continent and beyond...
Pollinator Partnership
The Pollinator Partnership’s mission is to promote the health of pollinators, critical to food and ecosystems, through conservation, education, and research
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