Have you caught up on the National Pollinator Strategy? Read about the government’s plans on BBC News: Plan bee: New measures to protect pollinators. Story sourced by Emma Sarah Tennant.
Author: edbka
National Honey Show
Miss this year’s National Honey Show? Catch up on the atmosphere and events with an excellent write-up by Ealing member Thomas Bickerdike.
How a swarm decides: An NPR story on the democratic nature of honeybees
A great blog post from beekeepers in East Tennessee giving an informative summary of the democratic behaviour of honeybees in swarming. Do bees make decisions better than humans? Read more… Check out the link to audio interview with Thomas Seeley, author of ‘Honeybee Democracy’.
Forerunner of varroa gets just deserts
An ancient mite that bit an ant’s head got locked together in amber for millions of years. The fossil is the first discovered parasite from a group whose species plague today’s ants, bees and wasps. The mite is attached to the ant’s head – a similar behaviour to modern parasitic mites like varroa, which can infest honeybees. The research was published in Royal Society journal Biology Letters, ‘An ant-associated mesostigmatid mite in Baltic amber’ (Sept 2014) by Jason A Dunlop, Jenő Kontschán, David E Walter and Vincent Perrichot: http://ow.ly/Cnp8t and featured in Nature News: http://ow.ly/Cnosi. Story sourced by Emma Sarah Tennant.
Last day Open Access Week
Happy Open Access Week! To celebrate Open Access Week all Royal Society Publishing content – from 1665 to current – is free to access until Sunday 26 October. Visit Royal Society Publishing’s website here.
For beekeepers this means you can search and read lots of interesting research papers about honeybees too. Remember content is free to access only until tomorrow, Sunday 25 October, so get searching for honeybee articles now!
Story sourced by Emma Sarah Tennant.
How your hive pests have evolved to avoid bat predation!
An extraordinary (evolutionary) war is being played out between the bat and the moth, as reported in the Royal Society Publishing ‘Biology letters’.
“Many species of moth have evolved ultrasound-sensitive ears owing to the predation pressure of echolocating bats—this system is one of the best known examples of an evolutionary ‘arms-race’ between predator and prey’, say authors Hannah M Moir, Joseph C Jackson and James FC Windmill. ‘As both bat and moth respond to adaptations in each other, a wide variety of mechanisms have evolved in both animals.”
The authors’ research shows that the greater wax moth has evolved to hear ultrasonic frequencies approaching 300 kHz: ‘With auditory frequency sensitivity that is unprecedented in the animal kingdom, the greater wax moth is ready and armed for any echolocation call adaptations made by the bat in the on-going bat–moth evolutionary war’.
Read the full paper here. Story sent by Andy Pedley.
Ban the pesticides that are killing bees
British bees are in danger! There’s mounting evidence that some pesticides are killing bees. But the environment minister recently refused to support a European vote to stop the pesticides being used. Now we’ve got just a few weeks to change the minister’s mind before he votes again.
Bees and other insects pollinate about three quarters of our food, so it’s incredibly important to protect them. Countries across Europe including France and Italy have looked at the mounting scientific evidence and already started banning these harmful pesticides. But our government are dragging their heels.
Please sign the petition now: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/save-our-bees
Bees and Nature at Southbank Centre
Tuesday 21 May 2013 to Sunday 14 July 2013
Southbank Centre, London
‘Bees and other pollinators are responsible for the pollination of one third of our shopping basket. We explore the plight of these creatures with talks, debates, poetry, beekeeping tips and an exhibition,’ says London’s the Southbank Centre on its new show ‘Bees and Nature’.
Talks include ‘Bees & Inspiration’, by a neuroscientist and a designer who describe the many ways that bees inspire them in their work and everyday lives, and ‘Bee Myths’, by authors of bee poetry John Burnside and Sean Borodale.
To find out more visit the Southbank Centre website.
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Thank you for visiting the news blog of Ealing Beekeepers. Here we’ll be posting news about bees and beekeeping and stories and experiences from our members. Please visit us soon for more news!