Source: Want to Save Wild Bees? Don’t Get a Beehive.
The bees most at risk are not honey bees, which are kept by beekeepers, but the wild bees which have lost habitat as well as struggling with the impact of highly efficient – ie lethal – insecticides.
There’s a lot of sense in this article, so pay heed. Essentially, plant flowers to help, leave bees alone and I would add, STOP USING PESTICIDES IN YOUR GARDEN.
For this and other bee-related stories, go to SKA Bee News.
Rumour has it that 80% of new beekeepers will quit within the first two years. I don’t know how accurate that estimate is.
Like other statistics related to beekeeping, it seems to survive with no one keeping score.
Beekeeping has a romantic aspect that attracts a wide following, but the day-to-day life of a beekeeper is anything but romantic. Here are some of the things that can cause a new beekeeper to run.
Keeping bees is not like having a pet We’ve all grown up around house pets and we understand the rules: “Dogs have masters, cats have servants.” With
Source: Are you one of the 80% who will quit? – Honey Bee Suite
For this and other bee-related stories, see SKA Bee News.
In order to produce organic honey, bees need access to swaths of land that haven’t been treated with pesticides—and those are increasingly hard to find.
This and other bee-related stories at SKA Bee News.
Source: Buying Organic Honey? Here’s What You Should Know. | Civil Eats
A new study found that the overall health of honey bee hives actually improves in the presence of agricultural production.
For this and more bee-related stories, go to SKA Bee News.
Source: Positive Correlation Between Bee Health and Conventional Agriculture | Science Codex
Every new batch of bees needs the equivalent of eight hectares of lavender fields to prosper.
Read this story and more in the latest SKA Bee News.
Source: Are rooftop beehives just a brand buzz exercise for companies?
We all know that without bees, we are in trouble. And I don’t just mean as gardeners, I also mean as a surviving species on this planet.
Source: The loss of the world’s bee population would have catastrophic consequences | Irish Examiner
For more bee-related stories, check out the Seven Kings Apiary Journal.
Read the latest bee related news in the Seven Kings Apiary Journal.
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Source: Seven Kings Apiary Journal
Photograph by Andrew Darrington, Alamy
You will have seen I posted up a link to a story on how wax moths may be able to clear up some of the plastic humanity has choked the planet with.
Wax moths lay eggs in hives and their larvae – also used as bait eat the across the comb through cells, preferably ones that once had brood in them.
Though a nuisance to a beekeeper by destroying comb that has been stored if left undiscovered (see pic below), the do serve a useful purpose already.
Kathy Keatley Garvey, UC Davis Department of Entomology
Aside from their use as a live feed for pet birds and bait for anglers, wax moths can, apparently, ‘recycle’ plastics
However, the news has focused on breeding moths, when in fact the scientists want to isolate the enzyme and grow it for industrial use.
The worries published about millions of wax moths wiping out bees – and therefore the crops they pollinate – is fatuous. Wax moths will not get a hold on a strong colony, but they do tidy up weak, failing ones – survival of the fittest alive and well.
Here is a far better story that describes what has been discovered and how it may help mankind clean up some of its mess.
For those who saw my pics of a swarm last week and would like to see a video, CLICK HERE.
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Seven Kings Apiary 