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PBS Living St. Louis: June 12, 2023

Health of the Honeybee: Green Time TV
Nov 5, 2013
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Hometown Star: Jane Sueme, Owner of Isabees
BY ROSALIND EARLY
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What it's Like to Be a Beekeeper
BY BYRON KERMAN
ST. LOUIS MAGAZINE / JULY 2012 

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Bees World News

Honeybee shortage could harm world's almond supply
Beekeepers who have suffered plunging bee populations are reporting huge financial losses. Those that had colonies die, are dealing with remaining bees that are very weak. 
“Every beekeeper in the United States is trying to increase their colonies to meet that demand and get that big payday, but most of them are barely able to keep their current numbers,” said Joe Traynor, a Bakersfield bee broker who organizes deals between beekeepers and almond farmers. “They are just treading water.”

March 14, 2013

Declining bee populations pose threat to food crops in Alberta and around globe
An international study that involved the University of Calgary found that managed honey bees are not as effective at pollinating crops as wild bees, posing a threat to global food production as wild bee populations decline.

March 1, 2013

Farmers' lack of bees might be solved by going wild
Wild bees pollinate orchards more efficiently than rented honeybees, and for no cost, a study finds. They may provide the solution to the mass die-off of the domesticated bees from disease.

February 28, 2013

Historic Datasets Reveal Effects of Climate Change and Habitat Loss On Plant-Pollinator Networks
Re-collecting 26 spring-blooming flowers from Robertson's network, Knight, PhD, professor of biology at Washington University, and Burkle, PhD, now assistant professor of ecology at Montana State University, discovered that the network had weakened.
Half the bee species associated with these flowers in Robertson's lifetime had disappeared, some pollinators were active before their plants had bloomed, plants weren't visited as often, and the bees that did visit weren't carrying as much usable pollen.

February 28, 2013

Local Gardeners Raising Mason Bees May Solve Almond Industry’s Honey Bee Pollinator Woes
Dale Hardware teams with Crown Bees to demonstrate how solitary native bees can increase a gardener’s fruit yield and the bee population and help commercial food growers. Excess mason bees are distributed through BeeGAP, a national bee growth movement, to other gardeners, farmers and commercial growers, such as California’s almond industry, which predicts 1/3 fewer honey bee pollinators this season.

February 27, 2013

Bumblebees sense flowers' electric fields
Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) can detect flowers' electric fields, scientists have discovered.
Results indicate floral electric fields improve the bees' ability to discriminate between different flowers.
When used with visual signals, electrical cues can enhance the bee's memory of floral rewards.

February 22, 2013
BBC

To Revive Honey Bees, Europe Proposes a Pesticide Ban
Recently, Europe’s food safety watchdog, the European Food Safety Authority (ESFA), issued a declaration that three specific common pesticides pose an acute risk to honeybees. Now the European Commission has proposed a two-year ban on these pesticides, which could be ratified as early as this month. It would require a majority vote by EU member states; if it passes, the restrictions will take effect in late spring.

February 19, 2013

Corn Insecticide Linked to Great Die-Off of Beneficial Honeybees
New research has linked springtime die-offs of honeybees critical for pollinating food crops -- part of the mysterious malady called colony collapse disorder -- with technology for planting corn coated with insecticides.

Mar. 14, 2012

An early spring may be bad news for honey-poor bees
Sightings of snowdrops and hazel catkins mean spring may be nearly here, but bees' honey stocks are low after a tough 2011

Jan. 5, 2012 by Alison Benjamin

Fly parasite not a major threat to honey bees
Honey bee expert Eric Mussen said he does not consider the phorid fly as significant threat.

Mussen does not see the phorids as a major threat: “All the other stresses that we have been studying have combined to impair the immune system of the bees.  Then, whatever mechanism in the bees' bodies that used to prevent successful parasitism by the fly no longer is working as well.  Nearly every facet we have studied--microbes, mite feeding, exposure to pesticides, etc.--all have had a suppressing effect on the honey bee immune system.  The current U.S. environment seems to be very stressful to honey bees.".

Jan. 5, 2012 by Kathy Keatley Garvey, UC Davis

Multiple Routes of Pesticide Exposure for Honey Bees Living Near Agricultural Fields
Populations of honey bees and other pollinators have declined worldwide in recent years. A variety of stressors have been implicated as potential causes, including agricultural pesticides. Neonicotinoid insecticides, which are widely used and highly toxic to honey bees, have been found in previous analyses of honey bee pollen and comb material.
January 3, 2012

Funny Honey? Bringing Trust To A Sector Full Of Suspicion
Honey is the most natural of sweeteners, coming to us directly from bees and flowers.
Well, maybe not so directly. These days, a long supply chain often links beehives half a world away with the jar of honey in your kitchen. And there's suspicion in that supply chain: global trade disputes; accusations of unfair competition; even honey identity-switching.

December 13, 2011 by Dan Charles, National Public Radio

Elephant and bee researcher nets green prize
A British scientist has won a coveted environment research prize for showing how bees can be used to reduce conflict between people and elephants.
23 November 2011 By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News

Large-Scale Study Reveals Major Decline in Bumble Bees in US
The first in-depth national study of wild bees in the U.S. has uncovered major losses in the relative abundance of several bumble bee species and declines in their geographic range since record-keeping began in the late 1800s..
ScienceDaily Jan. 4, 2011

It's a bee nuisance - and food growers are more than a mite scared
It is the migrant we cannot live without. The wild European honey bee helps to create one in every three mouthfuls we eat by pollinating plants, but some of our favourite foods are at risk because of a bee-killing mite which is ''more than likely'' to reach Australia, a new report says.
August 18, 2010 By Debra Jopson

Tastier honey from bees who enjoy the buzz of the big city
We associate them with wildflower meadows, rolling fields and vibrant hedgerows.

But Britain's bees are happiest in the concrete jungle, experts claim.

Honey bees in towns and cities are thriving more than those in the countryside, due to the wide variety of trees and plants in suburban gardens, a National Trust study suggests.
August 18, 2010 By Fiona Macrae

Paris is becoming the urban bee capital of the world
Bees are not in a prime position in our world. Experts are reporting that honeybee numbers around the planet are in sharp decline — more than 3 million colonies have died in America alone since 2006. Pesticides are thought to be the main culprit, and scientists are scrambling to find a solution before the insects are wiped out across the planet.

But the BBC reports that one city is swiftly turning those numbers around. Paris, City of Light and fashion capital of the world, is becoming the urban honeybee center. The city has more than 400 hives and growing, most of which reside atop apartment buildings, restaurants and in city parks. Some of the city’s most famous restaurants and landmarks now boast their own honey production. Anyone can keep a hive — it just has to be registered with the city veterinarian and be at least 82 feet from a school or hospital.

August 17, 2010 By Katherine Butler

Urban bees fare better due to varied diet, research reveals
Honeybees in towns and cities enjoy a more diverse diet than their rural counterparts because of the wider range of flowers
August 17, 2010 By Alison Benjamin

Answer to declining bee population sought in N.D. prairie
Hannaford, N.D. — The wind races through the grass as Marla Spivak swings her insect net across a patch of thistles in a roadside ditch.

She kneels to carefully examine the catch.

"Lots of flies, there's a grasshopper, there's a dragonfly," Spivak said.

But no bees. And that's not surprising. The roadside ditch has a cornfield on one side and a just-harvested wheat field on the other. There's not much for bees to eat.

"In some of the locations where there's a lot of flowers you see a lot of very cool native bees," Spivak said. "But this one we call bad because we kind of presume we're not going to find a lot of native bees."

August 17, 2010 by Dan Gunderson

Bees trap deputy inside car for 3 hours
Tuesday was anything but a routine day for Deputy Brandon Jenkins, who spent three hours in his patrol car after nearly 50,000 honeybees decided to park on it.
August 17, 2010 By Phil Gast, CNN

Let them bee
When a swarm of bees attacked and killed a horse in July at a Chino Hills farm it whirled up a backlash against the insect that plays an important role in pollinating flowering plants and sustaining the food supply.

"We got calls from people telling us we should exterminate the bees," said Min-Lee Cheng, a manager for the Ontario-based West Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District. "But we have to live with the bees. Their nature is to protect the queen. If you leave them alone, give them space and respect, the bees will leave you alone."

And there are good reasons to "let them bee."

August 17, 2010 By Mediha Fejzagic DiMartino

Busy bees on Ritz-Carlton roof provide fresh honey
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Beekeeper Randall York cautiously approaches one of the two hives where bees are doing what bees do: buzzing.

Using a tiny can with bellows, he sends a few puffs of smoke into the hive.

"Just to let them know they got a visitor," he says as he takes off the roof of the hive and pulls out the first of many dripping honeycombs.

This is not happening on some back-road farm, this is on the roof of the posh Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the heart of Uptown Charlotte... (con't)
Thursday, Aug 12 by RAD BERKY / NewsChannel 36
Related: 40,000 honeybees buzz atop Charlotte's Ritz-Carlton (link)

Feds Seize $32G of Honey Laced With Dangerous Antibiotic
Federal marshals have confiscated 64 drums of imported bee's honey after it was found to contain a potent antibiotic that can be deadly.

The Food and Drug Administration says it detected the antibiotic chloramphenicol in about $32,000 worth of honey at a Philadelphia distribution center on June 4.

Chloramphenicol is a toxic drug approved only for use in humans who have severe infections that other medicines haven't been able to kill.

People who are sensitive to the antibiotic can become seriously ill with a potentially fatal condition known as aplastic anemia, which is a type of bone marrow depression, according to the agency.
Jun 11 2010 By Catherine Donaldson-Evans

More cases of deadly bee disease in Jersey
Inspectors brought to Jersey after an outbreak of a deadly bee disease was declared in the island have found 26 hives affected by American foulbrood.
Jun 11 2010

The secret lives of Kashmir's beekeepers
It's not cool to discuss, but the novel business opportunity is a way out of poverty for some families in India
Apr 27 2010 By Rick Westhead

Karbala agricultural buzz
beekeeping class and other initiatives create economic independence for locals
Mar 11, 2010 By Spc. Samuel Soza,
USDS Public Affairs

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