PAm Receives a Monsanto Match and a Costco Commitment

A NEWS ALERT FROM PROJECT APIS M. "We have identified ourselves as being the go-to organization at the interface of honey bees and pollinated crops and others are taking notice.  With that defined focus, we are very successful.", so explains Christi Heintz, Project Apis m's executive director.  PAm has infused over 1.5 million into honey bee research since its inception in December, …

Pesticides Not Yet Proven Guilty of Causing Honey Bee Declines

The impact of crop pesticides on honeybee colonies is unlikely to cause colony collapse, according to a paper in the journal Science today (20 September 2012). More research is now needed to predict the impact of widely-used agricultural insecticides, called neonicotinoids, on honeybee populations. UK scientists from the University of Exeter and Food and Environment Agency highlight flaws in previous research …

How Bees Decide What to Be

Johns Hopkins researchers link reversible 'epigenetic' marks to behavior patterns Johns Hopkins scientists report what is believed to be the first evidence that complex, reversible behavioral patterns in bees – and presumably other animals – are linked to reversible chemical tags on genes. The scientists say what is most significant about the new study, described online September 16 in Nature Neuroscience, is that …

North Carolina Certified Honey Program Launched This Summer

When You See This Label You Know It Is the Real Deal The North Carolina State Beekeepers Association  has developed a Certified Label for its members who agree to adhere to certain standards. To qualify for the program honey must be pure honey and not adulterated with anything.  If the beekeeper implies that it is produced locally, that must be true. And, if …

SF State Biologists Tag “Zombees” To Track Their Flight

ZomBeeWatch.org team is outfitting infected honeybees with tiny radio trackers to learn more about parasitized honeybees   SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 6, 2012 -- After last year's accidental discovery of "zombie"-like bees infected with a fly parasite, SF State researchers are conducting an elaborate experiment to learn more about the plight of the honey bees. The scientists are tagging infected bees with tiny radio …

Bees, Fruits and Money

Decline of pollinators will have severe impact on nature and mankind Two-thirds of the crops humans use for food production and the majority of wild plant species depend on pollination by insects such as bees and hover-flies. This ecosystem service, however, provided by nature to humans for free, is increasingly failing. As an example, after 3000 years of sustainable agriculture, farmers …