Common Agricultural Chemicals Shown to Impair Honey Bees’ Health

First study of real world conditions for crop-pollinating honey bees In a study of real-world conditions encountered by honey bees as they pollinate crops, researchers gathered pollen from commercial beehives placed in farm fields in the Northeastern US. Here the scientists take pollen samples from bees pollinating Maine blueberries.   Credit: Michael Andree COLLEGE PARK, MD - Commercial honey bees used to pollinate crops are exposed …

Widely Used Pesticides Toxic to Honey Bees

PENSACOLA, Fla. - Forthcoming research in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry analyzes the physiological effects of three separate pesticides on honey bee (Apis mellifera). An international research team - Drs. Stephan Caravalho, Luc Belzunces and colleagues from Universidade Federal de Lavras in Brazil and Institut Nationale de la Recherche Agronomique in France - conclude that the absence of mortality …

Bees in the U.K. Under Threat From Disease-carrying Bumblebee Imports, Research Reveals

Stricter controls over bumblebee imports to the UK are urgently required to prevent diseases spreading to native bumblebees and honeybees, scientists have warned. The call follows the discovery of parasites in over three-quarters of imported bumblebee colonies they tested. The study - the first of its kind in the UK - is published today in the Journal of Applied Ecology. While …

Great Sunflower Project Expands Scope to Determine Best Plants for Supporting Pollinators

San Francisco State University News Release   The Great Sunflower Project is moving beyond the backyard this summer Professor of Biology Gretchen LeBuhn. The popular project is encouraging its corps of more than 100,000 volunteers to observe bees and any other pollinators they see, on all kinds of plants and in all kinds of places. Participants can now report their bee counts from a …

Insecticide Causes Changes in Honeybee Genes, Research Finds

New research by academics at The University of Nottingham (UK) has shown that exposure to a neonicotinoid insecticide causes changes to the genes of the honeybee. The study, published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, supports the recent decision taken by the European Commission to temporarily ban three neonicotinoids amid concerns that they could be linked to bee deaths. There is growing …

International Honey Market

by RON PHIPPS President, CPNA International Ltd.1 Co-Chairman, Committee for the Promotion of Honey and Health To see the August 2013 International Honey Market report, please click the link below. http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=5fd2b1aa990e63193af2a573d&id=03a9e673f0

Vita Launches Smartphone App About Keeping Healthy Bees

The first-ever smartphone app about keeping healthy honeybees has been launched by Vita (Europe) Ltd, the world's largest dedicated bee health company. The app is free and gives beekeepers easy mobile access to information and photographs about honeybee disease identification and treatment. The app, suitable for nearly all smartphones and tablet devices, can be downloaded free from www.healthybeeguide.com. It runs on …

National Pollinator Week

June 17-23, 2013 is National Pollinator Week where honeybees, bumblebees, butterflies, hummingbirds, bats, wasps, ants, moths, and some small mammals are celebrated for providing us with fruits, nuts, and vegetables.  Yet, the celebration that often awaits bees, and other pollinators in this blooming season is a deadly concoction of pesticides, misapplied in violation of the EPA regulated label. Since March …