The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is organizing a national bee genebank as part of the agency's response to ongoing problems facing the country's beekeepers. Average losses of managed honey bee colonies have increased to more than 30 percent per year due to pathogens, pests, parasites, and other pressures including deficient nutrition and sublethal impacts of pesticides. These stresses have threatened …
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Higher numbers of pollinators can significantly increase crop productivity of small-sized farms, while large farms experience a similar yield benefit only if increases in pollinator density are accompanied by diversity, a new study finds. More than two billion people are reliant on small-scale agriculture in developing nations, and while much evidence demonstrates that pollinators …
(Courtesy of www.beeinformed.org)
Dr. Vanessa Corby-Harris from the USDA-ARS is currently enrolling participants in a study to look at the effects of a probiotic, Parasaccharibacter apium (or P. apium) on colony health. In both lab and small-scale field studies, she sees a potential benefit of P. apium to colony health. Bees supplemented with this bacterium can survive better in the lab …
PENN STATE
If a worker behaves altruistically and helps rear her sisters' offspring, she will ensure
that her matrigenes -- those genes she inherits from her queen mother -- are passed on
to the next generation. This image shows honey bee workers caring for their queen
moher by grooming her. Credit: David Galbraith, Penn State
Using modern genetic approaches, a team of researchers has provided …
MN beekeeper: Feds must tighten rules on insecticide coated seeds
Minnesota Public Radio News
Jeff Anderson is a beekeeper and the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit that seeks to force the Environmental Protection Agency to label insecticide-coated seeds.
Minnesota beekeeper sues EPA over insecticide-coated seeds - TwinCities.com
Pioneer Press
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The Iowa Honey Producers Association have announced the immediate availability of www.BeeLaws.org. This website helps Iowa residents learn their city’s ordinances related to beekeeping. It is believed to be the first searchable bee law website in the nation.
Anyone curious about placing a bee hive can open the website, choose a city listed on the front page, read pertinent excerpts from …
Courtesy of the National Honey Board
Hello fellow honey-lovers! We hope that you had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends. With the closing of the recent holiday, we find ourselves at an interesting juncture in the holiday season, recovering from one large festivity just to move into the next.
This time of year is known as the “Season of Giving,” …
Kaira Wagoner, University of North Carolina at Greensboro Biology Department’s first doctoral student, has uncovered a chemical that could increase the odds of honey bee survival by helping them better combat the parasites within their hives.
Wagoner has been working in Prof. Olav Rueppell’s lab under his mentorship since August 2011, when she began working on her Ph.D. in the newly …