As bees continue to die off, suspicion turns to chemically coated seeds and other factors
California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation, where more than 1 million honeybees are needed each winter to pollinate the almond crop, is also re-evaluating some neonicotinoids that may be harmful to bees…
Last year, for example, lawmakers adopted a series of tax breaks for bee keepers. Yes, bee keepers. They get business and occupation levy reductions on things like pollination services. And they get a sales tax break on the sale of bees themselves.
Saying Thanks for our honey bees.
When you give thanks at your holiday table this year, I invite you to salute the honeybees for the annual cornucopia. From blueberries to Brussels sprouts, carrots to coconuts, walnuts to watermelons, honeybees pollinate the plants that provide much of what we eat — at Thanksgiving and year-round.
I am proud to say that I was finally able to attend my first Nebraska Beekeepers Assn meeting on Saturday, Nov 21, 2009 and am now a dues paying member.
I would like to thank all the very nice people who were also there for providing a relaxed, friendly atmosphere. I can say that at no time did I feel like I was an ‘outsider’ or unwelcome.
The beekeepers loved to talk bees and shared freely their experiences and ideas I was even invited by at least three of them to come visit their apiaries if I ever get the opportunity. A very friendly group of people.
I was unaware of the ‘topic’ for this meeting I was going to and was pleasantly surprised to see that Micheal Bush gave a “beginning to Beekeeping” presentation which was very well done and provided much good information to the group. (although I did have to work for my ‘schooling’ , lol)
I would encourage anyone looking for a helpful and informational group of beekeepers to attend one of the meetings if you can. I look forward to being able to attend the next time they are near enough. ( Meetings are at various locations and towns in the state and I unfortunately cannot travel that much as to attend them consistently.)
Couvillon tested bee learning using a long-standing protocol: puffing odors at bees before touching sugar water to their antennae. When researchers gave bees a second whiff, about half of European honeybees stuck out their tonguelike proboscises as soon as the odor wafted by again, anticipating another drop of sugar water. The bees acted like Pavlov’s dogs, drooling at the sound of a bell they associate with food, Couvillon says.
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Maybe the learning disparity in hybrids reflects the different origins of the European and African subspecies, says Thomas Rinderer of the USDA, ARS Honey Bee Breeding Genetics and Physiology Research Laboratory in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. African bees come from a landscape where the rainy season triggers widespread flowering. “Site and odor memory are less important,” he speculates.
