Bangor bees could buzz around wearing backpacks – Daily Post North Wales

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/bangor-bees-could-buzz-around-10586288

Bangor bees could buzz around wearing backpacksDaily Post North WalesA pair of leading academics at Bangor University have announced plans to try to kit honey bees out with backpacks – the size of two grains of rice. The miniscule baggage would be used to track the insects for two to three miles to observe their …

Politicians ‘get more emails about decline of bees than air strikes against … – Western Morning News

http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Politicians-8216-emails-decline-bees-air-strikes/story-28314335-detail/story.html

The decline in Britain’s bee population prompted more emails of concern than the Commons vote on air strikes against Islamic State in Syria, a Tory MP has said. Rebecca Pow, Mp for Taunton Deane in Somerset, said she had been contacted by farmers in …

Ian Mckellen Reluctantly Studied Beekeeping For Mr. Holmes Role

http://www.topix.com/science/apiculture/2015/12/ian-mckellen-reluctantly-studied-beekeeping-for-mr-holmes-role?fromrss=1

The X-Men star portrays an ageing version of legendary fictional detective Sherlock Holmes in the movie, in which his retired character becomes a professional apiculturist. The British actor reveals he flat out refused to work with the insects when director Bill Condon first told him about his character’s hobby, but film finances quickly forced Ian to rethink his position.

Highly effective new wasp bait decimates hives while keeping bees safe from toxins – ABC Online

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-17/european-wasp-bait-effective-keeps-bees-safe/6946482

Highly effective new wasp bait decimates hives while keeping bees safe from toxins

Jodie Goldsworthy, Beechworth Honey owner and director of the Oceania Commission of the global beekeeping industry body APIMONDIA, told ABC Rural that while European wasps had had no substantial impact on Australia honey production, they were a …

Ten beekeeping crimes you should not commit

http://www.honeybeesuite.com/ten-beekeeping-crimes-you-should-not-commit/

What are beekeeping crimes? A beekeeping crime is a skipped step, a missed opportunity, or an unfortunate assumption about either honey bees, beekeeping, or the environment we live in. They are crimes because they often result in the death of bees, the spread of disease, or unhappy neighbors. I’ve limited my list to ten, but […] The post Ten beekeeping crimes you should not commit appeared first on Honey Bee Suite.

Forager bees ‘turn on’ gene expression to protect against microorganisms, toxins – UC Davis

http://news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id%3D11361

Forager bees ‘turn on’ gene expression to protect against microorganisms, toxins- UC Davis

When honeybees shift from nurse bees to foragers, or from caring for the brood to foraging for nectar and pollen, the bees “turn on” gene expression with products that protect against microorganisms and degrade toxins, three University of California …

Tucking the bees in for winter

http://adventuresinbeeland.com/2015/11/22/tucking-the-bees-in-for-winter

It has taken a while to come, but at last we have proper see-your-breath-in-the-air, see-the-sparkling-frost-in-the-mornings cold. The kind of cold that stops honey bees flying. I walked round the apiary yesterday and the hives could have been abandoned, so quiet were the entrances. Hiding inside – several thousand bees, hundreds of woodlice, a few gigantic spiders and at least one hibernating queen wasp. It is too cold for syrup now, so a slab of fondant has been placed over their crown-boards. Pepper’s girls also have one super, Melissa’s two. Peppermint’s bees were a new split from Pepper’s hive this year and didn’t manage to fill out a super, but they do have plenty of honey in their brood box. Mouse-guards are on, chicken wire to protect against woodpeckers has been placed around the hives and we are using special insulated roofs Tom made for us. Varroa boards left out so that the hives have ventilation from below through the open-mesh floors. I think of it as going into battle, assembling all the weapons we have against the elements and creatures that prey on bees. The bees will do most of the work of course, huddling protectively round their queen as outside the wind howls, the rain lashes and the frost bites. These are a few last details but really preparing the bees for winter goes on all year long. You are always preparing the bees for winter – because the best weapon is having healthy bees to begin with. A combination of luck, the local environment and how well you looked after the bees during the year. It’s things like how clean your equipment is, how recently you replaced your brood combs, how low you kept varroa levels, how much honey you left them, how many times you managed to inspect the colony without squashing the queen or tripping over and dropping boxes of bees everywhere. What was the weather like, were new queens able to mate well, could the foragers fly often, were there good sources of forage around for them to find? If all that went well, then the colony has a good chance of surviving whatever winter can throw at them. Just don’t forget to put your mouse-guard on. What are your beekeeping weapons of choice against winter’s fury?

— gReader