My Black-Belt In Beekeeping: Beware of the Beekeepers’ Bad Back!

Since arriving in South Australia some years ago, and obtaining beekeeping reserve licences for both Nixon Skinner Reserve and Milbrook Reservoir, I have ardently pursued my love of beekeeping. This interest has included working with commercial...

Bees, Mites and Viruses: Assessing the risk to South African crop pollinators

The world’s bees face a major threat from deformed wing virus (de Mirandaa & Generschb, 2010), a pathogen transmitted by the parasitic Varroa mite. It is responsible for causing the death of millions of colonies (van Engelsdorp et al., 2008)...

Beekeeping Adventures in Nigeria

In this series of articles, Kris shares greater detail about his beekeeping adventures in individual countries, with lots of photos and insights into the connections made from a shared love of bees and beekeeping! In 2012, after about a decade as...

A Case for Sherlock Holmes?

When the great detective retired, he took up beekeeping and wrote a book titled Practical Handbook Of Bee Culture with Some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen. I wonder whether even his deductive genius could solve the riddle of Colony...

Honey Bees & Flood Clean-Up

Flooding affects all livestock, including honey bees. Where floodwaters have passed through bee hives, once the beekeeper can access the apiary, there are immediate tasks to undertake. Any hives that went under water are potentially damaged and...

Be Safe In the Apiary

The day was hot and very humid, and the bee site was sheltered by windbreaks which prevented any breeze. My new worker is Stephanie, an 18-year-old girl, who is very enthusiastic to become a beekeeper. She shows great aptitude to be a queen breeder...

A Closer Look - Taste Perception

Honey Bee Chemosensory Organs “Taste is crucial for honey bees for choosing profitable food sources, resins, water sources, and for nestmate recognition. Peripheral taste detection occurs within cuticular hairs, the chaotic and basi-conic sensill...

Stress Factors and Bee Decline

“It has lately become clear that stressors do not act in isolation and that their interactions may be difficult to predict; for example, some pesticides act synergistically rather than additively. Both pesticide exposure and food stress can impair...

Bees Join an Elite Group of Species that Understand the Concept of Zero as a Number

When it comes to bees, it seems that nothing really does matter. As shown in a paper published today, our research demonstrates that the honey bee can understand the quantitative value of nothing, and place zero in the correct position along a line...

NASA Soil Moisture Data Advances Global Crop Forecasts, and Can Help Beekeepers Predict Honey Crops, Or No Honey Crop.

Data from the first NASA satellite mission dedicated to measuring the water content of soils is now being used operationally by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to monitor global croplands and make commodity forecasts. The Soil Moisture Active...

How Honey Should be Publicised