Different mechanisms underlie implicit visual statistical learning in honey bees and humans

 https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/09/22/1919387117 

Answers on a postcard, please.

Tea & Bees

A romanticized tea-towel! 

 

Bee-pic in The Times

From
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/our-photographer-suits-up-to-see-the-bees-z7g88vknl 

 

Training bees... will probably lead to disaster

 From The Times  https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bees-can-be-trained-to-sniff-out-flowers-3xk9dg98c

It has long been understood that if you want a dog to hunt you can train it to follow a particular scent. Now it appears that something very similar is true of bees.

Scientists have taught honeybees to seek out the odour of a specific species of flower. The researchers behind the work believe that coaching the insects in this way could enable crops to be pollinated more efficiently.

My comment: By teaching bees to fees on just one species, will they suffer from lack of diet variation? Probably. Is this project wise? Probably not.

Scientists introduced food to a hive with a substance that mimicked the smell of sunflowers

EFB reported in Norfolk 'hotspots'

News from West Norfolk and King’s Lynn Beekeepers’ Association (WNKLBA) 

https://www.lynnnews.co.uk/news/serious-honey-bee-diseases-reported-in-norfolk-hotspots-9123216/ 

https://www.wnklba.co.uk/

Summer's done

 The bees enjoyed the pollen, the squirrels loved the seeds! The end of the summer's giant sunflowers...

Garden gloves for scale (and I have big hands!)

BBKA YouTube Practical beekeeping Videos

BBKA's YouTube Channel is available here  There are videos about Asian hornets, a message from patron Jimmy Doherty, and a collection of other videos. There are a few short videos of practical beekeeping help listed below. This video set will be added to, so please subscribe to the YouTube Channel. Practical Beekeeping - How & why to move frames in a Super Practical Beekeeping - How to judge if uncapped honey is ready for extraction Practical Beekeeping - Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus

from British Beekeepers Association https://ift.tt/3kmr21Y
via gqrds

Isle of Wight Disease?

 Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Vespa velutina (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

https://www.countypress.co.uk/news/18712386.protect-island-bees-asian-hornets----island-beekeepers/

Sunshine on Leith

Look at the hive designs and (notably) the chains: https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/leiths-honey-bee-population-under-18891725 

But, more importantly, listen to this: https://youtu.be/9V7NYX1TOgs 

Venom from honeybees found to kill aggressive breast cancer cells

Melittin, one of the major components of honey-bee venom, may prove to be an effective anti-cancer-cell therapy: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-09-venom-honeybees-aggressive-breast-cancer.html 

Dr Ciara Duffy at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research.
Credit: Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research

Common Carder Bee - Bombus pascuorum

 This beauty landed on my hand!