Bees on a bicycle

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/eye-popping-moment-huge-swarm-of-bees-assemble-outside-edinburgh-library/ar-BB1oQCC4

Swarm of bees forces Primark in Canterbury to be evacuated

Nice piece here: https://www.kentonline.co.uk/canterbury/news/swarm-of-bees-forces-primark-to-be-evacuated-308828/ 

North Macedonia's beekeepers face climate change challenge

Another climate story, this time from North Macedonia. While the climate is clearly warming up, and the impact of human activity seems to be unquestionably the root cause, in this case would the sheer density of colonies have anything to do with declining yields?

In the image below there are about 40 hives visible, very closely packed.

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240614-north-macedonia-s-beekeepers-face-climate-change-challenge

When Climate Change Meets Too Many Bees

A story whizzing round the internet right now: "Paris rooftop hives produce less bee's knees honey due to climate change." (That's the original grisly wording of the headline.)

Maybe. 

On the other hand, the story includes the remark that "Mugo, a French group of landscape designers, which manages a hundred or so beehives in Paris, has installed four hives on the rooftop of Pernod Ricard near Saint-Lazare train station in Paris." https://www.mugo.fr/

In the wild, honey bee colonies are typically at least 1,000 m apart (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5089168/), and more like 2,000 m on average. That means if the 100 colonies from Mugo in Paris are at 1,000 m separation, they would typically occupy 100 sq km, and at 2,000 m separation would cover 400 sq km.

Paris is about 100 sq km (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris), which means at best Paris is comfortably full of bees, and at worst is 4X overstocked. And that's just Mugo's bees.

Or am I mathematically challenged?

 

Weights & Measures

A few weeks ago I started reading BEEKEEPING STUDY NOTES For the BBKA Certificate in BEEKEEPING HUSBANDRY (their u/lc, not mine!).

On page 130 it reads, "Note the weight of a worker bee = c.90mg and that 1 lb of bees contains c. 5000 bees" and repeats the same jumble of imperial and metric units on page 154.

Grrrrrr.

Always good: 50,000 bees saved from apartment block and rehomed

Bees rescued (I think): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c888m2x19zyo

(Ignore the usual low editorial standards on the BBC web site)

Rachel Monger & Bees Abroad

Fascinating stories from Rachel Monger about Bees Abroad's work in Tanzania. 

Discover more at https://beesabroad.org.uk/ and perhaps watch the video.

Poshest & Becks

What a nice bloke (your choice as to whom): https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2024-06-03/david-beckham-swaps-beekeeping-tips-with-king-charles