Bee-pollinated plants

Here's a fill-up-the-internet clickbait article, https://www.insider.com/foods-we-will-lose-if-bees-go-extinct

To save you the effort, the foods listed are: avocado, alfalfa, almonds, apples, anise, apricot, blackberries, blueberries, cacao, cantaloupe, cardamom, cashew, cherries, coffee, coriander, cucumber, grapefruit, kiwi, macadamia, mango, peaches, pears, pumpkins, raspberries, strawberries, tea, tomatoes, watermelon.

I'm pretty sure the list is incorrect. Take a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_crop_plants_pollinated_by_bees

Five hundred million bees found dead in Brazil

OK, another Pesticides Are Bad story: https://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/500-million-bees-found-dead-in-brazil/

Like the argument over global warming, even though much of the data may be inaccurate or presented in a biased manner, the basic premise could still be correct. At the junction of reason and emotion, choose your route.

Put another way, "I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that." [Dr Ben Goldacre]

HoneyBeeSuite

More than you'll ever want to know about everything: https://www.honeybeesuite.com/

Sulfoxaflor is toxic for insects already dealing with global pollinator collapse

If you can get past the anguished hyperbole, there's some good reading about Sulfoxaflor [aka Isoclast, Closer and Transform] https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2019/pesticide-sulfoxaflor-beekeepers-sue-trump-epa

I'd also recommend reading the wiki entry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfoxaflor

CHRIS JORDAN-BLOCH / EARTHJUSTICEhttp://www.chrisjordanbloch.com/

Wasps: If you can't love them, at least admire them

Nice article here, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49692974  I like the phrase from Dr Gavin Broad, "Bees are just furry wasps that turned vegetarian."

Modern stereotypes - uncomfortably accurate!

It's hip to bee...

"Beekeeping has gone from humble to haute," says the article intro. 

ES magazine, 20 September, by Clara Strunck

Ceremonial bees --oops!

https://twitter.com/DailySabah/status/1175043132045561856?s=09

Bee pee?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Beekeeping/comments/d6aiy6/is_this_real/ ?

Chain Bridge Honey Farm TD15 2XT

Chain Bridge Honey Farm
 www.chainbridgehoney.co.uk

Jack Daniel's gets in on the act

Just came across Bee Culture, The Magazine of American Beekeeping. Totally. Awesome.

https://www.beeculture.com/

Yield 2019

This year's weather was generally unkind to my bees - hot one day, cold and and wet the next. However, a warm end-of-summer worked out well, with an estimated 20kg honey yield/hive.

Happy Days!

Apparently, honey bees possess the concepts 'happy' and 'sad': https://www.newsweek.com/honey-bees-happy-sad-scientists-1458562

Male honeybees blind the queen bee during sex by injecting her with toxins

A new study by researchers from the University of California, Riverdale, has revealed that male bees inject toxins during sex to temporarily blind the queen bee...

Image: BARBARA BAER-IMHOFF / UCR from https://www.mirror.co.uk/science/male-honeybees-blind-queen-bee-19942655

https://www.mirror.co.uk/science/male-honeybees-blind-queen-bee-19942655

Asian hornet, Vespa velutina

Another UK sighting:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/asian-hornet-uk-sightings-in-2018

Bananas for bees

A fascinating post from https://blythewoodbeecompany.com/put-down-that-banana-beekeeper/, describing how the chemicals in bananas match the main alarm pheromone in bees : isoamyl acetate.

 

In it for the honey

I quite enjoyed this article: https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/the-ancient-art-of-beekeeping-in-it-for-the-honey-2120505.html

Beekeeping is booming. Christopher Hirst looks at why hives are such a hit
Saturday 30 October 2010 00:00

Bees at Fortnum & Mason

https://www.fortnumandmason.com/fortnums/things-you-never-knew-about-honey

Short shrift for shorts beekeeping

From https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-06/beekeeper-sam-curtis/7302738

May I remind you that bees tend to walk upwards, particularly into dark spaces.
Not a comfortable thought

Alnwick Gardens

Impressive, soulless, gardens. No bees.

Mead

Promise, large Promise, is the soul of an Advertisement.Samuel Johnson, 1759, in his own magazine called The Idler!

How much does a jar of honey cost?

For the 227 g pots, £8.50 per lb, or (bizarrely) the 340 g pots
come to slightly more, at £9.03 per lb