(WEAU 12 News) The Chippewa Valley Beekeepers Association teamed up with Xcel Energy to provide a community apiary. The beekeeping space will be set up on 32 acres that is being developing into wildflower habitat next to an Xcel Energy substation. Members of the club say this new land will provide people access to the proper resources needed to run a bee hive.
(Reuters) Puerto Rican honey bees are abandoning hives as weeks of earthquakes disrupt colonies, raising concerns that a subspecies seen as a possible solution to the global bee crisis could take another hit after being decimated by hurricanes in 2017.
(The Guardian) Commercial honey bees are considered livestock by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But no other class of livestock comes close to the scorched-earth circumstances that these bees face in the toxic chemical soup of California’s Central Valley, fertilizing almonds one blossom at a time. “The high mortality rate creates a sad business model for beekeepers. It’s like sending the bees to war. Many don’t come back.”
The venom from honey bees reportedly has both anti-inflammatory and anti-viral properties, and is widely used in anti-ageing creams and the treatment of severe arthritis. The venom is so expensive that one gram would cost between Rs 5,000 and 15,000 ($70 and $210). Each bee contains only a few milliliters of venom; 18 to 20 colonies of bees are needed to extract one gram of venom.
(Idaho Statesman) There are some eerie signs of unusual deaths in these bees. For instance, many of the dead insects are inexplicably headless. Many of the lifeless bodies’ tongues are sticking out, which could mean the bees starved to death. The Idaho State Department of Agriculture is looking into the deaths, but the department is reportedly only looking into possible diseases not chemical causes.
(The Guardian) “Bees are everything to me. They help me to protect the forest. They help the trees to stand tall, to produce fruit and to be strong.” The hives of stingless Amazonian bees are not just a hub of pollination, they are also the most economically viable alternative to the environmentally destructive traditions of slash-and-burn agriculture and cattle ranching.
(Bundaberg Now) An Australian coffee grower has shared footage of a swarm of Australian native bees battling it out for a hive takeover on his property. “It is sad to see but it’s just nature taking its course,” the grower said. He said the Australian native bees were a great asset to coffee growing and increase yield.
(Montana State University) Researchers set out to identify the economic ripple effects of colony collapse disorder by examining trends in four categories: number of commercial honeybee colonies nationwide, honey production, prices of queens and packaged bees and pollination fees charged by commercial beekeepers to growers. The team found some surprising results.
