(New York Times) Many newcomers to beekeeping mistakenly see it as a fairly easy hobby, when in reality they have neither the knowledge nor the time for it. Like anyone who gets fed up with a lousy landlord, the bees leave, turning up in seething clumps under eaves, on lampposts or in backyards. “We have too many people who keep bees who don’t do enough for their bees.”
(Washington Post) “Some honey hunters claim they are finding fewer hives than in the past, because bee populations are impacted by heavy pesticide use among local farmers and global warming.”
(Science Alert) In the crop fields of Argentina, bees have been building nests for their young out of some strange materials. For the first time, scientists have found bee nests made entirely out of plastic waste.
(University of New Hampshire) Out of the declining species, say researchers, 13 are ground-nesters and one is a cavity-nester. The researchers also found that most of the declining species experienced significant shifts in both elevation and latitude.
(Oregon State University) “Twenty times more individuals and eleven times more species were captured in areas that experienced high fire severity relative to areas with the lowest fire severity. We detected a large number of bees in recently burned forest patches.”