Survey Shines Light on Beekeepers’ Efforts to Manage Varroa Mites
Nonchemical Varroa-management methods are more common among small-scale beekeepers, but chemical varroacides show wide use among all types.
Road Trip: How Hive Transportation Puts Stress on Honey Bees
Honey bees are in high demand for pollinating crops, and hives are often trucked thousands of miles a year to serve different crops in different regions and seasons. But researchers say honey bees show signs of stress from all that travel.
No Buzz, No Problem: Study Shows How Honey Bees Pollinate Blueberries
Honey bees are incapable of buzz pollination, but they can (and do) perform pollination duties in highbush blueberry. A new study shows that, while honey bees rarely collect blueberry pollen in the pollen baskets on their hind legs, they frequently contact it with other body parts and transfer it to other flowers.
New and Easy Marking Method Tracks Bees Without Killing Them
A new study published in the Journal of Insect Science outlines a new technique that quickly, simply, and inexpensively marks bees to track their movement—and it's non-lethal, too. It could make for an valuable improvement for mark-and-recapture methods for these pollinators.
The Commercial Bumble Bee Industry May Have Helped Spread Nosema to Wild Bee Populations
When most people think about bee pollinators in U.S. agriculture, they probably think of honey bees. However, bumble bees can also be used, especially in green houses where crops like […]
An Opportunity to Study Bees and Pollination in Costa Rica
By Gerrit van de Klashorst The importance of bees and other pollinators for natural and agricultural ecosystems has been well documented. But during the past decades, pollinators have been in […]
Study Finds Very Few Wild Bee Species Pollinate Major Crops
A major international study finds that surprisingly few bee species are responsible for pollinating the world’s crops. The paper, published in Nature Communications, suggests that only two percent of wild […]
Flowers Trick Kleptoparasitic Flies into Pollinating Them
According to the authors of an article appearing in the journal New Phytologist, the pollination of about 4-6% of all flowering plants is based on deceit, “whereby plants advertise a […]