Breaking News

It has been reported on the BBC News website & in Naturebriefing that “Sex Clouds Queen Bee’s visionSemen that impairs a female’s eyesight is one weapon in the sexual arms race between male honeybees and queens“. Queen HoneyBees over the course of several days engage in mating flights, often collecting sperm from multiple male Bees to increase the Hives genetic diversity. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen carried out artifical insemination with both semen and saline. The theory of evolution predicts that male Bees should attempt to stop the Queen from mating with other male Bees. In keeping with the theory and hypothesis prediction, the research would suggest that natural insemination degrades the vision related genes in female Bees, compared to Bees inseminated with saline. It was found that sperm inseminated Bees tended to leave the Hive two days earlier then controlled Bees inseminated with saline. It is suggested that this was to compensate for the degraded vision, and that Queens would get lost on their mating flight.

Queen Bee being mated (on the wing) during a mating flight by a male drone Bee. Credit: Otto Hahn/SPL

Endangeded Species List

In 2017 (seven species of Hawaiian yellow-faced bees), and in 2018 (The rusty-patched bumblebee, Bombus affinis) where added to the endangeded species list click here for more details

Honeybee Brood Chamber Facts – did you Know that the Bees

Regulate the Brood Temperature at 35 degrees C +/- 1/4 of a degree C, also over a 24 hour period the Relative Humidity (RH) cycles between 65%RH during the hours of 6pm through the early hours of the day to 9am the following day, and reduces to 35%RH between the hours of 9am to 6pm with sharp minimum occuring around noon. Note: The brood temperature may go down a few degrees if the Queen is off laying eggs

Latest Asian Hornet sighting in the UK

Reports of an Asian Hornet nest high in a Oak Tree has been destroyed following the sighting on the 1st October 2019, following the destruction of the nest reported on the 4th October 2019 a further two sightings have been confirmed, which would suggest that other nest(s) may be located in the immediate area. UK Gov website confirmed the finding and destruction of a primary Asian hornet nest on the 10th October 2019 near Christchurch, Dorset. This is close to the nest at Christchurch destroyed on 1st October 2019, click here for details

5G Mobile Phone technology threat to flying insects

The new 5G mobile phone technology could pose a threat to flying insects, due to the wavelegth of the radio waves being comparable with the size of Honeybees & other simillar size flying insects click here to find out more

A Blind Beekeeper in California listens to the sounds of the Hives

Aerial Gilbert a blind beekeeper listens to the sound of her hives while working and looking after them, Aerial says she can hear the bees doing the waggle dance, Aerial says “When I worked with my bees, the information I was paying attention to was visual. Now it’s the other senses.’ after going blind click here to find out more

Other Blind people listening to the sounds of the hive

Aerial Gilbert is not the first blind person to take an interest in Bees, Swiss Entomologist Francois Huber lost his sight in his teens, the 18th century entomologist discovered and proved how Bees use their antennae to communicate click here to find out more

‘Bumblebee medicine’ found in heather

A report on the BBC website suggests that there is a natural ‘bumblebee medicine’ which is found in the Nectar from Heather and contains a natural “bumblebee medicine”, which is active against a harmful bee parasite, also the “medicine” is present in Lime trees and strawberry trees but at a much lower levels click here to find out more

Next Steps…

Action is needed to save Bees Worldwide, – what can you do to help & support Bees? Contact you local MP or Government Representative and make them aware of the threats to Bees, or you could join a local Bee Association with the view of becoming a Beekeeper. If you are a local company you could support and sponser a local Bee Hive, and if you would like to sponser a Hive(s) managed by Bee World please get in contact with us. In the UK companies are becoming more “Eco and Green friendly” giving back to nature that which enriches their workforce and doing something positive for the Environment and helping to save the Honey Bee and other types of pollinating insects species, as well as Humanity and the planet.

Visit the Bee World Forum

Click the “Buzz Menu tab” to visit the Forum. You will need to register to use the Forum, which consists of setting up a user name, & password & email address, (and also to reset forgotten passwords). To return from the Forum click on the PHB logo icon or the Home link at the bottom of the page. For more information regarding the Buzz Forum click here

Coming Soon Bee World Wiki

The Buzz Wiki is an information A to Z portal on Bees, which will allow much deeper articles to be published by various Authors & Beekeepers who can contribute on Bees and other sub-species