News — Beekeeping

Each month our Bee Informed Blog highlights current news, science, and research related to solitary bee conservation, food insecurity, and sustainability. 1. Celebrate Earth Day with a bee walk (Environment America, By Steven Blackledge) Earth Day—April 22nd—is a day to not only celebrate our planet but also to take part in environmental education and activism to build a greener, healthier world. And what better way to help the planet than by helping the fuzzy little critters whose hard work holds up entire ecosystems? I’m talking about bees. These humble heroes pollinate 80% of the world’s flowering plants, and there are more than...

Each month our Bee Informed Blog highlights current news, science, and research related to solitary bee conservation, food insecurity, and sustainability. 1. "How the New Vaccine - For Bees - Works" (Sam Westreich, PhD, NewsBreak Contributor) For a tiny insect, bees are vitally important to many aspects of our daily life, even if you don’t enjoy a bit of honey in your tea. But recently, commercial honeybees have been under attack by a dangerous bacterium. This bacterium is named Paenibacillus larvae, and it causes a disease in bees known as American Foulbrood. The bacterium infects the bee larvae, growing in their guts...

Each month our Bee Informed Blog highlights current news, science, and research related to solitary bee conservation, food insecurity, and sustainability. 1. "New unusual bee species discovered with dog-like snout" (Phys.org) A new native bee species with a dog-like "snout" has been discovered in Perth bushland though Curtin-led research that sheds new light on our most important pollinators. Published in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research, author Dr. Kit Prendergast, from the Curtin School of Molecular and Life Sciences, has named the new species after her pet dog Zephyr after noticing a protruding part of the insect's face looked similar to a dog's...

During the 2022 harvesting season, some mason bee raisers in the pacific northwest noticed that a few mason bees had already emerged from their cocoons. Early emergence tells us that the bees have already consumed most of their stored fats (energy), which usually doesn't occur until spring. The early emergence of mason bees is likely due to the higher-than-average, extended summer temperatures we had in the summer and fall of 2022. When we have higher-than-average summer temperatures, the speed of development increases, and the new bee becomes an adult quicker than usual. Once the bee becomes an adult, it shifts...