Member Beekeeping Articles

Of the many ways plants attract pollinators to their blooms the production of scent might be the most complex. Just as the formation of a flower or the secretion of nectar impose a resource drain on the plant the manufacture and release of volatile odours must be costly. Some plants seem to exercise little to no control over this, tobacco and petunia release their fragrance to a nocturnal rhythm; snapdragons smell in the daytime, hopefully when their pollinators are most likely to be present. These rhythms don't care if it's day or night. Clover flowers too emit scent in a rhythmic manner but it is controlled by the light and dark intervals rather than by an intrinsic clock. Release begins 7–12 h after a light is switched on and the...

While it has become relatively straightforward to measure Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) levels in honeybee adults and off-spring with modern analysis methods it has not been so easy to study the possible transmission routes, and to differentiate one possible source from another. It had been shown many years ago that DWV can be transmitted when the queen lays eggs, and that drone semen can contain the virus, and more recently that varroa mites inject the viral particles when they feed. A clever study from the USDA-ARS at Beltsville has used DWV labelled with a gene with a green fluorescent protein (GRP) to demonstrate an additional way of passing the infection on, in this case during the detection and removal of infected pupae and larvae, a...

This goes 'Beyond Bee Books'. It is a really interesting Open Access publication released today, not just with pictures but moving pictures! I'll let the authors describe it: "In this study, we provide a comprehensive source of online video material that offers a view of honey bee behaviour within comb cells, thereby providing a new mode of observation for the scientific community and the general public...Our qualitative study provides insight into worker behaviours, including the use of wax scales and existing nest material to remodel combs, storing pollen and nectar in cells, brood care and thermoregulation, and hygienic practices, such as cannibalism, grooming and surface cleaning. We reveal unique processes that have not been...