After a brief hiatus due to website work, the BeeWire has returned. For this round, we look at the apparent universality of honey bee “language,” the latest on CCD and funding, and urban beekeepers.
The BeeWire
- Honeybee researchers to receive additional federal funds: A significant amount of money may be destined for honey bee research as part of the federal farm bill. Also, this priceless quote from FL state Rep. Alcee Hastings: “This process is glacial, but the simple fact of the matter is, the people who are now alerted to this issue are not crazy.” Heh. What?
- Bee Decline Linked to Introduced Virus: That virus is the Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus, and it may have been brought to the US from Australia.
- Winged saviour: Last month, we reported that Welsh beekeepers were attempting to interbreed their honey bees with native Welsh bees. It seems that beekeepers on the island of Læsø, off the coast of Denmark, are attempting the same feat. The Danes, and I assume the Welsh, are dealing with the subspecies of Western honey bees native to northern Europe (Apis mellifera mellifera).
- Urban beekeeping is the latest buzz: Another approach to ensuring a future inclusive of honey bees is the fostering of hobby and urban beekeepers…
- Beekeeping project planned for region: …which is exactly what they’re doing down in Coshocton, Ohio. (The application to the Don Myers Eastern Ohio Apiculture Project is available online.)
- Bees learn new languages easily: Asian honey bees and Western honey bees can communicate with each other via dancing, despite using different intraspecific dialects.
- Bees stop, smell, and remember the roses: “Honey bees are able to remember the scent of the flowers they visit by allocating different types of memory to their tiny brains, new research suggests.” Entomological cognitive neuroscience: fun for the whole family.
- Here’s a video discussing the wag-tail dance. (Ignore the “his nestmates” comment, and it’s an acceptable overview.)
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