- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It hasn't been a good year for honey bees, no thanks to colony collapse disorder, but it has been a good year for the release of educational information.
The latest edition of The Bee Health Update, a bimonthly newsletter which updates current activities around the Bee Health, eXtension.org community, is now online.
And it's a wealth of information.
A sampling:
Video: "Honey Bees and Beekeeping: A Year in the Life of an Apiary," by Keith Delaplane, University of Georgia
Instrumental Insemination: Susan Cobey of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis
Nosema ceranae: The Inside Story by Tom Webster, Kentucky State University
Pesticides Applied to Crops and Honey Bee Toxicity: Marion Ellis, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
A View from the Front Lines: Kerry Lynott, Pennsylvania State University
Breeding Bees for Resistance to Parasites and Diseases: Greg J. Hunt, Purdue University
Among the many other topics: The Stationary Apiary Coordinated Agricultural Project; Dance Language of the Honey Bee; and upcoming events.
A tip of the bee veil to the folks at Bee Health Update.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Seems like many folks assume that all bees are "honey bees."
They're not.
If you look around you, you'll see bees of all shapes, colors and sizes nectaring flowers.
And they're not all honey bees (Apis mellifera)!
The one below, as identified by native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis, is a medium-sized striped sweat bee, Halictus ligatus. It's a ground-nesting bee. It's also a native bee (unlike honey bees which arrived here from Europe in 1622 with the colonists).
This particular sweat bee took an avid interest in the Agapanthus in our yard.
The Xerces Society has compiled a wealth of information on native bees. You'll want to check out their Web site and read about the $458,000 grant the society recently received to study native pollinators and protect their habitat.