Quote:
Originally Posted by Turtle
I only recently heard of 'colony collapse disorder' and it sounds as if it is getting serious. A quick web search of 'colony collapse disorder' nets about 25,000 hits. Here's just one: News | Telegraph
Any of you heard of this? Noticed bee loss in your locale? Ever tried to pollinate an apple tree by hand?  |
Hey Turtle..
Yes.. in New Zealand I have heard of "colony collapse disorder".. and just like the next person.. I certainly hope honey doesnt disappear.. as honey is for many reasons.. a medicinal necessity.. and one of natures true wonders..
Active UMF Manuka Honey found only in New Zealand.. has naturally occurring properties which can assist your body against harmful bacteria..
Honey New Zealand : Manuka Honey and healthy honey bee products
New Zealand have had many problems in recent years with the Varroa Mite.. an insect which has effectively wiped out the bee population in NZ.. mostly the South Island at this point.. although it is heading North..
New Zealand beekeeper groups are concerned that unregistered beekeepers in the Nelson region may jeopardise the varroa identification enterprise currently underway in that area..
In studying the effects of the varroa mite among many other problems the honey industry face.. Scientists are said to have cracked the
bee code to honey pot.. what this means is..
Bees' have a biological clock to tell the time of day.. using a sophisticated navigation system to locate food miles away.. and can produce the sweetest natural substance on earth simply by chewing up pollen grains..
The secret life of the honey bee is about to be revealed.. after the success of an international effort to decipher the full genetic recipe of the most economically valuable insect...
Scientists have published the results in the journals Nature and Science.
An early analysis of the genes has shown that the honey bee's ancestors originated in Africa and migrated at least twice in the distant past to populate Asia and Europe..
Another finding is that the honey bee has an unusually high number of genes devoted to smell.. making a bee better at detecting a scent in the air than fruit flies or mosquitoes..
Scientists hope that more secrets will be explained at the molecular level with the help of the full DNA sequence of the only social insect to be partially domesticated by man..
A study of the bee's genome has shown that the molecular machinery of its internal body clock more closely resembles that of a mammal than of other insects.. said Guy Bloch of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
The bee can learn to reach flowers at nine different times of the day with an accuracy of 20 minutes.. the clock is essential for its navigation system - based on the movement of the sun in the sky - which can locate a food source up to 9.6km away..
Dr Bloch states.. Discovering that molecular characteristics of the biological clock in bees is closer to the biological clock of mammals than that of flies was a big surprise..
Scientists also announced the discovery of the world's oldest bee.. a 100-million-year-old specimen preserved in amber that had evolved from a wasp-like ancestor.. It was about 40 million years older than the previous oldest known bee fossil.
Honey bees evolved millions of years later alongside flowering plants in a symbiotic relationship.. said Hugh Robertson.. professor of entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign..
Today bees pollinate billions of dollars worth of agricultural crops..
Scientists had hoped that the honey bee genome would also explain how it evolved into being a social insect with a caste of sterile female workers.. male drones and a fertile queen.
"However.. we didn't find much diversification of such social genes."
The scientists hope that by selectively silencing certain honey bee genes.. they will be able to work out which ones are involved in the genetic programming necessary for the evolution of castes within the hive..
Honey Bee Facts
* Some 20,000 bee species exist.. on every continent except Antarctica.
* They carry an electrostatic charge.. which helps pollen stick to their bodies.
* Despite their sometimes painful sting.. bees are one of the few insects used on advertisements.. mostly to promote honey or in Sanitariums case.. HoneyPuffs which I love the most..
Honey Bees Disappearing!
Re: Honey Bees Dying Off!
Re: Honey Bees Dying Off!
Re: Honey Bees Dying Off!
Oh, and it's 'navigation', not 'navagation', and 'immune', not emune.
Simma down nah. 
We're all bozos on this bus Doc; we all have our peccadillos & brash claims & poor speeling are a couple of mine. 
