One could think pollinator conservation is a very important issue and taken seriously all over the world. At the latest since the pollinator assessment from IPBES was published, the discussion about pollinator decline is going beyond science and conservationists. Very often I get asked about bees. Many want to start beekeeping. I then explain why […]
“Pollination services”, “without bees our dinner tables will look differently”, “bees are important for a healthy and tasty diet” – phrases like this sooner or later come up in every campaign that wants to “save the bees”. I’ve used them myself. And probably will continue to do so, because it evokes a personal interest. However, […]
Honey bee health management – that sounds like something very abstract and technical. Like something that interests beekeepers who want productive colonies. Something economic, but nothing that connects to bee diversity. Or bee health as I defined it some weeks ago. There seems to be a barrier between those managing bees – mostly Western honey […]
In my last post, I described how my approach to bee health changed over the years. From focussing on single bee diseases (mainly varroa…), my view got much broader. The One Health concept – which I discovered only last year – gave my ideas a frame and a name. Which I’m very happy about. It’s […]
Healthy bees – how do you define them? My approach has changed over the years. First, I was interested in single bee diseases, or more precisely, the impact of parasites on bees. With experience, it turned into a more complex approach, acknowledging connections. Over the years, I began to include also aspects that aren’t related […]
In this period of the year, I think about bee nutrition quite often. It’s the time of wild meadows, of flowering gardens and parks. The time of the discussions on which seed mixture to use and which flowers to plant to “save the bees”. There are initiatives focussing flowering road verges, others on connecting habitats […]
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