Honey bees originally nest in cavities in about 5 m height. In Tom Seeley’s book “Honeybee democracy” is plenty of information about the nesting preferences of this most known bee species. Beekeeping practices often do not respect these preferences. I already discussed some conflicts of interest between beekeepers and honey bees which may influence colony […]
This was a very busy and demanding week. I was at the CREA-API in Bologna teaching at the yearly honey bee pathology course. This is not a regular course. In the institutes I worked in Germany, usually – depending on the topic – courses took one or two days. More or less teachers presented the […]
Last week, the German journal “Die Zeit” wrote about “The downfall of facts”. In short interviews ten scientists talked about the most contested (or denied) facts of their area. Despite the clear tendencies not to accept scientific findings and to follow the most appealing opinions: most of them had a strategy to face this. And […]
Though my “bee-career” began with floral ecology, cleptoparasites very soon got my attention. For my master thesis I examined the associated species found in nests of the Red Mason Bee, Osmia bicornis (in that times still O. rufa). I had tried another subject before (still with bees) but did not succeed much in it. In […]
Two days ago I had a big surprise in the garden of the CREA-API in Bologna: I met my first Megachile sculpturalis, a really giant bee: they become up to 25 mm long. Some of the specimens I see downstairs look even bigger to me, but this may be an impression. First, I was quite […]
Today the Bee Week is starting in Brussels. Since 2012 it is organized every year, hosted by the European Parliament. This year’s theme is “Bees caring for Europeans. Europeans caring for Bees?”. The aim is to give different stakeholders and policy makers an opportunity to meet: representatives of European and national institutions, beekeepers, farmers, NGOs, […]
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