Three years ago, it happened that I was in Andalucía in February. I arrived quite late the day before I had to work on a study in Lanjarón, near Granada. Due to the darkness, I did not realize that the mountains I drove up were covered by almond bloom. Driving to the apiary the next […]
Honey bees like it sweet – they forage nectar and produce honey. But salt? It may seem strange at the first sight, but they like it salty, too. Putting it in other words: they need minerals. Beekeepers may experience a strong smell from time to time opening their colonies. This is due to this need […]
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 […]
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