“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,…
There are many bee myths out there. I discussed some of them already concerning honey bees last month. But today, it’s all about the myths that maybe aren’t as easy to spot. Nonetheless, they aren’t harmless at all. I’m not talking about “honey bees get all the attention and other bee species do at least…
Road verges cover quite a bit of area. In Germany, where I live, it’s about 30,000 km². I’m not that sure how reliable the data are, but considering that this country seems to be covered in streets, it’s a good approximation, I guess. If you wonder how this relates to bees: well, road verges are…
Bees are a classical example for central place foraging. It may sound abstract but simply means that the activity of an animal displays around a “home base”. There is a central point to which they return. This applies quite well for bees, at least for the females (and I’m leaving out cuckoo bees, too…). The…
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…
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