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…
Honey bee viruses didn’t seem to be a major issue for a long time. At least, they weren’t in the focus of beekeepers – and not that many bee scientists either. This changed quite a bit: first, the varroa mite transmitted the Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) leading to one of the most prominent symptoms of…
Bee research means being outside – at least in my case. For me, it also means travelling a lot. I do most of my studies in Italy and Spain. Sometimes also in other European countries like Austria, France or the UK. BeeSafe – i.e. my whole business – is built on my capacity to travel:…
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