Beekeeping
John LaRose Jr. John LaRose Jr.
shared this article 4 years ago
Topics: Agriculture Global, Beekeeping, Cocoa, Sustainability, Research, Ag Africa, Pollinators,
John LaRose Jr. John LaRose Jr.
shared this article 4 years ago
Topics: Agriculture Global, Beekeeping, Gardening, World Population, Pollinators, Education,

Bumblebees’ Self-Image Gets Them through Tight Spots

Sridhar Ravi was outdoors with his colleagues on a summer day in Germany when a group of bumblebees grabbed his attention. As the bees made their way from flower to flower, they skillfully flew between obstacles, dodging branches and shrubs. These actions seemed to require a complex awareness of one's physical body in relation to one’s environment that had only been proven to exist in animals with large brains.  To examine this, a team of researchers at Australia’s University of New South Wales, Canberra, led by Ravi, set up a hive of bumblebees inside their laboratory. The bees could come and go via a tunnel, which could be partially blocked with an adjustable barrier. Ravi and his team made the gap progressively smaller over time, and observed how the bees’ reactions changed. The study , published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , found the bumblebees measured the gap by flying side-to-side to scan it. When the gap became narrower than their wingspan, the bees took a longer time to scan the opening. And then they did something remarkable: they turned their bodies to fly through sideways . Some of the bees’ bodies did bump the sides of the narrowed opening—but every one of the 400 recorded flights through the gap was a success. “Over thousands of years nature has coded insects with some amazing attributes,” Ravi says. “Our challenge now is to see how we can take this and apply similar coding to future robotic systems, enhancing their performance in the natural world.”

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TOPIC(S): Beekeeping, Environment, Pollinators,

03/04/2021 SOURCE: modernfarmer.com

A Common Soil Pesticide Cut Wild Bee Reproduction by 89 Percent

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. When you think of bees, a hive humming with activity probably comes to mind. But most of the world’s 20,000 bee species don’t call a hive home. These wild species lead solitary lives instead, and around 70 percent of them build nests underground where they raise their offspring on the nectar they gather from flowers. Incredibly, almost all scientific understanding of how pesticides affect bees has come from testing domesticated honeybees, and, more recently, bumblebees. That’s largely because these species tend to be easier to work with in lab

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Isaac L Isaac L
shared this article 4 years ago
Topics: Agriculture Global, Beekeeping, Research, Pollinators,

Beekeeping for Beginners

Learn how to get started in beekeeping with natural methods and the best hive designs. Learn about the proper safety equipment, hive designs, and the basics of honey bees. Keep bees in your backyard safely and responsibly.

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John LaRose Jr. John LaRose Jr.
shared this article 4 years ago
Topics: Agriculture Global, Beekeeping, Research, World Population, Ag Australia/NZ, Pollinators,
John LaRose Jr. John LaRose Jr.
shared this article 4 years ago
Topics: Organic, Beekeeping, Fruit, World Hunger, Government / Policies, World Population, Ag South America, Pollinators,
John LaRose Jr. John LaRose Jr.
shared this article 4 years ago
Topics: Agriculture US, Organic, Forestry, Beekeeping, Pollinators,

Hardworking Sacramento Valley Bees - Sacramento Valley

Almonds are a major crop in the Sacramento Valley and they are in bloom right now.  As you currently drive through the area, you have an opportunity to see the beautiful trees.    Behind the scene in the orchard are hardworking bees pollinating the crop, and it takes a lot of then to pollinate the […]

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John LaRose Jr. John LaRose Jr.
shared this article 4 years ago
Topics: Organic, Beekeeping, Beyond Organic , Gardening, Urban Farming,
John LaRose Jr. John LaRose Jr.
shared this article 4 years ago
Topics: Agriculture US, Organic, Beekeeping, Young Farmers, Pollinators,

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