Further confirmation that EFB is not endemic in Scotland, and only present in a small number of colonies/apiaries. It will be interesting to see how this finding affects the current Government approach to notifiable disease management.
www.nationalbeeunit.com/assets/PDFs/...
Chocolate mining bee (Andrena scotica) community in an airbrick in central Scotland.
Happy World Bee day! What are you doing today to celebrate our wonderful pollinators?
Also bonus points to the BBC for breaking with tradition and using a solitary bee (Colletes?) instead of a bumble bee as the thumbnail for a honey bee story...
Bee inspectors are vital to deal with notifiable diseases like foulbroods. The lack of inspection in Northern Ireland, coupled with it's new role as a major import route for European honey bees, is very concerning.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Met another commuter coming out of work this evening! @roslininstitute.bsky.social #toad #migration
Researching insects? @royentsoc.bsky.social is looking for feedback on the subject of insect research practices and ethics... www.royensoc.co.uk/news/res-wel...
A fascinating technical talk on how selective breeding in honey bees removes rare alleles and opposes natural selection in populations. www.youtube.com/watch?v=UClh...
Looking forward to presenting on the status of native honey bees at the B4 symposium this weekend! www.plymouth.ac.uk/whats-on/b4-...
Good to see the potential for emergency use of neonics on sugar beet finally stopped. Shocking that it no action was taken for 5 years, despite expert and public opinion strongly against this use!
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Varroa amitraz resistance is now established in several places in the world. With no obvious replacement 'magic bullet' treatment on the horizon, IPM techniques and work towards natural resistance are more important now than ever: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A Call for Evidence from the UK Parliament on issues surrounding animal and plant biosecurity in relation to imports. Plenty of knowledgeable individuals and orgs here who might want to submit evidence! (deadline 29th Jan) committees.parliament.uk/call-for-evi...
BIBBA's aim to encourage local bees and teach about breeding and selection is worthwhile - even if the ideal of a return to a native population is a complicated one! But it's hard to not be emotive and avoid confrontation on this one - beekeepers will take any opportunity to disagree! 😂
This is definitely an area which hobbyists can lead in. Most don't 'need' to use imports/Buckfast, and would benefit the most if the average quality of bees in their locality improved. Simple steps like not propping up poor
colonies and not breeding from them can make a big difference.
Many countries have (or are trying to achieve) standardised stocks - be it a local strain (e.g. Slovenia) or by selecting from existing hybrids (e.g. NZ). There an argument that the UK should do the same with local bees, rather than regularly importing but never solving the underlying problem.
The Devon study highlighted a big issue with UK mongrels - we don't have a 'standard' hybrid, and our bees range from near-native to almost no native genetics. As such breeding is a roll of the dice, and each new generation can see big behavioural changes which makes for challenging beekeeping!
A fascinating potential insight into the changes in European honey bees over the last thousand years, no doubt with some challenging DNA analysis required! tvpworld.com/83900838/wou...
Flowering weeds in arable fields actually provide a major source of forage for pollinators. Important to consider in arable crop management and weed suppression. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
An interesting paper quantifying the prevalence of different honeybee sub-species in an area with recent import restrictions. It will be interesting to see 'part 2' in the future to see if these legal protections will prove effective. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Pupal stress causes early premature hive exiting in honey bees, possibly due to under-developed hypopharyngeal glands. A fascinating potential explanation as to why stressors like varroa can lead to rapid colony failure! biolres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Catching up on social media with a series of posts on our work in 2024... starting with our most recent work in Ireland looking at hybridisation risks to the native Irish honey bee, carried out with researchers from @uniofgalway.bsky.social beebytes.org/articles/hyb...
Hi Natasha, we'd be honoured if you'd consider including us on this excellent list!
If it's useful the sky follower bridge now also works on Firefox and Edge browsers: www.sky-follower-bridge.dev
A great example of using DNA barcoding to identify a wide range of at-risk species in a particular environment.
Also apparently used to calm the bees when smoking beehives - not tried it though!
A very smug looking male Heather Colletes bee who's obviously been reading the insect Kama Sutra!
That's us just arrived, and seeing some familiar faces already... Looking forward to making some new connections around insects, genetics and conservation (there's never enough time for social media in the summer months!)
