Labels
Organisation
Halal etc
For so work the honey-bees
Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
The Act of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king and officer of sorts.
Shakespeare, King Henry V
-----
It is estimated that, on average, bees contribute about 3 000 US $ per year per hectare of crop.
Swiss: The bee sting, with its bee venom, causes pain, but has many biological and beneficial effects.
Honey is the sweet liquid produced by bees. They ingest nectar and honeydew, enrich it with substances of their own, store and mature it in honeycombs. Bees produce blossom honeys from nectar and honeydew honey from honeydew. Honeydew is the product of small plant sucking insects.
Switzerland produces about 3000 t of honey per year which covers only about 1/3 of its needs, the remaining 2/3 have to be imported. The annual consumption of 1.2 kg honey per capita in Switzerland is one of the highest in the world.
Creation of the top-bar hive (pictured). This structure was inspired by an ancient Greek design that encourages bees to build trapezoidal combs not attached to the side or bottom of a hive. Practical and inexpensive, the top-bar hive technology has contributed to economic development schemes across the world.
Apiculture scientist Dr Brad Howlett from New Zealand’s Plant & Food Research and an international team of scientists have recently discovered new insights into the value of wild pollinators to crop production. The study suggests just 2%, or 785 of the roughly 20,000 known bee species, pollinate up to 80% of the bee-pollinated crops worldwide. with the value of wild bees shown to be similar to that of managed hives.
Bee taxonomy is notoriously difficult. Many species — often common ones — look very similar to each other yet have different life histories. This taxonomic crisis was exposed in the assessments prepared by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and published in 2014 in the European Red List of Bees2. For 80% of the bees on the list, population trends are unknown, and more than half of all species were labelled as 'data deficient', making it impossible for even an indirect assessment of risk of extinction. All this is not made easier by the fact that new bee species keep being discovered.
The combs are natural engineering marvels, using the least possible amount of wax to provide the greatest amount of storage space, with the greatest possible structural stability. Darwin recognised that explaining the evolution of the honey-bee’s comb-building abilities was essential if his theory of natural selection was to be taken seriously, and in the 1850s he carried out his own experiments at his home at Down House in Kent, and wrote many letters on the subject.
“Orchid’s beauty was not “designed” by God to please humans but honed by natural selection to attract insect cross-pollinators.”
“Every ant knows the formula of its ant-hill,
every bee knows the formula of its beehive.
They know it in their own way, not in our way.
Only humankind does not know its own formula.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky
“Honeybees depend not only on physical contact with the colony, but also require it's social companionship and support. Isolate a honeybee from her sisters and she will soon die.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees:
“Jim said that bees won't sting idiots, but I didn't believe that, because I tried them lots of times myself and they wouldn't sting me.”
― Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
“Handle a book as a bee does a flower, extract its sweetness but do not damage it.”
― John Muir
“Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway.”
― Mary Kay Ash
“Worker bees can leave.
Even drones can fly away.
The Queen is their slave.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
“The lovely flowers
embarrass me.
They make me regret
I am not a bee...”
― Emily Dickinson
“I hadn't been out to the hives before, so to start off she gave me a lesson in what she called 'bee yard etiquette'. She reminded me that the world was really one bee yard, and the same rules work fine in both places. Don't be afraid, as no life-loving bee wants to sting you. Still, don't be an idiot; wear long sleeves and pants. Don't swat. Don't even think about swatting. If you feel angry, whistle. Anger agitates while whistling melts a bee's temper. Act like you know what you're doing, even if you don't. Above all, send the bees love. Every little thing wants to be loved.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees
“You never can tell with bees.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
Mais oui, il y a des ruches à Roland-Garros... Il y en a même une sur la Place des Mousquetaires, à l'endroit (hors-tribunes) le plus fréquenté du site. Et il n'y a aucun problème; elles vont bien, et les spectateurs aussi...
L'écologie est un souci permanent pour les organisateurs du tournoi, et pour la Fédération Française de Tennis. Trier les déchets, réduire l'impact carbone, et... attirer l'attention du public sur la disparition progressive des abeilles, ce sont quelques-uns des chevaux de bataille de l’épreuve de la Porte d’Auteuil.
Il y a plus de 240.000 abeilles en ce moment, à Roland-Garros. Et il y en a donc 80.000 sur la Place des Mousquetaires, à l'intérieur d'une oeuvre d'art, une sorte de cheminée de 4 mètres de haut. Cette sculpture s'appelle "Contemplons le Ciel". Elle est imposante, mais discrète. Pas mal de spectateurs ne la remarquent même pas, et ignorent qu'elle est "habitée".
Time is honey
"L'Airbnb du miel." C’est la façon dont se présente Nearbees , une jeune start-up allemande qui met en relation consommateurs et apiculteurs locaux à partir d’une plateforme web gratuite.
AbstractA century ago, in his study of colour vision in the honeybee (Apis mellifera), Karl von Frisch showed that bees distinguish between a disc that is half yellow, half blue, and a mirror image of the same. Although his inference of colour vision in this example has been accepted, some discrepancies have prompted a new investigation of the detection of polarity in coloured patterns. In new experiments, bees restricted to their blue and green receptors by exclusion of ultraviolet could learn patterns of this type if they displayed a difference in green contrast between the two colours. Patterns with no green contrast required an additional vertical black line as a landmark. Tests of the trained bees revealed that they had learned two inputs; a measure and the retinotopic position of blue with large field tonic detectors, and the measure and position of a vertical edge or line with small-field phasic green detectors. The angle between these two was measured. This simple combination was detected wherever it occurred in many patterns, fitting the definition of an algorithm, which is defined as a method of processing data. As long as they excited blue receptors, colours could be any colour to human eyes, even white. The blue area cue could be separated from the green receptor modulation by as much as 50°. When some blue content was not available, the bees learned two measures of the modulation of the green receptors at widely separated vertical edges, and the angle between them. There was no evidence that the bees reconstructed the lay-out of the pattern or detected a tonic input to the green receptors.
Il en ressort que l’apport des abeilles sauvages représente quelque 3.251 dollars par hectare de culture, et les colonies d’abeilles domestiques 2.913. Nature
Dr Geraldine Wright, Newcastle University.
who led the study, said: ‘Remembering floral traits is difficult for bees as they fly from flower to flower so fast. 'We have found that caffeine helps the bee remember where the flowers are. ‘In turn, bees that have fed on caffeine-laced nectar are laden with coffee pollen and these bees search for other coffee plants to find more nectar, leading to better pollination. ‘So, caffeine in nectar is likely to improve the bee’s foraging prowess while providing the plant with a more faithful pollinator.’
Co-author, Professor Phil Stevenson, from the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, and the University of Greenwich's Natural Resources Institute, added: ‘Caffeine is a defence chemical in plants and tastes bitter to many insects including bees so we were surprised to find it in the nectar. ‘However, it occurs at a dose that’s too low for the bees to taste but high enough to affect bee behaviour
Honeybees get a shot of caffeine from certain flowers to perk up their memory, a new study has found. This caffeine burst encourages the bees to return to the same type of plant, boosting its chances of pollination. One of the flowers that gives bees a caffeine hit is the coffee plant.
Organic Royal Jelly: The Background of Organics
In Canada, according to become legally “certified organic”, the bees must be kept in a controlled 3km radius from any type of spraying.
Since a large part of beekeeping is pollination, most commercial beekeepers (those who own more than 20 hives), are transporting their bees to farms all over the country or region they are responsible for.
The farmers “need” the bees to pollinate their crops so we can enjoy the summer and fall harvest. In other words, the bees are being moved around from farm to farm, and there is literally no way of controlling the sprays that the farmer or the farmer next door is using.
The only thing that this beekeeper does is to manage the hives the best they can and put the hives far enough away from any direct spraying.
The amount of residue from the wind, air and what is left on the plants is limited in making its way into the honey because of the natural protective action of the bee propolis inside the hive.
Bee propolis is a sticky resin that seeps from the buds of some trees and bark. Bees use it to narrow the opening of their hives to keep out unwelcome intruders.
It literally acts like a filter that cleans the bees as they enter the hive.
There are experts that would argue that this protective action limits or prevents pesticides from entering the hive and making their way into the royal jelly.
So this begs the question - is there a big difference between certified organic royal jelly and non-certified?
Is it worth the premium paid for certified organic?
To be honest, I'm not sure I know. The problems that beekeepers currently face in producing a truly organic product seem so big to me that I wonder if its even possible?
The only scenario I see capable of producing a truly organic royal jelly would be to isolate your hives on a non-inhabited island somewhere in the middle of the ocean and hope that wind currents don't drift any contaminants over your hives.
And that just doesn't exist anywhere in the world anymore.
Don't get me wrong - I am a huge proponent of organic farming and the organic movement. I eat everything I possibly can eat organically. While it is a bit expensive still, I feel like the benefits far out weight the financial cost.
Ultimately, my point is this - truly organic royal jelly just might not exist so focus on obtaining a royal jelly that was sustainably produced in an area as far away from industry as possible.
And let me warn you - so called 'organic royal jelly' is sold all over the internet. Before you lay down your hard earned money for this stuff, ask the producer some of the questions I've proposed here and see what kind of answers you get!
Concept of apitheraphy
According to the Greek historian Plutarch (205-118 BC) the Thracians used honey in their meals and sold a lot of honey and wax to the Greeks.
Cranach the Elder, Cupid complaining to Venus
Pollen grains are small, male reproduction units (gametophytes) formed in the anthers of the higher flowering plants.
However, it was the casting of metals that was developed most in ancient Colombia. Using the lost wax technique, artist modeled the final piece they wanted to achieve in beeswax (from stingless bees). Once the wax figure was finished it was covered in fine clay and charcoal, leaving pouring channels. The whole mold was fired and the melted wax poured out. Its place would be taken by molten metal, which cooled slowly as it solidified inside the mould. The mould was then broken and the final metal piece polished and finished.
Bees use about 6lb of honey to produce 1lb of wax.
The Native American Cree Prophecy includes a sentence that sums it all: "When all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money."
A typical modern hive can have between 40,000 and 100,000 bees in a single hive during the height of the season, depending on the strength of the colony.
Britain’s beekeepers have reported an average yield of 32lbs of honey per colony this year according to the findings of the British Beekeepers Association’s annual Honey Survey, released today (26 November,2014). a far cry from the 8lbs per colony nadir of 2012. “While this increase is great news for beekeepers and honey bees, the historic average is 40lbs plus per hive so there is still some way to go if we are to return to our most productive.” but great emphasis has also been given to equipping all beekeepers with the husbandry skills needed to maintain healthy and productive honey bee colonies, and the 2014 Honey Survey clearly reflects this effort.
This capping indicates to the beekeeper that the honey can be harvested. Capped honey can keep almost indefinitely. For the school swot: Sucrose (nectar) + inverters (bee enzyme) = fructose + glucose = honey.
Bees fly about 55,000 miles to make just one pound of honey, that’s 1½ times around the world!
The amount of honey that a hive produces is really dependent on the food quantity and quality. For a plant or tree to give good nectar, all the conditions need to be right i.e. there has to be right wind, water, warmth etc, and it all needs to be in balance. Sometimes the absolute best conditions may only last a few hours.
Some types of honey are called ‘mono-floral’, which means the honey comes from a particular nectar source from a particular plant species. However, even mono-floral honey will only be approximately 95% from the same flower, and the remainder is made up from nectar from other species, as bees will organise themselves so that not all food comes from one source, and they constantly search for different sources. It is the make-up of the remaining 5% that will make the difference in taste.
