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Newly-formed cooperative helps
beekeepers in Afghanistan: (Thursday, February 05,
2009) Excellent
results with a beekeeping project in the Afghan province
of Takhar encourages Mission East to take a step further
to help its 50 apiculture beneficiaries create a
business enterprise. In 2008, Mission East decided to
help families in Chaal improve their poor diets and
household food security as part of a large-scale rural
assistance project. One of the components was the
provision of beekeeping tools and training in order to
enable vulnerable families to produce honey for family
consumption
All abuzz about learning to be
a beekeeper (Thursday, February 05, 2009) The
only reason for being a bee that I know of is making
honey … and the only reason for making honey is so I can
eat it.”. After a day of meeting with expert
entomologists and folks from around the metro area who
raise bees, I’m stung, so to speak. I cannot think of a
creature on the planet more special than the honey bee.
Bees killed by Neo-nicotinoids in
expressed Maize sap ( Wednesday,
February 4, 2009
)
New research by Prof. Vincenzo Girolami of the University of
Padova in Italy shows Neonicotinoids in maize kill bees via
water droplets. Highly toxic neo-nicotinoid insecticides such as
Clothianidin and Imidacloprid were permitted for agricultural
use in Germany, but only on the basis that bees would not be
exposed to these substances. It was argued that bees would not
be poisoned because these pesticides would only be used for the
coating of seeds - and safely buried underground. However,
current research in the wake of the massive bee deaths in
Germany after maize-sowing in the spring of 2008 gives serious
cause for concern.
Banning insecticides
won't save British bees (Wednesday,
February 4, 2009) Reversing
the honeybee's population decline is a complex matter, and
stopping the use of neonicotinoid insecticides until they are
shown to be safe to honeybees, part of a
Co-op initiative, is over-reacting,
according to the
BCPC.
Threat to Swale's bee colonies
recognised by Defra (Wednesday,
February 4, 2009 ) A
top honey producer has welcomed a £4.3 million increase in
government funding for research to stop bee colonies from being
wiped out, Yourswale reports. The Varroa virus has decimated
colonies across the UK since it arrived on our shores about two
decades ago. The reason for so many bees dying was only
identified last year and although there are treatments for the
virus, some strains are already becoming resistant
Class promotes need for bees
(Wednesday, February 4, 2009) Barry Harris welcomes wannabe
beekeepers to school Feb. 10. Founder and president of the Cape
Fear Regional Beekeepers Association, Harris hopes to promote
beekeeping in the area. The association sponsors the
class.
Funds call to save vanishing bee
colonies (Tuesday,
3 February 2009)
One in three of
Northern Ireland’s honey bee colonies have vanished in the last
year, it has been claimed. UUP Agriculture spokesman Tom Elliott
warned that more honey bees are predicted to vanish this spring
unless funding is provided to beekeepers to investigate the
cause. The call follows the announcement by Defra that an extra
£4.3m has been made available to safeguard and research bee
health in England.
Last year, some beekeepers reported bee losses as high as 50%
through Colony Collapse Disorder, in which bee colonies vanish
without trace
Ranchester beekeeper rents
pollinators to California almond growers
(Monday,
February 2, 2009)
Clifford Reed remembers looking over the sweet clover-covered
hills near Ranchester last spring and thinking, "This should
be a great year for honey."
A strong dose of reality hit Reed once mites were discovered
in his bee colonies.
"I didn't treat for mites and it cost me," the owner of Tongue
River Honey said.
He won't make the same mistake this year. "I had to pull off
320 dead colonies," Reed said. "With 25,000 to 30,000 bees per
hive, that's a lot of dead bees
Banning insecticides will not save
British bees
(Monday,
February 2, 2009)
Prohibiting suppliers of its own-brand fresh produce from using
neonicotinoid insecticides until they are shown to be safe to
honeybees is part of the new radical Plan Bee, launched by the
Co-op last Wednesday (28 January), in an attempt to reverse the
worrying decline in the British honeybee population. On the same
day The Guardian reported that these chemicals are implicated in
billions of honeybee deaths worldwide
Making a beeline to a new parish (Sunday
1st February 2009) HE is going to be a busy bee when he up
sticks and moves to a new parish. For the last six years a
rectory garden in a leafy Southampton suburb has been a hive of
industry and a blessing in helping to keep colds and flu at bay.
The Rev John Owen, whose parish covers St Michael and All
Angels, Bassett and North Stoneham, has been running such a
successful bee colony that it has produced enough honey for
local shops and the congregation. Now the rector has the
massive task of transferring his hives and about 120,000 bees
because he is leaving the parish next month to take up a new
appointment as Vicar of Steep, Froxfield and Privett in the
Diocese of Portsmouth
Uganda: Honey Production -
Country Yet to Fully Realise Potential (28-01-2009)
Kampala — UGANDA has a production potential of over
500,000 metric tonnes of honey annually, but produces
only 5,000 metric tonnes. Ugandan honey, if well
produced, is rated as one of the best in the world. In
Uganda, honey is produced in Bushenyi, Bugisu,
Nakasongola, Kabarole and West Nile region
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