- Haagen Dazs understands. No bees = no honey and no fruit.
- Over-excited about seeds. Jeremy comments, “It’s that time of the year”.
- South Korea bioprospecting in Costa Rica.
- A round-up of recent (bad) news on the chocolate front.
- Namibia: no country for vegetarians.
Something else for honeybees to worry about
Gene Expression posted a couple of great videos yesterday. The first shows some Asian Giant Hornets attacking a colony of European honeybees, and wreaking total havoc in minutes. The second, which I’ll reproduce below, shows what the native Japanese honeybee species can do to marauding hornets.
Amazing stuff. Incidentally, hornet larvae and pupae are eaten in Japan as a kind of sashimi. And synthetic versions of vespan secretions are being marketed as dietary supplements.
The Vanishing of the Bees
Colony Collapse Disorder gets a documentary. Maybe.
Most beehives in a single tree
Bee tree boasts 575 hives, seeks World Heritage Site status.
Colony Collapse Disorder: who knows?
Maybe ours was the straw that broke the camel’s back, but beekeeper Felicia Gilljam has now blogged her thoughts on Colony Collapse Disorder. Being scientifically cautious, I suspect, there’s a disclaimer: “Because I’m a beekeeper, apparently my opinion is considered ‘expert’.” More expert than many another commenter, I reckon. I’ll let you read it over there, but the executive summary is that Felicia is not sure how real the phenomenon is, especially in Europe. And perhaps the virus that has been associated with CCD gets a purchase because something else weakens the hive. She also raises the intriguing possibility that breeding bees to be better harvesters that are docile and don’t swarm may have brought along some other effects — like a weaker immune system — as hitchhikers.