Male honey bees more susceptible than females to widespread intestinal parasitegender differences in nature are common including in humans.
A research team from Bern Switzerland has found that male European honey bees or drones are much more susceptible than female European honey bees known as workers to a fungal intestinal parasite called Nosema ceranae.
Originally from Asia Nosema ceranae has rapidly spread throughout the world in recent years and may contribute to the high number of colony deaths now observed in many regions of the northern hemisphere.
These findings demonstrate the delicate nature of male honey bees which are important to honey bee colony reproduction to a well-distributed parasite.
Honey bees are complex social organisms that demonstrate haploid-diploidy. The two female castes workers and queens are diploid like humans.
Male honey bees known as drones on the other hand are haploid and contain only one chromosome set. The haploid susceptibility hypothesis predicts that haploid males are more prone to disease compared to their diploid female counterparts
A research team from the Vetsuisse Faculty of the University of Bern recently demonstrated in an article in the open-access journal PLOS ONE that male honey bees are significantly more susceptible (they die sooner
and have poor body condition) to an exotic fungal intestinal parasite called Nosema ceranae compared to female worker honey bees.
The parasite originally from Asia has recently spread to possess a near global-distribution during a period of high honey bee colony losses in many global regions.
Because of its recent detection in honey bees outside of Asia researchers are scrambling to understand the parasite.
Male honey bees: lazy but importantthe observation that male drone honey bees die much sooner
and have a poorer body condition compared to female worker honey bees when infected with the parasite Nosema ceranae is particularly worrisome say's doctoral student Gina Tanner:'
'Although drones do not perform important colony maintenance functions like cleaning and feeding like the workers they are responsible for mating with queens
so that the next generation of honey bees can be produced within a colony. Without strong fit drones the chance of successful matings with queens could be compromised severely.'
Honey and pollinationhoney bees as all insect pollinators provide crucial ecosystem and economic service which is relevant for our food security.
Annually in Europe more than 24 million honey bee colonies contribute to the production of 130000 tons of honey
and test webs to monitor pollution levels--for example to check for pesticides that might be harming bee populations.'
Many insects are able to detect small electrical disturbances including bees that can sense the electric fields of different flowers and other bees.'
Bees already use e-sensors to sense flowers and other bees so it now remains to be seen
whether they might also use them to avoid webs and thus becoming dinner.''Electrical disturbances caused by spider webs are ranged extremely short so it is not yet clear
The authors of the report, all bee-experts, cited several different possible reasons for the collapse of the bee population:
habitat degradation due to development, insecticides, parasites such as the Varroa mite and air pollution, that interferes with a bees'ability to find scents.
As a result, urban beekeeping has become something of a DIY method of helping the bee population through hobby.
The glass exterior filters light to let through the orange wavelength which bees use for sight.
To be a bee: This honey of a robot will fly like no other! Fly me to the moon.
The honey bee has a puny brain. But man is that miniscule mound of gray matter finely tuned as the winged pollinator's mission control center.
Or, sticking directly with the the bee's reason to be, imagine putting such capability into a flying device that would mechanically pollinate crops.
Rather, it takes its cues from the bee. Simpler organisms such as social insects have advanced surprisingly cognitive abilities
Because the honey bee brain is smaller and more accessible than any vertebrate brain, we hope to eventually be able to produce an accurate and complete model that we can test within a flying robot.
Hello bee brain. Warranty void after one sting. Photo: Mouagip via Wikimeda. More natural navigation on Smartplanet:
Urban beekeeping keeps cities healthywe need bees for the future of our cities and urban living,
We've been hearing about the disappearance of bees for some time, but Wilson-Rich is bringing a new perspective to the table.
Cities need bees, and bees need cities. We're very co-evolved because we depend on bees for pollination and even more recently,
as an economic commodity. Wilson-Rich went on to note that in cities bees are surviving better than in the country.
They also produce more honey. There are a number of possible reasons. Cities are warmer, trains carry pollen into heavily populated areas,
and there may be fewer pesticides in urban areas. In other words, Colony Collapse Disorder is not the only thing affecting bees.
But even though the physical urban environment supports healthy bees, the social urban environment certainly does not.
There is a reason urban beekeepers take care to keep their beehives out of sight. Wilson-Rich wants to change that:
We also need to change the way we see bees. Take New york city as an example.
The opera house in Paris has kept bees on the roof for years. In Boston, the rooftop of the Sea Port hotel houses hundreds of thousands of bees (pollinating hundreds of local gardens throughout the city.
The Fairmont Copley Plaza also helps out, and went so far as to stylistically match their bee boxes to the inside of the hotel.
Now that the ban on urban beekeeping in New york city has been lifted (it was illegal until 2010), there's no reason for closet bee lovers to hold back.
Moral of the story? Start producing liquid gold on a rooftop near you! Need help?
Contact Best Bees Company, Wilson-Rich's answer for budding beekeepers. Watch the TEDXBOSTON video here
and their passion for protecting the honey bees, a species that play a vital role in our food production supply.
If the bees are in trouble, so are we The MCRH's founders Vanessa Kwiatkowski and Mat Lumalasi are bringing bees back to the cities, one swarm at a time.
The Melbourne apiarists claim Å if the bees are in trouble, we are in trouble as well. Â The couple know all too well the importance of European honey bees and their role in pollinating agricultural and horticultural crops,
enabling the sustainability of our food supply chain. Since the 2006-2007 Colony Collapse Disorder there s been a growing concern about the survival of European honey bees.
Dennis vanengelsdorp provides an excellent TED talk on the role of bees and their demise in the United states. The potentially devastating impact of exotic pests such as the Varroa mite,
which is yet to reach Australia, poses a significant threat to the honey bees and their pollination services.
Å Australia is the last country to not have been invaded by this disease --if and when it arrives to our shores,
it will be a stronger more evolved strain posing a significant threat to honey bees and our pollination services,
 Kwiatkowski explains. According to the MCRH, around 65 per cent of agricultural production in Australia depends on pollination by European honey bees, with some 35 industries depending on honey bee pollination for most of their production.
The Melbourne City Rooftop Honey project Concerned by the growing disconnect between food production and consumption
Kwiatkowski and Lumalasi aim to raise public awareness of the importance of bees by helping the community create delicious honey.
Kwiatkowski believes that the city is a great place for bees: Å A lot of people do not realize what the bees actually do
or how far they will forage, and that you do need not actually a backyard to keep them.
 The couple are leading a project to Šre-home  honey bee colonies from swarms
Å Our vision for the future is to be able to provide the honey bees
 Community beekeeping The MCRH currently looks after 40 hives (approximately 2. 4 million bees) located across 18 suburbs in Melbourne.
Nic Poelaert, owner and chef of Embrasse Restaurant, has been hosting 10,000 bees on his restaurant s rooftop for the past six months.
The bees are set to produce around 15 kilos of honey per year, double the amount that was projected initially.
East Brunswick resident Louise Scanlon has hosted a colony of around 20,000 bees in her backyard for eight months.
 For Scanlon, the benefits of keeping bees go beyond sharing honey with her neighbors:
Å Our bees now make sure that all our neighbors gardens (within a 2 km radius) are pollinated well.
Misunderstood bees Kwiatkowski contends there are key challenges to urban beekeeping such as Å teaching people that bees are reasonably gentle creatures
if anyone finds themselves having difficulty breathing then they are allergic to bees. Honey bees often get mistaken for the European wasp.
The two behave and want totally different things, she explains. This is a big problem as the European wasp is very aggressive
and gives our poor honey bee a bad name. Regulations and compliance In Melbourne, there are local council restrictions on beekeeping due to land size.
you should check local council regulations on keeping bees as they vary from shire to shire.
An additional requirement of the bee registration is compliance with the Livestock Disease Control Act 1994 and Regulations
Get involved The MCRH suggests a few ways we can help to restore the bee population:
. and E u. to stop using the neonicotinoid pesticides Plant bee friendly plants in your garden
and herbicide on your garden plants Purchase organic foods whenever possible Join local initiatives dedicated to helping the bee colonies Be good to bees Read these 10 things you can do Watch the documentaries Vanishing of the Bees
Why thousands of bees are flying around with sensors  Wireless data-collecting sensors are everywhere:
 Using Radio frequency Identification sensors the researchers will be able to track the movement of the bees.
By doing this, researchers will be able to track bee behavior and look for environmental changes that could be harming bee colonies.
 Bees are social insects that return to the same point and operate on a very predictable schedule.
Any change in their behavior indicates a change in their environment. If we can model their movements,
the way the scientists are able to attach the sensors to the bees is fascinating.
According to CSIRO, the bees are refrigerated first for a short time to put them in a rest state just long enough to attach the tiny sensors to their backs with an adhesive--younger hairy bees must be shaved first.
After a few minutes the bees are back to normal and collecting data. Â This is a non-destructive process
and the sensors appear to have no impact on the bee's ability to fly and carry out its normal duties,
  The sensors used on the bees are 2. 5mm x 2. 5 mm,
Why urban beekeeping isn't as good for bees as you thinkin London, rooftop beehives have become popular symbols for businesses expressing their commitment to sustainability.
A new article in The Biologist by professors at The University of Sussex says that the beekeeping boom in London is actually doing more harm than good to bees.
Too many bees in a small area and not enough bee food. As Professor Francis Ratnieks, a co-author of the article,
so why should we take this approach with bees?  The researchers calculate that to sufficiently meet the needs of every new hive, about one hectare (or about 2. 5 acres) of  borage,
Combine the high-density of bees with the fact that many of the new urban beekeepers are inexperienced and,
and other diseases in the bees that could require burning entire hives. Of course, not every area has the beehive density of London.
if you want to help the bees. Read more: University of Sussex Photo: Flickr/nicolas. boullosa Related on Smartplanet:
Building for the birds and the bees and batsbuildings are designed usually to house people, but a few recent examples provide shelter and protection for the fuzzier fellow citizens of planet Earth.
United states In Buffalo, New york, saving bees is part of a local business person's vision for redeveloping a waterfront industrial site into a design district.
Rick Smith sponsored a contest to design a new home for a massive bee colony that had taken over an old office building.
the students created a tower they call Elevator B. Bees, birds and even bats are ecologically important
Can bees be trained to prevent plant disease? Dr. Andrew Sutherland, a researcher with the UC Davis Plant pathology Department is training honey bees to detect plant disease in agricultural crops.
Bees have excellent chemosensors on their antennae, so they're able to detect organic molecules.
Using Ivan Pavlov's method of'classical conditioning, 'Sutherland is teaching bees to associate infected plants with a sugar reward.
After they are conditioned, the bees are placed inside a box and taken to the field, where if they encounter the same smell,
the information is relayed back as a warning sign. Other collaborators on the project include: Dr. Robert M. Wingo;
Finally, some (sort of) good news about honeybeessadly, bees are dying in large swaths from a mysterious affliction called colony collapse disorder (CCD.
putting little to no upward pressure on bee prices following CCD. The cost of CCD on almonds, one of the most important crops from a honeybee pollinating perspective,
bee colonies are important to our food supply. Honeybees pollinate close to 90 crops such as avocados, cucumbers, sprouts, apples, onions, broccoli, coffee and tomatoes.
if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, man would have only four years to live.
Einstein was right-honey bee collapse threaten global food security The Telegraph Photo: Â cygnus921/flickr Related on Smartplanet:
The real lesson Snapple teaches us isn t about how many eyelids a bee has or the first food eaten in space,
they pulled out a container of dehydrated and salted bee larvae, and explained to me that the primary focus of the insect project is
Reade explained that bee larvae were an excellent gateway insect for breaking down the mental barriers people have to ingesting bugs.
On this day they decided to try it with bee larvae. Reade pulled out a chunk of koji barley inoculated with fuzzy green Aspergillus oryzae,
Reade used a Thermomix to blend the koji with bee larvae and salt water (the salt keeps the pathogenic microorganisms at bay as well as enabling the enzymes, some beneficial bacteria and various strains of yeast to flourish).
For example, bees, birds and some bats might all visit the same flower for nectar, but at different times of the day and year.
While looking for the bees and donkeys, Masson eventually received a photograph from the Ferme de Paris of four black sheep,
Some of the codes will make it easier to own a commercial farm--with bee, crops, poultry,
Burgh Bees--For all aspiring beekeepers in Pittsburgh, this is an organization to get acquainted with. They offer beekeeping classes,
and raise animals for food--chickens, bees, et cetera. Another aspect of the study is to  work on a standard lease agreement that can be used by various city departments with vacant land to make it easier to lease those spaces for community gardens.
Scientists create artificial bee eye for potential robot, flying vehicle usebees are known to have great vision
The lightweight imaging system, detailed in the Bioinspiration & Biometrics journal, features an artificial bee eye with a camera that aims to recreate an insect's processing and navigation skills.
The bee eye camera uses a curved reflective surface built into acrylic glass with lenses covering the frontal field to replicate an insect's view.
In the future, researchers plan to include UV to recreate a bee's color vision, which is used by honeybees to recognize flowers.
This model is also useful for simulating the visual input of a bee-like agent in a virtual environment.
The imaging system in combination with our bee eye model can serve as a tool for assessing the visual world from a bee perspective
It's a new trend of San francisco-area companies embracing the bee. The Wall street journal reports that firms across the region are adding  beehives  to their headquarters
founder of City Bees, a beehive management and advocacy group in San francisco...While there are no known statistics on how many buildings
He says many businesses were spurred to help fortify the bee population by previous reports of a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder, in
000 bees and the four hives at Google's headquarters. In addition to pollinating flowers on their grounds and throughout the region,
Companies Get Sweet on Bees Wall street  Journal Photo: Flickr/nicolas. boullosa
Singapore to unveil world's first'mechanical forest'On June 29th, officials in Singapore will open to the public the world Â's first mechanical forest.
using bee venomscientist have tried previously to engineer plants to detect bombs and environmental contaminants and have created even a better artificial nose to sniff out explosives,
MIT researchers created a carbon nanotube with a bee venom-based sensor, designed to detect traces of explosives.
when the bee venom peptides target molecules found in explosives. Since the proteins reacted differently,
and East Malling Research have come up with a novel way of using bumble bees to deliver minute quantities of bio-fungicide to strawberry flowers.
ADAS and East Malling Research have been using bumble bee pollinator hives which are introduced already commonly to commercial strawberry crops to ensure good pollination.
The experimental approach (not yet approved in the UK) involves the bees moving through a specially designed dispenser
As the bees move through the dispenser a minute quantity of a powdered formulation of the bio-fungicide containing Gliocladium catenulatum adheres to their bodies and legs.
During the last two years of field trials this harmless bee-delivered control system was demonstrated to be a practical alternative to fungicide applications
Data from this Hortlink project and ongoing trials in Finland and Belgium, where this technique is already being adopted will be used to support an application for pesticide registration of this fungicide dispersed by bees in the UK.
Bionic beesengineers from the universities of Sheffield and Sussex are planning on scanning the brains of bees
Bionic bees--or perhaps that should be"beeonic"--could, it is hoped, be used for a range of situations where tiny thinking flying machines should be more useful than current technology,
They might even help pollinate plants in places where natural bee populations have fallen due to the still-mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder.
It's important to note that this won't be an entirely comprehensive model of a bee's brain--it's only going to be associated the parts with its sense of smell and vision.
including bees, have personalities like vertebrates--let's hope they upload a relatively laid-back bee's brain,
lest it go rogue
The kitchen nano gardennothing can be as frustrating as loitering and searching for fresh vegetables from the market.
Communication among a swarm of bees decentralized and leaderless is a particularly compelling model for an automated system
Manufacturing the bees has required completely rethinking materials and process. Last week, the team announced a new method of mass production that takes a page from pop-up books.
Laser cut sheets of fibers expand with one smooth movement into the shape of a bee.
Bee rustling on the risethe British countryside is being menaced by a new type of criminal-bee rustlers.
Beekeepers say the increasing shortage of bees and the rising price of honey have made hives,
They say thefts have been reported at bee farms across a wide area-from the New Forest in Hampshire to Whitby in North yorkshire.
and keep bees, experts believe that in some cases rival keepers may even be to blame.'
where 18 hives containing about a million bees used to pollinate the strawberry crop were stolen. Police are investigating
The theft came as a shock to the bees'owner Richard Lindsey.""I couldn't believe it,
but you never think in your wildest dreams that bees could be targeted, "he says. He runs the Great Little Honey Company with his wife, Marieanne,
"It's been a real struggle in the past few years with the decline in bees generally.
"'Planning required'The collapse in bee colonies in recent years has been rapid and steep. The british Beekeepers'Association says the bee population fell by nearly a third between 2007 and 2008.
Disease, wet summers and certain pesticides have all been blamed for the fall in numbers, but no definitive cause has yet been found.
The shortage of bees means those that survive are all the more valuable, according to John Howat, of the Bee Farmers'Association.
and move bees.""I always thought we beekeepers were an honest crowd of people, but I suppose in every activity you get a rogue element."
the government's National Bee Unit-set up to protect the honeybee in England and Wales-says it is"aware"of an increase in thefts.
and to keep bees out of sight where possible. A spokesman says:""It's always going to be difficult to keep a constant watch on an apiary,
because bees seem fun and it doesn't seem that important, but this is our livelihood
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