You catch more flies with honey, as they say, but you may just be able to can catch bees with Lemongrass Essential Oil? It may sound strange, but bees scent places of interest. When swarming, scouts mark potential new homes and guide their comrades by raising their tails and broadcasting the Nasonov Pheromone. This complex […]

See Apple TV+. After becoming Emperor of France in 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte needed a dynastic symbol that would imply traits of vigilance and zeal which he felt that he possessed. For insect inspiration, Napoleon looked to the Emperor Charlemagne (who had adopted the cicada as an emblematic device), and selected, another insect, the industrious honeybee.

Hint, it’s a myth. Probably? According to the Internet, (and many beekeepers and candle-makers for that matter) among the many charms of pure beeswax candles is a strange alchemy by which good ‘negative ions’ are released during burning. This sounds reassuringly like science, but for it to be true, there would need to be some

: #Black_Bees_Matter. After the last Ice Age until about a century back, honeybees in Northern Europe were described as Black Bees. Due to changes in farming practices during the Victorian period and, in the UK, after the devastating “Isle of Wight Disease” outbreak in the early 1900’s, numbers tumbled. To restore their stocks, British beekeepers

Use honey for artificial brains? In 2022, engineers at Washington State University turned to the environmentally safe ingredients in honey to “make components for computer systems that mimic neurons and synapses of the human brain, known as neuromorphic computers”. The engineers created memristors, a device to regulate current, by putting honey processed into a solid

Did you know, that around 21,000 young Queen Bees are imported into the UK each year, mostly from EU countries (with whom we still share notification processes on bio-security threats). Importation is overseen by the National Bee Unit of DEFRA, but is not without contention, with advocates for both locally bred stock and imported genes

Bumblebees play football. Samadi Galpayage, is a researcher from Queen Mary’s University in London (QMUL), and convinced that Bumble Bees get pleasure from play. In a 2022 edition of Nature, Samadi describes how he created an enclosed foraging area for a cohort of captive Bumble Bees with a “diversion” of “toys” placed on route. The

After the last Ice Age until about a century back, honeybees in Northern Europe were described as Black Bees. Due to changes in farming practices during the Victorian period and, in the UK, after the devastating “Isle of Wight Disease” outbreak in the early 1900’s, numbers tumbled. To restore their stocks, British beekeepers imported new

According to viral memes that you may have seen, mobile phone signals (and especially the newer 5G variety), are deadly to bees. Spoiler, they’re really not. The science is clear, proven and adamant that since mobile towers operate with ‘non-ionising radiation’ they can not damage living tissue, penetrate your tin-foil hat or give you COVID

Healthy bees poop on the wing, which is a good reason not to dry your washing near a bee hive. Bee poo is generally bright yellow and high in pollen remnants. However, if the droppings are browner and near or in the hive, a beekeepers thoughts will go in the direction of two fungal infections,

Hint, it’s a myth. Probably? According to the Internet, (and many beekeepers and candle-makers for that matter) among the many charms of pure beeswax candles is a strange alchemy by which good ‘negative ions’ are released during burning. This sounds reassuringly like science, but for it to be true, there would need to be some

Did you know that a hive of honey bees will need to fly in excess of 50,000 miles (or 80,500 km) between them to produce enough honey for a piffling half kilo jar of the liquid gold? If only human beings could fly proportionate distances and produce zero carbon doing so? Supermarket bulk honey, of