National Pollinator Week

June 17-23, 2013 is National Pollinator Week where honeybees, bumblebees, butterflies, hummingbirds, bats, wasps, ants, moths, and some small mammals are celebrated for providing us with fruits, nuts, and vegetables.  Yet, the celebration that often awaits bees, and other pollinators in this blooming season is a deadly concoction of pesticides, misapplied in violation of the EPA regulated label. Since March …

Monsanto Company Forms Honey Bee Advisory Council, Pledges Support For Honey Bee Health At First-Of-Its-Kind Summit

Monsanto Commits To Collaboration With Beekeeping Industry Partners To Improve Honey Bee HealthST. LOUIS, June 13, 2013 -- A first-of-its-kind Honey Bee Health Summit concluded at Monsanto Company's Chesterfield Village Research Center. The three-day event hosted by Project Apis m. (PAm) and Monsanto's Honey Bee Advisory Council (HBAC) included nearly 100 members of the bee community representing academics, beekeepers, industry associations …

Pollinators Easily Enhanced by Flowering Agri-environment Schemes

Agri-environment schemes aimed to promote biodiversity on farmland have positive effects on wild bees, hoverflies and butterflies. Effects on diversity and abundance were strongest when agri-environment schemes prescribed sowing wild-flowers, the more flowering species the better. Organic farms, set-aside land or fields receiving reduced amounts of fertilizer and pesticides generally hosted more wild pollinators than conventionally farmed land. Jeroen Scheper …

PAm- Costco PhD. Fellowship for Honey Bee Health

Scholarship:  Project Apis m. (PAm) and Costco Wholesale Corporation have collaborated to sponsor a competitive scholarship program for a Ph.D. - level candidate.  The purpose of the Costco Scholar Program is to ensure the continuity of honey bee health scientists and specialties in the academic and research world.  It also intends to develop and contribute to sustainability of the beekeeping …

Green Roof at Minneapolis City Hall and Courthouse Building is Home Sweet Home for Honeybees

Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community donates bees, hives June 6, 2013 (MINNEAPOLIS) - The green roof at the Minneapolis City Hall and Courthouse building is now buzzing with honeybees, thanks to a donation from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, which donated the bees from its own apiaries. Bees on rooftops are common in cities, and the green roof provides critical, protected habitat …

Bayer CropScience Breaks Ground on North American Bee Care Center

State-Of-The-Art Facility Will Address Honey Bee Health Through Collaboration, Education and Research   RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. (May 29, 2013) – As part of its continued commitment to honey bee health, today Bayer CropScience broke ground on its North American Bee Care Center, a recognition of the importance of these pollinators to agriculture. Senior company managers, bee health experts and representatives from the …

Encouraging Signs for Bee Biodiversity

Declines in the biodiversity of pollinating insects and wild plants have slowed in recent years, according to a new study. Researchers led by the University of Leeds and the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands found evidence of dramatic reductions in the diversity of species in Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands between the 1950s and 1980s. But the picture brightened markedly after …