#honeybees — Public Fediverse posts

Arizona bees need help from gardeners, experts say https://www.allforgardening.com/1926608/arizona-bees-need-help-from-gardeners-experts-say/ #arizona #ArizonaBackyardBeekeepersAssociation #ArizonaHoneybeeFestival #bees #GardeningArizona #honeybees #pollination #pollinators

Arizona bees need help from gardeners, experts say https://www.allforgardening.com/1926608/arizona-bees-need-help-from-gardeners-experts-say/ #arizona #ArizonaBackyardBeekeepersAssociation #ArizonaHoneybeeFestival #bees #GardeningArizona #honeybees #pollination #pollinators

#theBeeAt3
Basic bee facts every day at 3pm.

19.

In excess of 91 million beehives in the world.
Honey/Pollination industry is worth €4 billion.
5.7 million flower visits to make 1kg of honey.
THIS AFFECTS NATIVE WILD BEES!

‘Hey honey, take a walk on the wild side.’
- Lou Reed

#bees #honeybees
#nature #biodiversity
#truth #environment
#honey #science #education
#vegan #impact #climate

#theBeeAt3
Basic bee facts every day at 3pm.

19.

In excess of 91 million beehives in the world.
Honey/Pollination industry is worth €4 billion.
5.7 million flower visits to make 1kg of honey.
THIS AFFECTS NATIVE WILD BEES!

‘Hey honey, take a walk on the wild side.’
- Lou Reed

#bees #honeybees
#nature #biodiversity
#truth #environment
#honey #science #education
#vegan #impact #climate

Ban glyphosate. Period.
#poison #honeybees #insects
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260804034638.htm

Ban glyphosate. Period.
#poison #honeybees #insects
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260804034638.htm

I harvested plenty of sweet marjoram this spring so I decided to let it flower over the summer and the honey bees 🐝 are very happy with this decision. #gardening #pollinators #NaturePhotography #MacroPhotography #honeybees #BloomScrolling

I harvested plenty of sweet marjoram this spring so I decided to let it flower over the summer and the honey bees 🐝 are very happy with this decision. #gardening #pollinators #NaturePhotography #MacroPhotography #honeybees #BloomScrolling

#Honeybees and #shrimp are now getting vaccinated
#Vaccines that target #invertebrates’ innate #immunesystems could be a major boon for agriculture
It has become increasingly clear that #innateimmunesystem has own way of creating immune memory. Scientists think this memory is achieved through #epigenetic changes, modifications to #DNA that don’t alter genetic sequence, and that these epigenetic changes can be passed from one generation to the next.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/honeybees-and-shrimp-getting-vaccinated
https://archive.ph/guvRa

#Honeybees and #shrimp are now getting vaccinated
#Vaccines that target #invertebrates’ innate #immunesystems could be a major boon for agriculture
It has become increasingly clear that #innateimmunesystem has own way of creating immune memory. Scientists think this memory is achieved through #epigenetic changes, modifications to #DNA that don’t alter genetic sequence, and that these epigenetic changes can be passed from one generation to the next.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/honeybees-and-shrimp-getting-vaccinated
https://archive.ph/guvRa

Today, my prose/almost-poem piece "Apistry" appears in Hyacinth Review:
https://hyacinthreview.org/david-milley-apistry/

This piece shows Warren caring for his honeybees through the four seasons. It's brief and readable.

#prose #writing #queer #queerwriters #lgbtq #apiary #honeybees #beekeeping #seasons

Today, my prose/almost-poem piece "Apistry" appears in Hyacinth Review:
https://hyacinthreview.org/david-milley-apistry/

This piece shows Warren caring for his honeybees through the four seasons. It's brief and readable.

#prose #writing #queer #queerwriters #lgbtq #apiary #honeybees #beekeeping #seasons

#theBeeAt3

Basic bee facts every day at 3pm.

11.

Keeping honey bees does NOT help our declining native wild bee populations.
In fact keeping honey bees means more bees competing for ever more precious forage.

‘Bees are for life not just for honey.’

- The Bee Guy

#bees #honeybees #nature
#truth #facts #education #science
#worldbeesanctuary #environment

#theBeeAt3

Basic bee facts every day at 3pm.

11.

Keeping honey bees does NOT help our declining native wild bee populations.
In fact keeping honey bees means more bees competing for ever more precious forage.

‘Bees are for life not just for honey.’

- The Bee Guy

#bees #honeybees #nature
#truth #facts #education #science
#worldbeesanctuary #environment

Helping out the #honeybees by not trimming the flowers off my #mint plants…
#nature #CityWildlife #bloomscrolling

Helping out the #honeybees by not trimming the flowers off my #mint plants…
#nature #CityWildlife #bloomscrolling

WTF it's the dead middle of winter and a swarm looks to be moving into one of our hive boxes.

These hives were abandoned about a year ago. I wasn't able to look after them properly due to long-term injury. There were some whispers of activity around one of them about a week ago, and today a full swarm was in the air.

I hope they stick around! I missed looking after these little buzz-bums.

#honey #honeybees #beekeeping

WTF it's the dead middle of winter and a swarm looks to be moving into one of our hive boxes.

These hives were abandoned about a year ago. I wasn't able to look after them properly due to long-term injury. There were some whispers of activity around one of them about a week ago, and today a full swarm was in the air.

I hope they stick around! I missed looking after these little buzz-bums.

#honey #honeybees #beekeeping

Mapping Sleeping Bees within Their Nest: Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Worker Honey Bee Sleep
--
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4100802/ <-- shared paper
--
H/T Dimitrios A. Karras
“Bees are not only very important for all ecosystems... They are very cute too....
However, bee societies are very complex and different sleep patterns exist for the other kinds of bees in the hierarchy..
In general, bees actually sleep, and many species spend around 5-8 hours resting each day, usually at night when they're not foraging.
Some solitary bees have been photographed sleeping inside flowers, where they cling onto the petals or stamens with their tiny legs and sometimes even their jaws.
One of the cutest parts is that tired bees can look almost like they've fallen asleep at work, curled up inside a flower with pollen still covering their bodies…”
--
“Patterns of behavior within societies have long been visualized and interpreted using maps. Mapping the occurrence of sleep across individuals within a society could offer clues as to functional aspects of sleep. In spite of this, a detailed spatial analysis of sleep has never been conducted on an invertebrate society. [The authors] introduce the concept of mapping sleep across an insect society, and provide an empirical example, mapping sleep patterns within colonies of European honey bees (Apis mellifera L.). Honey bees face variables such as temperature and position of resources within their colony's nest that may impact their sleep. [They] mapped sleep behavior and temperature of worker bees and produced maps of their nest's comb contents as the colony grew and contents changed. By following marked bees, [they] discovered that individuals slept in many locations, but bees of different worker castes slept in different areas of the nest relative to position of the brood and surrounding temperature. Older worker bees generally slept outside cells, closer to the perimeter of the nest, in colder regions, and away from uncapped brood. Younger worker bees generally slept inside cells and closer to the center of the nest, and spent more time asleep than awake when surrounded by uncapped brood. The average surface temperature of sleeping foragers was lower than the surface temperature of their surroundings, offering a possible indicator of sleep for this caste. [They] propose mechanisms that could generate caste-dependent sleep patterns and discuss functional significance of these patterns…”
#bee #insect #hive #sleeping #sleep #patterns #monitoring #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #spatial #mapping #sleeppatterns #behaviour #society #community #honeybees #ecosystem #colony #infrared #remotesensing #temperature #instrumentation

Mapping Sleeping Bees within Their Nest: Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Worker Honey Bee Sleep
--
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4100802/ <-- shared paper
--
H/T Dimitrios A. Karras
“Bees are not only very important for all ecosystems... They are very cute too....
However, bee societies are very complex and different sleep patterns exist for the other kinds of bees in the hierarchy..
In general, bees actually sleep, and many species spend around 5-8 hours resting each day, usually at night when they're not foraging.
Some solitary bees have been photographed sleeping inside flowers, where they cling onto the petals or stamens with their tiny legs and sometimes even their jaws.
One of the cutest parts is that tired bees can look almost like they've fallen asleep at work, curled up inside a flower with pollen still covering their bodies…”
--
“Patterns of behavior within societies have long been visualized and interpreted using maps. Mapping the occurrence of sleep across individuals within a society could offer clues as to functional aspects of sleep. In spite of this, a detailed spatial analysis of sleep has never been conducted on an invertebrate society. [The authors] introduce the concept of mapping sleep across an insect society, and provide an empirical example, mapping sleep patterns within colonies of European honey bees (Apis mellifera L.). Honey bees face variables such as temperature and position of resources within their colony's nest that may impact their sleep. [They] mapped sleep behavior and temperature of worker bees and produced maps of their nest's comb contents as the colony grew and contents changed. By following marked bees, [they] discovered that individuals slept in many locations, but bees of different worker castes slept in different areas of the nest relative to position of the brood and surrounding temperature. Older worker bees generally slept outside cells, closer to the perimeter of the nest, in colder regions, and away from uncapped brood. Younger worker bees generally slept inside cells and closer to the center of the nest, and spent more time asleep than awake when surrounded by uncapped brood. The average surface temperature of sleeping foragers was lower than the surface temperature of their surroundings, offering a possible indicator of sleep for this caste. [They] propose mechanisms that could generate caste-dependent sleep patterns and discuss functional significance of these patterns…”
#bee #insect #hive #sleeping #sleep #patterns #monitoring #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #spatial #mapping #sleeppatterns #behaviour #society #community #honeybees #ecosystem #colony #infrared #remotesensing #temperature #instrumentation

A mathematical biologist who studies collective decision-making by honeybees:

"An efficient division of labor in a collective doesn't require that anyone is in charge. Rather, if each individual follows a private rule, a decentralized group can perform as well as one with an omniscient coordinator."

Summary: https://phys.org/news/2026-07-math-reveals-honeybee-hives-patient.html

Original (paywall): https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2605309123

Showing that diversity is key to success in behavior as well as genetics and ecology.

#Science #Behavior #Honeybees

A mathematical biologist who studies collective decision-making by honeybees:

"An efficient division of labor in a collective doesn't require that anyone is in charge. Rather, if each individual follows a private rule, a decentralized group can perform as well as one with an omniscient coordinator."

Summary: https://phys.org/news/2026-07-math-reveals-honeybee-hives-patient.html

Original (paywall): https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2605309123

Showing that diversity is key to success in behavior as well as genetics and ecology.

#Science #Behavior #Honeybees

Spider venom kills varroa mites without harming honeybees

https://connectsci.au/news/news-parent/9703/Spider-venom-kills-varroa-mites-without-harming

Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48841259

#HackerNews #spidervenom #varroamites #honeybees #beekeeping #entomology

Spider venom kills varroa mites without harming honeybees

https://connectsci.au/news/news-parent/9703/Spider-venom-kills-varroa-mites-without-harming

Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48841259

#HackerNews #spidervenom #varroamites #honeybees #beekeeping #entomology

7-Jul-2026
#Bumblebees exposed to up to seven times as much toxic metal as #honeybees

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1134866

#science #pollinators #bees #ecology #environment #pollution

7-Jul-2026
#Bumblebees exposed to up to seven times as much toxic metal as #honeybees

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1134866

#science #pollinators #bees #ecology #environment #pollution

What does it feel like to be amid so many flowers as a bee?
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSummer #Bumblebees #Honeybees #BloomScrolling #OurNeighborhood

What does it feel like to be amid so many flowers as a bee?
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSummer #Bumblebees #Honeybees #BloomScrolling #OurNeighborhood

The #Flower That Tells #Pollinators to Move On https://www.botany.one/the-flower-that-tells-pollinators-to-move-on/ @botanyone

The pistil as a traffic light: Yellow-to-red color change likely influences pollinator visitation patterns in Saxifraga fortunei https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ppp3.70193

"In #Saxifraga fortunei, a yellow-to-red colour change in the pistil may tell #hoverflies and #honeybees which #flowers are still worth visiting."

#Insects #Symbiosis #Bees #Flies #Pollination #Plants

"Precise, individualized foraging flights in honeybees revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking", by Rachael Stentiford et al. 2026 (Andrew Straw's lab) @strawman

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(26)00084-9

"Although bees could choose from multiple routes, we discovered that individual bees follow idiosyncratic paths with striking and repeatable precision."

"The level of precision exhibited by their flight paths exceeds that reported in the waggle dance, implying that dance variability does not reflect a limit in the bee’s underlying spatial representation."

#neuroscience #honeybees #WaggleDance

"Precise, individualized foraging flights in honeybees revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking", by Rachael Stentiford et al. 2026 (Andrew Straw's lab) @strawman

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(26)00084-9

"Although bees could choose from multiple routes, we discovered that individual bees follow idiosyncratic paths with striking and repeatable precision."

"The level of precision exhibited by their flight paths exceeds that reported in the waggle dance, implying that dance variability does not reflect a limit in the bee’s underlying spatial representation."

#neuroscience #honeybees #WaggleDance

Honolulu #Honeybees Are Swarming. Yes, That's A Good Thing - Honolulu Civil Beat

https://civilbeat.org/2026/07/honolulu-honeybees-are-swarming-yes-thats-a-good-thing/

Honolulu #Honeybees Are Swarming. Yes, That's A Good Thing - Honolulu Civil Beat

https://civilbeat.org/2026/07/honolulu-honeybees-are-swarming-yes-thats-a-good-thing/

Looked in the laying worker hive while I was walking by. Maybe less bees than when I moved it from the nuc a week ago.

#beekeeping #bees #apiary #apiculture #honeybees #July1

Looked in the laying worker hive while I was walking by. Maybe less bees than when I moved it from the nuc a week ago.

#beekeeping #bees #apiary #apiculture #honeybees #July1

“ #Mites & #spiders are #arachnids and they eat each other, they also have toxins in their #venom that target each other. Spider venom #peptides "organic" way of killing mites doesn't accumulate in the food chain; doesn't kill the farmer or the beekeeper or any pets — it's selective to the #varroa mite," Dr Herzig said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-02/spider-venom-varroa-mite-research-honey-bees/106862586

(Note 1,700 native bee species have a very different biology from European honeybees.
https://www.aussiebee.com.au/varroa-mite-crisis.html )

#honeybees #Science

“ #Mites & #spiders are #arachnids and they eat each other, they also have toxins in their #venom that target each other. Spider venom #peptides "organic" way of killing mites doesn't accumulate in the food chain; doesn't kill the farmer or the beekeeper or any pets — it's selective to the #varroa mite," Dr Herzig said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-02/spider-venom-varroa-mite-research-honey-bees/106862586

(Note 1,700 native bee species have a very different biology from European honeybees.
https://www.aussiebee.com.au/varroa-mite-crisis.html )

#honeybees #Science

The laying worker hive was placed on top with a double-screened divider between the hives. There might be one frame of bees in that hive and all the field bees will likely return and be welcome in the new colony. This is just to preserve the stores they have collected and send a few of the drones out to spread their love.

No drama during the move, no bees in the face, no bees on my arms, no bees up my shorts. Nice bees.

#beekeeping #bees #apiary #apiculture #June28 #honeybees

The laying worker hive was placed on top with a double-screened divider between the hives. There might be one frame of bees in that hive and all the field bees will likely return and be welcome in the new colony. This is just to preserve the stores they have collected and send a few of the drones out to spread their love.

No drama during the move, no bees in the face, no bees on my arms, no bees up my shorts. Nice bees.

#beekeeping #bees #apiary #apiculture #June28 #honeybees

The bait hive bees were put in a 10 frame deep. There were a lot of bees, 4-5 frames of bees, a lot of were festooning on the bottom of the frames so they were probably preparing to build comb down there. Swarm moved into the bait hive / swarm trap on Saturday.

#beekeeping #bees #swarm #apiculture #honeybees #June30

The bait hive bees were put in a 10 frame deep. There were a lot of bees, 4-5 frames of bees, a lot of were festooning on the bottom of the frames so they were probably preparing to build comb down there. Swarm moved into the bait hive / swarm trap on Saturday.

#beekeeping #bees #swarm #apiculture #honeybees #June30

Gardeners alarmed by dead bees on milkweed may be seeing the flowers’ hidden trap https://www.allforgardening.com/1847259/gardeners-alarmed-by-dead-bees-on-milkweed-may-be-seeing-the-flowers-hidden-trap/ #CommonMilkweed #DeadBees #garden #gardening #HoneyBees #MilkweedFlowers #MonarchButterflies #NativeBees #NativePlants #PhotoCredit #PhotosOfBees #pollinators #reddit

Gardeners alarmed by dead bees on milkweed may be seeing the flowers’ hidden trap https://www.allforgardening.com/1847259/gardeners-alarmed-by-dead-bees-on-milkweed-may-be-seeing-the-flowers-hidden-trap/ #CommonMilkweed #DeadBees #garden #gardening #HoneyBees #MilkweedFlowers #MonarchButterflies #NativeBees #NativePlants #PhotoCredit #PhotosOfBees #pollinators #reddit

Everyone Feeds Hummingbirds, but Should You Give Bees Water? https://www.allforgardening.com/1845475/everyone-feeds-hummingbirds-but-should-you-give-bees-water/ #BeckyGriffin #BenPowell #garden #gardening #honeybees #SupplementalWater #TypesOfBees #WaterSource #WaterSources

Everyone Feeds Hummingbirds, but Should You Give Bees Water? https://www.allforgardening.com/1845475/everyone-feeds-hummingbirds-but-should-you-give-bees-water/ #BeckyGriffin #BenPowell #garden #gardening #honeybees #SupplementalWater #TypesOfBees #WaterSource #WaterSources

DON'T WANT TO BE THERE!

Two million honeybees escaped into a Texas neighborhood after an 18-wheeler carrying hundreds of hives overturned, officials said
#AureFreePress #Texas #honeybees

Some bees yesterday on the 'fetched from way up in a tree from the top of a ladder with a long pole' hive landing board.

#beekeeping #bees #HoneyBees #apiary #apiculture #pollinators #June22 #Closeup

Some bees yesterday on the 'fetched from way up in a tree from the top of a ladder with a long pole' hive landing board.

#beekeeping #bees #HoneyBees #apiary #apiculture #pollinators #June22 #Closeup

"Efficient robot navigation inspired by honeybee learning flights", Ou et al. 2026 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10461-3

" ‘Bee-Nav’, a highly efficient navigation strategy inspired by the visual learning flights of honeybees. In equivalent robotic learning flights, a tiny neural network is trained to map omnidirectional images to a home vector based on path integration. After learning, the robot can fly far away from home, come straight back using path integration and cancel integration drift using the visual homing network"

"In real-world indoor and outdoor experiments, a small drone successfully returned to within 0.5 m of home for 100% of 30–110-m flights and 70% of 200–600-m flights in windy conditions, using 3.4-kB and 42-kB neural networks, respectively."

Honeybees still do better, but hey, it's a good start. Now imagine we had the whole honeybee #connectome mapped.

#neuroscience #robotics #honeybees #drones

"Efficient robot navigation inspired by honeybee learning flights", Ou et al. 2026 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10461-3

" ‘Bee-Nav’, a highly efficient navigation strategy inspired by the visual learning flights of honeybees. In equivalent robotic learning flights, a tiny neural network is trained to map omnidirectional images to a home vector based on path integration. After learning, the robot can fly far away from home, come straight back using path integration and cancel integration drift using the visual homing network"

"In real-world indoor and outdoor experiments, a small drone successfully returned to within 0.5 m of home for 100% of 30–110-m flights and 70% of 200–600-m flights in windy conditions, using 3.4-kB and 42-kB neural networks, respectively."

Honeybees still do better, but hey, it's a good start. Now imagine we had the whole honeybee #connectome mapped.

#neuroscience #robotics #honeybees #drones

Love The Bees? The Blooming Vine You Don’t Want In Your Garden https://www.allforgardening.com/1833351/love-the-bees-the-blooming-vine-you-dont-want-in-your-garden/ #CarolinaJessamine #garden #gardening #honeybees #YellowFlowers

'Tis a bit warm this evening.

#beekeeping #bees #HoneyBees #apiary