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A TEENAGER died and more than 20 people were injured when swarms of bees escaped from their hives after the van transporting them crashed into a truck and overturned on a motorway near the resort of Marmaris, in southern Turkey. Rescue workers, police, medics and beekeepers tried for more than an hour to release two people trapped inside the vehicle, their faces carpeted with angry bees. One of the pair, aged 18, died in hospital from the combined effect of injuries sustained in the crash and multiple bee stings. Three others were in intensive care in hospital. About 20 people...

First Lady Michelle Obama settled on giving some china to the spouses. Here's how the White House describes the china: A one-of-a-kind porcelain tea set, White House honey and a honey vase designed exclusively for the occasion of the Pittsburgh Summit 2009. The platinum and purple porcelain design of the teacups is classic and contemporary, and inspired by the gold and purple White House china that President and Mrs. Lincoln used in 1861. The use of platinum on the saucer symbolizes Pittsburgh’s steel industry roots; the use of purple is the color of the state flower of Illinois, the purple...

STUART - Three people were attacked by a swarm of bees that came from a hive about the size of a car engine. Kendall Todd and his brother were pressure cleaning Becky Engebretsen's driveway in the 1800 block of Northwest River Point Drive on Monday, when they first started noticing some bees. After spraying the bees with water, more continued to show up until finally the men were forced to take off on foot. "We ran a quarter mile and the swarm was still attacking us," Todd said. Todd and his brother sat in a fire truck for about an...

Beekeepers in Scotland have warned of a serious threat to the industry after a deadly disease was discovered. At least four hives and three apiaries in Perthshire have been found to be infected with American Foulbrood (AFB). The honeybee disease was discovered while investigating cases of European Foulbrood (EFB) in the area. Colonies infected with EFB can be saved if the case is not serious. However, those with AFB cannot be treated with antibiotics and have to be destroyed. Foulbrood is caused by a bacterium which gets inside bee larvae and uses up their food supply, starving them to death....

An Israeli company has developed a revolutionary new drug that could solve the problem of Colony Collapse Disorder, the disturbing syndrome that has been wiping out bee communities and threatening agricultural production all over the world. The drug, Remembee, which was developed by Beeologics, has completed successful clinical trials on millions of bees in North America. Not only has it proved effective in maintaining bee health, but it also improved the longevity of bees and increased the honey in the hives. Based on Nobel prize-winning RNAI technology, Remembee helps the bees overcome IAVP virus, also discovered in Israel, which has...

---snip--- Trade relations are minimal and Honduras is far more reliant on remittances from the United States than it is on Mr Chavez's petro-dollars. Nevertheless, President Chavez has already indicated that oil to Honduras will be suspended in a bid to force out the interim government led by Roberto Micheletti. ---snip--- Politically, however, the small Central American nation has become increasingly important to the Venezuelan leader. "This is a coup against Venezuela!" President Chavez said in the hours after Mr Zelaya was forced on to a plane at gunpoint and flown to Costa Rica. "It must not be permitted," he...

ACCRA, Ghana, Sep 23, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton on Monday urged Africans to team up to fight poverty, saying boundary-less cooperation means boundless economic potential. "Through cooperation and collaborative efforts, termites have been able to pull down strong edifices," Clinton said. "Bees have been able to build houses for humans to tap heir honey from." Clinton, who is in Africa to promote efforts to fight AIDS and encourage economic development, was speaking to an assemblage of government ministers, traditional rulers and academics at the launch of Ghana President John Kufuor's Foundation for...

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, June 22, 2009 – Representatives from Zinzee and Turkman villages, along with staff members from Al Bironi University, journeyed here June 13 for a day of activity that had them buzzing with questions. A member of the Task Force Warrior agriculture development team points out the behavior of bees during training on Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, June 13, 2009. U.S. Army photo by 1st Lt. Lory Stevens  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Army Staff Sgt. Erik Singsaas, intelligence sergeant of the Tennessee National Guard's Task Force Warrior agriculture development team, provided classroom and hands-on training about bee...

Freepers: As usual, I try to find "experts" on certain issues here before I go searching for the "googled" or "wiki" answers.I have a large hive of honey bees (non-african) in my wall of my house. I have tolerated them for a wile (they have been there for four-five years), but this year they are much, much more numerous and I fear that the mold/mildew inside of my siding will be detrimental in the long run. I want to safely remove them without destroying the hive and transplant them to a bee box. Beekeeping has been one of my "learn...

DANVERS, Mass. – Maybe these bees were too tired to fly for themselves. A gang of honeybees landed on the wing of a plane used for flight school training at Beverly Airport. At first, the 10,000 or so bees swarmed over the left side of the aircraft, then landed on top of the left wing. The owner of the flight center called police, who said to call local bee removal expert Al Wilkins. Wilkins used a specially designed vacuum to suck the bees off the plane, and then relocated them to hives where they will produce honey. Wilkins guessed that...

On a number of occasions in the past I have documented the disappearing act our honeybees are performing, commonly referred to as colony collapse disorder, and the impact it may have in relation to bible prophecy. It's time to revisit that issue. I've heard it said that one of out of every three bites of food we eat in a day exists because of honey bees. If that's correct, we have a lot to be concerned about where the survival of the honeybee is concerned and beekeepers are sounding the alarm once again. Something is wrong, they're telling us. The...

OK folks, I'm not the White House beekeeper, but I got a front row seat at the creation, and am so grateful for the experience that I have to share. And for those of you who just can't wait, I have some additional photos on one of the supporting pages here. On Tuesday, March 24, the first known hive of bees at the White House arrived at their location on the South Lawn. You don't have to count on my crummy photo to see them: just stop by the fence on the Ellipse (south) side: two deeps and a medium...

For the first time, scientists have isolated the parasite Nosema ceranae (Microsporidia) from professional apiaries suffering from honey bee colony depopulation syndrome. They then went on to treat the infection with complete success.

Q: Which have been perhaps the fiercest six-legged soldiers in the history of warfare? A: In Rudyard Kipling’s "Second Jungle Book,” the hero enlists the aid of a colony of bellicose bees to beat back a pack of wild dogs, says Jeffrey Lockwood in "Six-Legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War.” The creature Kipling may have had in mind is the giant honeybee of Asia, or "Apis dorsata,” described as "the most ferocious and deadly stinging insect on Earth.” These bees are not only larger but attack in huge numbers (a colony comb can be 10 feet across) and...

FORT LAUDERDALE A massive hive containing 60 thousand bees was removed from a Ft. Lauderdale home. An attack by thousands of bees is being blamed for the deaths of two dogs in one Ft. Lauderdale neighborhood.A local pest control was called to exterminate a massive hive next to a home in the 45 hundred block of SW 24th Street. William A Sklaroff, better known as 'Willie the Bee Man', said he estimated there were more than 60 thousand bees residing in the hive. He added that he couldn't tell whether they were Africanized bees without proper testing. Alina Alvarez, who...

U.S. Senate at deadlock over earmarks for Weslaco agricultural center, others No one knows yet what causes the bees to disappear. One day the beehive is humming along; the next day the bees are just gone. Pesticides, bee diet and environmental stresses are factors believed to contribute to what's known as "colony collapse disorder," said Sandy Miller Hays, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief research agency. Bees are used to pollinate much of the nation's crops, she said, and yet questions persist about the phenomenon. Scientists are investigating bee disappearance and related topics at Weslaco's Kika de...

SALT LAKE CITY — Africanized honey bees have been found for the first time in the Beehive State. The bees, long the subject of lore as "killer bees," were recently discovered in Utah's Washington and Kane counties, the state Department of Agriculture said Wednesday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed that seven hives – three in the wild and four managed by private beekeepers – contained Africanized bees. The hives have since been destroyed. The bees in Utah do not appear to be widespread and no injuries to people or animals have been reported. State and local officials have been...

When it comes to sizing up the purity of the honey you buy, you're pretty much on your own. You may be paying more for honey labeled "certified organic" or feel reassured by the "USDA Grade A" seal, but the truth is, there are few federal standards for honey, no government certification and no consequences for making false claims. For American-made honey, the "organic" boast, experts say, is highly suspect. Beekeepers may be doing their part, but honeybees have a foraging range of several miles, exposing them to pesticides, fertilizers and pollutants on their way back to the hive. And...

KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 29, 2008 – Many Afghans are subsistence farmers who teeter on the edge of malnutrition or starvation every year. An advisor from the Afghan Department of Agriculture demonstrates the techniques necessary to managing bee colonies in Afghanistan’s Konar province. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. In Afghanistan’s Konar province, one of the most violent provinces in the country, an American provincial reconstruction team is working with the Afghan government on a unique solution to help feed its people: bees. Experts from the Konar Department of Agriculture maintain a number of small beehives throughout Konar...

Gardeners are well aware of the importance of bees, and that tens of thousands of bees have been killed by what's called colony collapse disorder. But what does it take to get an ice-cream maker involved in trying to solve the problem? Two factors may help -- the realization that almonds are 100 percent reliant on bees for pollination -- and that the company uses 1 million pounds of almonds a year. Also, of course, that doing good can provide an opportunity to look good in the eyes of customers. So, back in February, Häagen-Dazs ice cream launched a bee-friendly...

The sting can be fatal, and when the rest of the "hive" arrives, your whole neighborhood is probably screwed. It lends a whole new meaning to learning about the birds and the bees. More . . .

An Australian and a Swedish researcher say they have proved honey bees are more intelligent than previously thought. Professor Mandyam Srinivasan from Queensland University and Dr Marie Dacke trained honey bees to count by placing food at different markers. Professor Srinivasan says he has also found bees can learn colours and smells and be trained to fly through complicated mazes. "The more we look at these creatures that have a brain the size of a sesame seed, the more astonished we are," he said. "They really have a lot of the capacities that we so-called higher human beings possess." The...

(NaturalNews) German government researchers have concluded that a bestselling Bayer pesticide is responsible for the recent massive die-off of honeybees across the country's Baden-Württemberg region. In response, the government has banned an entire family of pesticides, fueling accusations that pesticides may be responsible for the current worldwide epidemic of honeybee die-offs. Researchers found buildup of the pesticide clothianidin in the tissues of 99 percent of dead bees in Baden-Württemberg state. The German Research Center for Cultivated Plants concluded that nearly 97 percent of honeybee deaths had been caused directly by contact with the insecticide."It can unequivocally be concluded that a...

HONEY, used for generations to soothe sore throats, could soon be substituted for antibiotics in fighting stubborn ear, nose and throat infections, according to a new study. Ottawa University doctors found in tests that ordinary honey kills bacteria that cause sinus infections, and does it better in most cases than antibiotics. The researchers have so far tested manuka honey from New Zealand, and sidr honey from Yemen. "It's astonishing," researcher Joseph Marson said of bees' unexplained ability to combine the nectar of flowers into a seemingly potent medicine. The preliminary tests were conducted in laboratory dishes, not in live patients,...

My dog was stung by 20 or more bees. What do I do?

You know how sometimes when you try to fix a problem you end up causing more trouble for yourself than what the initial problem posed? Here's another instance of this phenomenon with a man trying to end the lives of some wasps that are holed up in his garage. When will humans learn, don’t fool around with Mother Nature and her offspring? (FARDAL, Norway, Aug. 7 (UPI) — A Fardal, Norway, man said his attempt to rid his garage of wasps ended with the structure burning to the ground with his car inside.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Disease spread to wild bees from commercially bred bees used for pollination in agriculture greenhouses may be playing a role in the mysterious decline in North American bee populations, researchers said on Tuesday. < > "All of the different species of bumblebees that we sampled around greenhouses showed the same pattern: really high levels of infection near greenhouses and then declining levels of infection as you moved out," said Michael Otterstatter of the University of Toronto, one of the researchers. < >

WASHINGTON -- Food prices could rise even more unless the mysterious decline in honey bees is solved, farmers and businessmen told lawmakers Thursday. "No bees, no crops," North Carolina grower Robert D. Edwards told a House Agriculture subcommittee. Edwards said he had to cut his cucumber acreage in half because of the lack of bees available to rent. About three-quarters of flowering plants rely on birds, bees and other pollinators to help them reproduce. Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion annually in crop value.In 2006, beekeepers began reporting losing 30 percent to 90 percent of their hives. This phenomenon...

Beekeeper Isaiah Hess tries to coax a swarm of bees estimated at 10,000 to 15,000 off a power pole into a hive in the alleyway off Commerce Street near the Sprint building.

A survey of bee health released Tuesday revealed a grim picture, with 36.1 percent of the nation's commercially managed hives lost since last year.Last year's survey commissioned by the Apiary Inspectors of America found losses of about 32 percent.As beekeepers travel with their hives this spring to pollinate crops around the country, it's clear the insects are buckling under the weight of new diseases, pesticide drift and old enemies like the parasitic varroa mite, said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, president of the group.This is the second year the association has measured colony deaths across the country. This means there aren't enough numbers...

Air pollution interferes with the ability of bees and other insects to follow the scent of flowers to their source, undermining the essential process of pollination, a study by three University of Virginia researchers suggests. Their findings may help unlock part of the mystery surrounding the current pollination crisis that is affecting a wide variety of crops. [...] This phenomenon triggers a cycle, the authors noted, in which the pollinators have trouble finding sufficient food, and as a result their populations decline. That, in turn, translates into decreased pollination and keeps flowering plants, including many fruits and vegetables, from proliferating....

All morning one cool, drizzly April Sunday, cars pull up to the Reseska Apiaries warehouse in Holliston - one driven by an attorney, one carrying a plumber and a machinist, another a yoga studio owner. The occasion is the arrival by truck of 270 three-pound boxes of honeybees from Georgia, all ready for pick-up by a diverse and burgeoning cadre of backyard beekeepers. "When I signed up for bee school, I thought there would be six people," says Kristina Ward, a 38-year-old landscape designer from Norfolk. "It turned out there's a whole subculture." Subculture indeed. Ward is among almost four...

70 Hospitalized After Mexican Killer Bee Attack POSTED: 3:41 pm PDT April 8, 2008 MEXICO CITY -- At least 70 police officers were hospitalized after so-called Africanized bees swarmed a police shooting range in southern Mexico, authorities said Tuesday. The attacked occurred Monday in Tapachula, Chiapas, after one of the policemen hit the bees' hive with a bullet, local police officer Miguel Serrano said Tuesday. At least 10 of the 70 officers stung were in serious condition, he said. "We tried as hard as we could, but we weren't able to avoid getting stung," Serrano said. "Some of us hit...

(WebMD) Taking allergy drops instead of enduring painful shots may someday become an option for people who are allergic to honeybee stings. In a preliminary study, Italian researchers found that putting honeybee venom under the tongue was safe and significantly reduced reactions in people allergic to bee stings . Immunotherapy using the ubiquitous allergy shot is the standard treatment for allergies to everything from insect stings to dust mites. Tiny amounts of the allergens are injected into the patient until tolerance develops. The new study involved a different form of immunotherapy, called sublingual immunotherapy. It involves putting extracts of allergens...

STUART, Fla. -- A Florida County has declared war on killer bees. Commissioners in Martin County have unanimously passed an ordinance allowing county employees to go onto private property without permission to kill Africanized bees and treat areas where mosquitoes are breeding. The county's mosquito control administrator Gene Lemire said the county already responds to bee and mosquito complaints with the permission of property owners. But he said they have had an increasing number of incidents in which property owners either cannot be found or are unwilling to clean up the infestation themselves. Killer bees, which Lemire said have been...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Millions of swarming honey bees are on the loose after a truck carrying crates of the insects flipped over on a California highway.The California Highway Patrol says 8-to-12 million bees escaped Sunday from the crates in which they were stored and swarmed over an area of Highway 99 and stung officers, firefighters and tow truck driver trying to clear the accident. CHP Officer Michael Bradley says a tractor trailer flipped over while entering the highway on its way to Yakima, Wash. The flatbed was carrying bee crates each filled with up to 30,000 bees.Bradley says several beekeepers...

Feb 7 A malady that's killed billions of bees since 2006, threatening about $15 billion in pollinated crops, has been detected again, according to the US Department of Agriculture's top honeybee researcher.

ATHENS, Greece, Jan. 26 Greek experts have expressed concern for the unexplained disappearance of large quantities of honey bees.

Honeybees will die out in Britain within a decade as virulent diseases and parasites spread through the nation's hives, experts have warned. Whole colonies of bees are already being wiped out, with current methods of pest control unable to stop the problem. The British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) said that if the crisis continued, honeybees would disappear completely from Britain by 2018, causing "calamitous" economic and environmental problems. It called on the Government to restart shelved research programmes and to fund new ones to try to save the insects. Tim Lovett, the association's president, said: "The situation has become insupportable and...

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- An angry swarm of 100,000 bees buzzed their way into several Valley yards Tuesday, stinging four children, their babysitter and a beekeeper, according to Elio Pompa of the Glendale Fire Department. "They were extremely stubborn," Pompa said. "These things were burrowed down deep inside of a metal shed," he said. A beekeeper was first to be stung when the swarm became irritated around 2:30 p.m. Then the swarm moved on to the house next door and stung four children and the babysitter, Pompa said. "We actually had one of the kids running down the street trying to...

Culinary Specialist Seaman Vannessa Robertson, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion-40 Detachment Horn of Africa culinary specialist, sprinkles seasoning on fish before putting it in the oven. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Mary Popejoy U.S. Navy Seaman Vannessa Robertson Culinary Specialist Serves up Food and Smiles By Petty Officer 1st Class Mary Popejoy CJTF-HOA Public Affairs CHARICHCHO, Ethiopia, Oct. 16, 2007 — Far away from the dining facility of Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, the Soldiers and Sailors of Forward Operating Location Charichcho look to Culinary Specialist Seaman Vannessa Robertson to serve up tasty treats that keep their bellies full...

MISSION — When firefighters arrived, they found a man covered in bees. “They were on him head to toe,” said Elias Saldivar, the Alton fire chief. His firefighters pulled the man away, suffering stings on their faces as they fought off attacks. “The coat and pants only cover so much,” the chief said of his firefighters’ protective clothing. Rescuers separated 57-year-old Paul Lee Campton from the bees, but it was too late. Campton, a disabled man who uses a walker, died Thursday at Mission Regional Medical Center after being stung more than 1,000 times. The attack happened about 6 p.m....

WASHINGTON - Scientific sleuths have a new suspect for what's been killing billions of honeybees: a virus previously unknown in the United States. The scientists report using a novel genetic technique and old-fashioned statistics to identify Israeli acute paralysis virus as the latest potential culprit in the widespread deaths of worker bees, a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder. Next up are attempts to infect honeybees with the newfound virus to see if it's indeed a killer. "At least we have a lead now we can begin to follow. We can use it as a marker and we can use...

MADRID - A parasite common in Asian bees has spread to Europe and the Americas and is behind the mass disappearance of honeybees in many countries, says a Spanish scientist who has been studying the phenomenon for years. The culprit is a microscopic parasite called nosema ceranae said Mariano Higes, who leads a team of researchers at a government-funded apiculture centre in Guadalajara, the province east of Madrid that is the heartland of Spain's honey industry. He and his colleagues have analysed thousands of samples from stricken hives in many countries. "We started in 2000 with the hypothesis that it...

Could the Ozarks be emerging from what was once called a crisis for the agricultural industry? That's the question among beekeepers across the region as it seems bee populations might be rebuilding. Earlier in the year, a problem called Colony Collapse Disorder became all the buzz as bees across the nation left the hive and never returned. But as summer wears on, local bee keepers and honey vendors say there are signs of recovery. “It was a huge concern. Bees are so important, but it hasn't affected our local supplier." says Susie Farbin, co-owner of Mama Jean's Natural Market. Local...

A new technique to help find unexploded landmines using honey bees is being developed at Zagreb University in Croatia. "We started this because our citizens are exposed to serious risks with mines," explains Professor Nikola Kezic, as honey bees buzz around his head. "Luckily we also have a long tradition of keeping bees and making honey. Our solution makes use of what we have."

Most of us beekeepers are fighting with the Varroa mites. I'm happy to say my biggest problems are things like trying to get nucs through the winter and coming up with hives that won't hurt my back from lifting or better ways to feed the bees. This change from fighting the mites is mostly because I've gone to natural sized cells. In case you weren't aware, and I wasn't for a long time, the foundation in common usage results in much larger bees than what you would find in a natural hive. I've measured sections of natural worker brood comb...

WEST RUTLAND, Vt. (The Vermont Catholic Tribune) – When Father Adam Krempa sits down for a light meal, he enjoys a bowl of cottage cheese drizzled with honey, seeded rye bread lightly toasted with butter – not margarine – and a cup of coffee with a heaping teaspoon of honey."It's like dying and having lunch with the Lord," said the pastor of St. Raphael Church in Poultney, Vt. It's not the toast or even the butter that makes the meal special. It's the honey. For 40 years Father Krempa has been keeping bees at his family homestead here on Valley...

WEWAHITCHKA, Fla. (AP) -- Busy humming broken by a hard tapping fills the clearing. Bees at work, and Ben Lanier loosening their honeycombs from weathered boxes. He harvests this tupelo honey only once a year, just after the white tupelo gum trees blossom in the swamps along the Apalachicola River. Some of the box lids Lanier pries open are still black from the carbolic acid his grandfather poured on them to repel the bees while he worked decades ago. Lanier sprays the same lids with smoke or an almond concoction called "bee goo," according to the handwriting on the bottle....

......He's been recruiting beekeepers to harvest on the grounds, and all he asks is that they follow a few simple health rules. First, no using antibiotics in their colonies; the drugs can make people sick. Second, no storing honey in metal containers; those can taint the sweet goo with toxic iron and lead. Some 45 keepers have signed up. But many others are hostile to his efforts, which they see as a threat to their decades-old way of doing business on the cheap -- and making easy profits. ......Honey and thousands of other Chinese food products are showing up more...