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The bees have been temporarily rehomed while the roof at Plas yn Rhiw is replacedFor 200 years, this historic manor house on a Welsh peninsula with ornamental gardens has been occupied. And for as long as anyone can remember, it has been home to swarms of Welsh bees. But for the first time in centuries it is eerily quiet, with 50,000 of its buzzing inhabitants temporarily moved out for renovations. These bees have lived in the roof space of the house for as long as anyone can remember, despite their habit of leaving honey oozing through the walls. In the...

A 59-year-old man died on Monday after he was stung by a swarm of bees, a Kentucky coroner said. The man, who has not yet been publicly identified, was moving an old bag of potting soil from his porch in Kentucky's Harlan County when the bees came out of the bag, Deputy Coroner John W. Jones said in a social media post. Family members started performing CPR and the man was rushed to an emergency room where he died just before 6:00 p.m. Officials have not said if the man was allergic to bees. "Our heartfelt prayers go out to...

A new study reveals how we could design robots to think like bees. Honey bees excel in weighing effort against reward and risk, quickly determining which flowers can provide sustenance for their colony. A study recently published in the journal eLife illustrates how eons of evolution have fine-tuned honey bees to make swift judgments while minimizing danger. This research sheds light on the workings of insect minds, the evolution of human cognition, and offers insights for improved robot design. The paper presents a model of decision-making in bees and outlines the paths in their brains that enable fast decision-making. The...

In 2022, the Royal Australian Mint issued a $2 coin decorated with honeybees. Around 2,400 years earlier, a mint in the kingdom of Macedon had the same idea, creating a silver obol coin with a bee stamped on one side.Over the centuries between these two events, currency demonstrating a symbolic link between honey and money is surprisingly common.In a recent study in Australian Coin Review, I trace the bee through numismatic history—and suggest a scientific reason why our brains might naturally draw a connection between the melliferous insects and the abstract idea of value...Ancient Malta was famous for its honey....

The mixture of honey and vinegar, also known as oxymel, has been used as a medical treatment throughout history and now scientists have established that this combination could have modern applications. Bacterial infections can be difficult to treat, particularly when they are protected within a biofilm. A biofilm is a complex system of bacteria which can attach tightly to surfaces, like flesh in a wound infection. Bacteria which are protected in a biofilm are difficult to kill, and treatments today are not always effective at removing them. Doctors have utilized this information in medicine today. While they use manuka honey...

Figures published today reveal beekeepers in the U.S. lost an estimated 48% of their honey bee colonies in 2022-23. According to an annual survey that tracks the state of managed hives, this is the second highest death rate on record after 2020-21's 51%. Honey bees are crucial to our food supply, pollinating over 100 different crop types. As reported by Bee Informed, a national collaboration of leading research labs and universities in agricultural science, the most prominent cause of colony death reported by commercial beekeepers over the year was “varroa destructor” - a parasitic mite that attacks and feeds on...

New Zealand honey producers have lost their latest battle against Australian beekeepers to trademark the name manuka. In a decision published on Monday (May 22), the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand ruled that the term manuka honey cannot be registered as a certification mark in New Zealand. The certification mark was sought by New Zealand's Manuka Honey Appellation Society (MHAS). But the Australian Manuka Honey Association opposed the move, arguing that the word manuka honey is not sufficiently distinctive to be registered as a certification mark in New Zealand.

The Sandhills of North Carolina is said to be the only place in the world where bees produce purple honey, an iridescent concoction that looks more like alien goo than the sweet nectar we know and love. It sounds like the stuff of legends, something to lure honey and beekeeping aficionados from around the world, but this extremely rare liquid is quite real. Purple honey is said to be sweeter than the amber kind and apparently has some subtle fruit notes as well. Purple honey is a rare treat that usually commands a higher price than the amber kind, but...

Honey is a sweet, thick liquid made by bees using the nectar of flowers. It is commonly used as a natural sweetener in foods and beverages and has been valued for its medicinal properties for centuries. According to a new study from researchers at the University of Toronto, consuming raw honey from a single floral source may have significant benefits for cardiometabolic health. In a systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials, the researchers found that honey consumption was associated with lower fasting blood glucose, total and LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol, triglycerides, and a marker of fatty liver disease. Additionally, honey...

The royal beekeeper - in an arcane tradition thought to date back centuries - has informed the hives kept in the grounds of Buckingham Palace and Clarence House of the Queen’s death. And the bees have also been told, in hushed tones, that their new master is now King Charles III. The official Palace beekeeper, John Chapple, 79, told MailOnline how he travelled to Buckingham Palace and Clarence House on Friday following news of The Queen’s death to carry out the superstitious ritual. He placed black ribbons tied into bows on the hives, home to tens of thousands of bees,...

There would be no life if the bees die’: Beekeepers protesting with beehives in front of Chile's presidential palace said their demonstration was to highlight the drought in the Colina commune that was killing the local bee population.

Curious if there are many FReeper beekeepers. If I get a decent response, I would like to start a weekly beekeeping Ping list. In order to make this list successful, participation on everyone's part is vital.

A suspect with a history of violence against strangers has been arrested for the random October assault on actor Rick Moranis near his Upper West Side apartment, The Post has learned. A sergeant assigned to Transit spotted Marquis Ventura, 35, at 96th Street and Broadway on Saturday and made the arrest; investigators were transporting the West Village man to Central Booking Saturday night. “Huh?” an unblinking Ventura responded to a reporter’s question, as detectives led him in handcuffs from the 20th Precinct on the Upper West Side at 8:30 p.m.

A trio of researchers at Oxford University has found that honey is a better treatment for upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) than traditional remedies. In their paper published in BMJ Evidence-based Medicine, Hibatullah Abuelgasim, Charlotte Albury, and Joseph Lee describe their study of the results of multiple clinical trials that involved testing of treatments for upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) and what they learned from the data. Over the past several years, the medical community has grown alarmed as bacteria have developed resistance to antibacterial agents. Some studies have found that over-prescription of such remedies is hastening the pace. Of...

Wuhan: A British man living in China’s Wuhan - the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, has made a startling claim that he defeated the deadly virus with ‘hot whisky and honey’. According to Fox News, 25-year-old Connor Reed, who teaches English in Wuhan, was diagnosed with the virus about two months ago. At first he thought it was a simple flu, but after he experienced difficulties breathing and struggled with a bad cough, Connor sought hospital treatment. **SNIP** “I used the inhaler which helped control the cough and drank a hot whiskey with honey until [it] ran out. It’s an...

Senator Bernie Sanders likes his hotel rooms cold and does not like slow flushing toilets, according to a leaked tour rider from his 2020 presidential campaign. Referred to as the 'Senator Comfort Memo,' the document offers specific arrangements that need to be met for Sanders' hotels, food, drink, family and staff. Marked 'confidential: for campaign staff use only, not for circulation,' the two-page memo is dated April 10, 2019 and was first reported by the Smoking Gun Wednesday. **SNIP** Sanders requests that rooms have a down comforter or at least one extra blanket and also asks that they come stocked...

Woodland’s Z Specialty Food seeks to double the footprint of its honey warehouse and create a community gathering spot The Zeldner family legacy is rooted in yellow star thistle. The noxious weed, an invasive species native to the Mediterranean region of southern Europe and northern Africa, covers an estimated 14 million acres in California. It grows densely and depletes soil moisture. It can cause a fatal nervous disorder in horses who graze on it. The spines that extend from the flower head, giving the plant its name, are the bane of hikers and grazing animals alike. For honeybees, however, the...

Police in New York City are hunting a woman who they say stole a man's $20,000 Rolex watch from his apartment after he passed out, following a night of partying together at the high-end Manhattan club 1 Oak. The NYPD released surveillance video on Tuesday showing the unnamed suspect emerging from an elevator in the victim's apartment building in a skimpy lace dress. According to investigators, the 29-year-old man met the mystery brunette on the night of June 1 at the Chelsea hotspot, popular among such A-listers as Rihanna and Justin Bieber.

A giant wasp-like insect with the face of a stag beetle was just re-discovered by a wildlife photographer on an unspecified island in Indonesia. The insect hadn’t been spotted since 1981 and was thought to be extinct for decades. The insect is known as Wallace’s giant bee, named after the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who discovered the winged insect in 1858. The giant black insect has immense jaws and looks like a stag beetle. It is the size of an adult thumb – four times larger than the European honeybee. The bee has a two and half inch wing...

Many of us believe some kinds of sugar are somehow healthier. High-fructose corn syrup has been a scapegoat for American obesity for the past decade and a half, so you might be surprised to learn that sugar and honey both have more fructose than high-fructose corn syrup. Let’s break down the numbers here. Despite its misleading name, the most commonly used form of HFCS only has 42 percent fructose in comparison to table sugar’s 50 percent. Honey, the beloved natural sweetener, has 49 percent. Standard corn syrup doesn’t have any fructose because it’s 100 percent glucose, which explains how HFCS...