The bustling aisles of a grocery store offer rows upon rows of food to choose from. In this space, the freedom of choice appears endless, though insight into where and how exactly a product originates may not be as readily available. Peering beyond the confines of the supermarket’s shelves can reveal the scope of this journey, all the way from pollination to plate.

Across the globe, a little over one-third of food crops and plants are dependent on pollinators for reproduction, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It’s estimated that approximately one out of every three bites of food individuals consume exist because of such animals and insects — from birds to butterflies, bats and especially bees.

“A large portion of our crops are pollinated by insect pollinators, whether it’s watermelons, cantaloupes, cucumbers, different berry crops and so on,” said Timothy Coolong, a professor in the University of Georgia’s department of horticulture and the program coordinator of Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education. “So not only are they critical for environmental health, but we will not have a crop to sell if we don’t have pollinators.”

Despite the significant impact they have on food production, the landscape and its inhabitants, these insects often go unnoticed. UGA Honey Bee Program lab manager Jennifer Berry attributes this disparity not to ignorance, but simply to a lack of public knowledge when it comes to “how important they are for pollination.”

However, through local beekeepers’ involvement within and across their communities, this knowledge rift is slowly closing. From raising small bee colonies for farmers to purchase in the spring to selling honey at markets, over the past 18 years, Abby’s Apiary has contributed to bridging the gap in food trust and transparency.

Hutchinson poses for a portrait in his backyard workshop in Watkinsville, Georgia, on Oct. 24, 2023. Pictured behind him are the wooden bee boxes he makes. (Photo/Skyli Alvarez)

“[Bees] are one of the very few creatures you can keep that you don’t have to feed,” said David Hutchinson, founder of Abby’s Apiary. “They actually feed you.”

Hutchinson was first introduced to beekeeping when he was a freshman in college. He lived with his great uncle at the time, who laid the foundation for his knowledge and interest in the activity. Though Hutchinson took time away from it for several years, after his first child was born, he decided to revive his beekeeping endeavors, return to his very first honeybee hives and launch Abby’s Apiary, named after his daughter.

For Hutchinson, beekeeping is restorative and recentering.

“I just enjoy beekeeping,” Hutchinson said. “Thankfully, the business side takes care of itself, because there are enough people out there [who] want local honey.”

Abby’s Apiary regularly participates in the Oconee Farmers Market each year by selling honey, and the demand for this versatile condiment is evident. In the Southeast, Georgia is one of the top producers of honey, bringing nearly $9 million into the economy, according to USDA’s 2022 Honey Production Survey.

Florida and Georgia make up more than half off the southeast’s production value for honey. (Source: USDA)

The leading two honey producing colonies in the southeast are Florida and Georgia. (Source: USDA)

Along with Georgia’s substantial honey production, an interest in beekeeping persists. When Hutchinson sells his small colonies each spring, he looks forward to meeting customers, new and old, ranging from gardeners, to farmers and newcomers just beginning to familiarize themselves with backyard beekeeping. As opposed to previous years, “among the general public, there’s a lot more attention paid now to providing pollinators habitats,” Coolong notes.

“There’s been a real blossoming of beekeeping, and I love that, being a beekeeper myself,” Berry said. “The only problem I see is, when we have a lot of people doing something, is there going to be an impact?”

According to Berry, the rise of amateur beekeeping that she, Coolong and Hutchinson note has come in response to colony collapse disorder. This phenomenon occurs when much of a colony’s worker bee population disappears, leaving behind the queen and little else. Berry explains how the disorder can be attributed to viruses brought about by parasitic, invasive mites. A notable instance of this observance took place in 2006 and 2007, affecting bee colonies in over 20 U.S. states. Since then, colony collapse disorder’s impact on colony loss has decreased, though the issue of colony loss remains.

As per Berry, the solution to this disorder is reflective of “the state of [the] industry” at large, ultimately lying in the hands of bigger commercial operations with tens of thousands of colonies. However, this does not mean that independent and amateur beekeepers have no impact on their communities.

“I think one of the challenges with beekeeping is just staying knowledgeable as to what is happening with new diseases or pests,” Hutchinson said. “Management techniques are evolving, [but] if you just say ‘this is the way I’m going to do it’ and you do it that way forever, you may not succeed as a beekeeper.”

When it comes to colony loss, he expresses the importance of continually remaining “connected to research” and the beekeeping community, both of which have helped him prevent infestations of pests and sustain his bees’ wellbeing.

“Every time I walk into a grocery store and I see all of that fruit and all of those vegetables, I’m like, ‘thank God for bees,’” Berry said. “They are responsible for the nutritious food that we eat and the color in our diet.”

Skyli Alvarez and Melanie Velasquez are seniors majoring in journalism at the University of Georgia.

To access the complete article go to; From Pollination to Plate, Bees and Beekeeping Play an Irreplaceable Role in Food Production — Grady Newsource (uga.edu)

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: From Pollination to Plate, Bees and Beekeeping Play an Irreplaceable Role in Food Production — Grady Newsource (uga.edu) 

No-mow zones create habitat, save time and money

By: Whitney Pipkin

A sign on VA State Route 7 near Purcellville lets drivers and maintenance crews know that the median is used to grow habitat for pollinators.

Here’s an item to add to your bingo card for long car drives: “no-mow” signs.

More highways and byways across the region are posting them next to strips of land — in medians, at intersections and along shoulders and curbs — as part of reduced mowing practices being integrated into their culture.

Mowing less frequently or avoiding it all together during certain times of year helps to leave habitat for native and pollinator-friendly plants, such as milkweed, when migrating monarchs and other wildlife need them most. Less mowing also means less pollution from gas-powered mowers, and there are financial incentives, too.

“The reduction in mowing has been a significant savings in both money and in time,” said Bill Lewis, state roadside program supervisor for the Virginia Department of Transportation. Spending about half as much time on mowing, he said, means the crews have the opportunity for other activities, like fixing road shoulders and potholes.

National volunteer programs also encourage state transportation authorities and energy companies to dedicate more of their rights-of-way to improved habitats that often require less maintenance and benefit local species. And many states have their own pollinator-focused programs and reasons for promoting them.

Pennsylvania’s Department of Transportation participates in a voluntary pollinator conservation program that tracks acres set aside as habitat for species that may soon be listed under the Endangered Species Act, such as monarch butterflies. The state enrolled more than 4,000 acres in the program, reducing mowing and implementing other conservation practices on those lands.

In addition to reduced mowing practices, the Maryland Department of Transportation introduced its pollinator habitat plan in 2017 in response to state legislation the year before. The plan sets aside locations such as welcome centers, rest areas and other government facilities for pollinator habitat gardens, creating five in 2019.

Maryland also implemented a revised mowing program in 2010 to benefit wildlife habitat. The agency doubled down on the effort in more recent years with turfgrass management guidelines that ensure most right-of-way grasses are not mowed until they have reached a height of 18 inches or are in areas where they impede drivers’ visibility.

The Virginia Department of Transportation has taken many of the same steps, starting by planting a different type of fescue grass that is bred to be shorter and mowed less frequently. But that was just the beginning of what Lewis describes as a slow cultural shift for the agency — and for the drivers who frequent the region’s roads.

The public appears to be divided on the subject. “I would say I get an equal number of calls from people who are upset that we have mowed as people upset that we have not mowed,” he said with a laugh.

To read the complete article go to; States give pollinators pit stops in rights-of-way | Wildlife & Habitat | bayjournal.com

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: States give pollinators pit stops in rights-of-way | Wildlife & Habitat | bayjournal.com

Rob Hessler

Savannah Morning News

There’s a buzz about the new Savannah Bee Company location opening across from the Enmarket Arena at 313 Stiles Ave., and it’s not just about the honey. Starting Nov. 6, world-renowned artist Matt Willey will be bringing his project “The Good of the Hive” to the space in the form of a new mural.

“It’s a global art project, where I’ve committed to hand paint 50,000 honey bees in murals and installations around the world,” he explained.

Over the past eight-plus years, the period during which the artist has been almost exclusively working on the project, Willey has created works for the likes of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoological Park and the global headquarters for Burt’s Bees, amongst many, many others. He’s over 10,000 bees into the estimated 21-year endeavor, and Savannah will be his 49th stop along the way.

‘Just one mural to raise awareness,’ but then…

But while the project has become massive in scale, its origins are much more humble.

“I was in my studio, it was 2008 in Manhattan in the East Village, and this little honey bee flew in and landed in the middle of the rug, like smack dab in the center,” he recounted. “And I got down on the floor and hung out with this little bee, because she was walking really slowly.

“I was fascinated with how beautiful she was,” he continued. “I got my magnifying glass out, and I was like, ‘These antennas, the giant eyes, the fuzziness’; there was a cuteness, like a puppy-type of thing, something I had never noticed before in my entire life about a bug.”

Ultimately the bee died, and after respectfully relocating it to its natural habitat outside for a final rest, Willey quickly got down to researching his new muse. That’s when he learned about colony collapse disorder, a phenomenon…..

To access the complete article go to; Artist Matt Willey paints mural at Savannah Bee Co. as part of global project (savannahnow.com)

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Artist Matt Willey paints mural at Savannah Bee Co. as part of global project (savannahnow.com)

Dating back to the 18th century, AŽ hive panels depict stories of marriage, damnation, and daily life.

BY REBECCA L. RHOADES

Slovenia’s Beautiful Beehives Turn Apiaries Into Art

“SLOVENIA HAS A STRONG connection with beekeeping,” says Peter Kozmus, one of the country’s—and the world’s—leading experts on bees. “Historically, every village had at least one beekeeper who produced honey for himself, his relatives, and neighbors.” This tradition continues today, with approximately one in every 200 Slovenians keeping and tending to bee colonies.

Kozmus has been a beekeeper since he was 14 years old. Today, he runs a honey farm in Pilštanj in eastern Slovenia, where he tends to more than 100 bee colonies. He also heads the breeding program for the 8,000-member Slovenian Beekeepers’ Association, a nearly 150-year-old education, research, and training organization.

Drive through the verdant countryside, and you’ll notice hobbit-sized huts, similar in appearance to garden outbuildings or she-sheds. But these small structures aren’t filled with landscaping tools or craft supplies. Instead, they’re apiaries that house unique hives, known as Alberti-Žnideršič (or AŽ) hives. Invented at the turn of the 20th century by beekeeper Anton Žnideršič, the hives—kranjichi in Slovenian—take their name from their inventor whose design was inspired by a leaf hive system by German teacher and beekeeper Adolf Alberti.

Kozmus in front of one of his beehouses. COURTESY PETER KOZMUS

Unlike their American counterpart, the Langstroth hive, with its vertical box shape and hanging honeycomb frames, AŽ beehives are smaller and open from the back instead of the top. They also can be stacked together. Their structural design and small size allow them to be incorporated into the walls of the apiaries, providing protection from the elements and making it easier for beekeepers to inspect and manage their colonies. More than 90 percent of beekeepers in Slovenia use AŽ hives.

Like everyone else in Slovenia, Kozmus oversees colonies of native Carniolan honey bees, the only species the country allows beekeepers to tend. Kozmus’s bees are divided between four apiaries outfitted with AŽ hives. A large one near his house serves as the main source of honey production and is used for tourism purposes. Two mobile apiaries can be moved around the property “to find better pastures,” Kozmus explains. And a small house is reserved for nucleus colonies—developing colonies with breeding queens. But there is no standard design for an AŽ hive house. It can be as small or as large as the beekeeper desires and can hold dozens of hives, stacked two or three high.

Typically, the hives are built into the south side of a bee house to capture the sun, while the opposite wall blocks the cold north winds. The eaves should extend about three feet to protect from rain and snow, while the entire house should be raised about four feet off the ground in order to keep the hives dry. Many bee houses are built on wheels, allowing them to be moved around the property as the seasons change.

Inside, the apiaries are a mix of workspace and living room. Depending on their location, they can include heat or air conditioning. Some are large enough to hold the extractor and other machinery needed to process the honey, as well as space for the beekeeper to hang out. “You’ll see a lot of bee houses that have beds or a table and chairs in them,” says Suzanne Brouillette, the owner of Slovenian Beekeeping. Brouillette, a New Hampshire resident, organizes beekeeping-themed trips to Slovenia and is one of the few providers of AŽ hives in the United States. “You’ll go out and take care of the bees, have some bread and wine and cheese, and take a nap,” she says.

A small hole or slit on the front of the hive allows the bees to enter and exit, while the beekeeper accesses the combs from the rear of the hive, which is located inside the apiary. The hives themselves are divided into two chambers. “They’re basically two-story bee apartments,” says Wesley Brittenham, director of horticulture for Los Poblanos, a historic inn and lavender farm in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The property recently built a Slovenian apiary as part of its beekeeping program. “The queen does all the brood rearing and egg laying in the downstairs portion, while upstairs, all the bees can build pure, clean honeycomb,” he explains.

Each weighing about eight pounds, AŽ bee house frames are easy to remove, simply sliding out one at a time like books off a bookshelf. Langstroth hive frames can weigh as much as 40 to 90 pounds and must be lifted up out of the hive. “There are so many benefits to this style of beekeeping,” Brouillette says. “Number one, anyone can do it—children, the elderly, if you’re in a wheelchair. It really opens up beekeeping to everyone.”

But the most memorable aspect of Slovenian bee houses is their colorful appearance. The hives often are painted in bold primary hues and adorned with artistic panels, known as panjske končnice.

Brouillette says there are 600 known panel motifs from the 1800s, ranging from the religious to the political to the quotidian. “It was a way of being a little bit more prestigious than your neighbor if you had them,” she says.

About half of the motifs tell stories from the Bible. “The panels were like frescoes in a church,” Brouillette adds. The oldest-known bee panel is from 1758 and depicts the Madonna and Child. There’s Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, images of patron saints, and scenes of sinners in Hell.

Secular subject matter includes animals and hunting scenes, caricatures of important figures, and social commentary. There are themes of marriage and funerals, moral tales of drinking and infidelity, important events from history, and amusing looks at daily life.

While the art of hand-painting bee panels faded away after World War I, many beekeepers still use reproduction panels or ones with their own designs. “Beekeepers still paint the fronts of their hives because it’s our tradition and because we want to have beautiful hives,” Kozmus says. “Some apiaries still have such beautifully painted beehive headboards that visitors can watch them like they’re watching TV, because each headboard tells a story.”

When it comes to the story of beekeeping, the future looks uncertain. The prospect of a world without bees is dark: The Beekeepers’ Association warns that “Without bees, there is no life, no diversity, and almost one-third less food production. Which means no future.” But there is hope, as more Slovenian beekeepers continue the historic tradition. Thanks to the group’s educational efforts, the average beekeeper age has decreased from 65 to 59 over the past 15 years in Slovenia.

“In our country, we have mostly small hobby beekeepers for whom beekeeping is a way of life,” Kozmus explains. For Slovenians, he says, tending bees is not viewed as work, but something “that makes their lives better.”

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-are-slovenian-beehouses

For David Roth, the hobby he picked up during the COVID pandemic is not only a source of sweetener and wax, but also inspiration

By CANAAN LIDOR

David Roth extracts honey from his beehive in London. (David Roth)

Finding a memorable Rosh Hashanah gift to give friends is rarely an issue for David and Judy Roth, a Jewish couple from London. They simply giftwrap one of the jars of honey that they extract regularly from the beehive in their backyard.

That product, which is traditionally eaten with apples on the Jewish new year, and the candles the Roths produce from beeswax, are a big part of the reason for the couple’s decision three years ago to join two other Jewish couples and invest time and money in apiculture, with the risks it entails.

Gradually, though, the honey took a backseat to the joys and spiritual insights that the new hobby afforded, David Roth, 61, said.

“I didn’t expect that I would think this way, but getting the honey is a nice additional benefit. Frankly, though, it’s not the main thing,” said Roth, a marketing executive who has three children with his wife Judy, a nurse.

Roth is fascinated by the intricacies and multiple unsolved scientific mysteries concerning bee behavior, he said. But beekeeping also has a strong spiritual element for him.

“I’m a religious person, I don’t believe that the world was created by accident. And when you see the wonders of how bees work and operate, it makes you feel good about God,” Roth, who uses the beeswax candles for Havdalah, the prayer ritual performed at the end of Shabbat, told The Times of Israel earlier this week.

David Roth uses candles that he and his wife Judy make from beeswax for weekly prayers after Shabbat. (David Roth)

London Jews have been flirting with beekeeping since at least 2011, when a local Jewish community center launched what it called the “Bee The Change” initiative, through which the center helped train two urban beekeepers from the community.

The Roths and their fellow Jewish beekeepers, however, took up the hobby during the COVID-19 lockdown, receiving guidance from a non-Jewish community center that launched the activity as part of its lockdown coping program. The Roths, who go to an Orthodox synagogue in the northwest neighborhood of Pinner in London, soon discovered that beekeeping resonated with their religious side, as well.

As a religion with deep agricultural roots, Judaism has a well-documented approach to apiculture, encompassing both the keeper’s responsibility toward their bees and detailing the legal complications that can occur when a swarm leaves its hive.

Beekeeping is one of the few situations when children can serve as witnesses according to Halachah, Jewish Orthodox law. It stipulates that if a child testifies that a swarm originated in an owner’s beehive, then the swarm can be returned to the owner based on the testimony.

Another rare exception, which attests to the significance that beekeeping had before humans learned to mass produce sugar: Bee owners may trespass – a big deal in Judaism – to retrieve escaped or errant bee swarms. They may even cut down branches of other people’s trees — another big deal — but are obliged to compensate the land’s owner for any damage they cause, according to what Rabbi Avraham Laber, himself a beekeeper and co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Southern Rensselaer County in New York, told Chabad.org in 2019.

One nonprofit in the United States, Bees for Peace, encourages as part of its mission statement rabbis, imams and priests to launch beekeeping projects in their communities for the spiritual aspect of the experience.

It doesn’t take clergy to appreciate how bee societies offer takeaways for life as a human.

“It’s an amazing reflective experience and it’s where humanity and nature sort of combine,” Roth said. Observing bees gave him “an immense appreciation for the marvel of God or nature, depending on your perspective,” Roth added.

An average colony has 50,000 individuals, he noted, and “all have a role and a purpose to them. They look after each other. None of the bees go to bee school. They instinctively learned it. It’s a micro-society, which doesn’t suffer from social media, by the way.”

Beekeeping isn’t for everybody: It can be done on a rooftop but ideally, it happens in a yard large enough for the hive to be kept away from windows. David and Judy Roth planted bee-friendly plants and have stopped trimming a portion of their garden to let it grow wild for the bees.

Extracting the honey requires special equipment and skill. The bees need to be fed throughout winter  – their sustenance, in lieu of honey, is sugar water – and cared for to survive…..

To read the complete article go to; In London, a Jewish beekeeper draws honey and spirituality from his hives | The Times of Israel

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: In London, a Jewish beekeeper draws honey and spirituality from his hives | The Times of Israel

By Bhavesh Bakshi

Albert Einstein, one of the greatest scientific minds in history, once allegedly warned that if bees were to disappear from the Earth, humanity would follow suit within four years. This quote has stirred concern and debate over the years, highlighting the crucial role that bees play in pollinating plants and ensuring our food supply. In this article, we will explore the logic behind Einstein’s warning, whether it is true, and the importance of protecting bees.

I. The Logic Behind Einstein’s Warning:

Einstein’s statement is rooted in the fundamental concept of pollination. Bees, along with other pollinators like butterflies, birds, and bats, play a critical role in pollinating flowering plants, including many of the crops that make up a significant portion of our global food supply. The logic can be summarized as follows:

Food Production: Bees pollinate a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and nuts, contributing to the growth of these crops.

Biodiversity: Pollination also supports the reproduction of wild plants, which are essential for maintaining biodiversity and the overall health of ecosystems.

Global Food Chain: Plants are primary producers in the food chain, meaning they form the basis of the diets of countless other species, including humans.

Human Dependence: As a result, humans are highly dependent on the pollination services provided by bees and other pollinators for food production.

II. Is Einstein’s Warning True?

It’s important to note that there is no concrete evidence that Albert Einstein ever made this specific statement about the extinction of humanity within four years of the last bee’s death. However, the essence of the warning carries scientific merit.

The decline in bee populations, a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder (CCD), is a real and concerning issue. CCD is primarily driven by factors like pesticide use, habitat loss, climate change, and diseases. The loss of bees and pollinators can indeed have devastating consequences for food production and ecosystems.

While the timeline of four years is likely an oversimplification, it underscores the urgency of addressing the bee crisis. The actual consequences of a significant decline in bee populations would manifest over time, with food shortages and ecosystem imbalances leading to increasing global instability.

III. The Importance of Protecting Bees:

Food Security: Bees pollinate a substantial portion of the world’s food crops, including fruits, vegetables, and nuts. A decline in bee populations could lead to reduced crop yields, higher food prices, and food scarcity.

Ecosystem Health: Pollinators, including bees, play a crucial role in maintaining the health and diversity of ecosystems. They facilitate the reproduction of plants that provide habitat and sustenance for countless other species.

Economic Impact: Agriculture is a significant driver of economies worldwide. A decline in pollinators could have severe economic consequences for the agricultural sector.

IV. Measures to Protect Bees:

Reduce Pesticide Use: Implement stricter regulations on the use of pesticides, especially neonicotinoids, which are harmful to bees.

Preserve Habitats: Protect and restore natural habitats where bees can forage and nest.

Promote Sustainable Agriculture: Encourage practices that minimize the use of chemicals and provide a more diverse and bee-friendly landscape.

Support Beekeepers: Back beekeeping initiatives and research to combat diseases and pests that affect bee colonies.

Raise Awareness: Educate the public about the importance of bees and the role they play in food security.

While the exact timeframe mentioned in Einstein’s purported warning may not be accurate, the underlying message is clear: the well-being of bees is closely tied to our own. Protecting bees and pollinators is not only a matter of ecological responsibility but also of vital importance to food security, biodiversity, and the overall health of our planet. Addressing the bee crisis requires global cooperation, awareness, and concerted efforts to ensure a sustainable future for both bees and humanity.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: https://english.newstracklive.com/news/the-bee-crisis-examining-einsteins-warning-and-the-impact-on-humanity-sc1-nu370-ta370-1297433-1.html

By Steve Nicholls

Generally unloved and disregarded, insects are in fact the most successful group of animals on Earth and have been for more than 400 million years. With a million described species (and a lot more still out there to find) and numbers measured in the quintillions, insects underpin almost all terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. But in the last few decades, populations all over the world have collapsed with terrifying speed. The declines are so severe that we stand on the brink of total ecosystem collapse. After all, as Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson pointed out; ‘these are the little animals that run the world’.

Every spring an extraordinary event takes place in California, when 1600 beekeepers arrive at the Central Valley’s almond orchards—along with 1.5 million hives. It’s the biggest pollination event on the planet as the orchards turn white with blossom. But the Central Valley is such a toxic soup of pesticides, the beekeepers lose about 1/3 of their bees during each pollination season. Maintaining the minimum number of bees to do the job is now becoming very difficult. Given the problems that honeybees face year-round everywhere else, we might soon lose their invaluable help altogether.

What’s the alternative? China has already lost a huge number of pollinators, and farmers there now must pay people to hand pollinate their almond trees. It’s time-consuming, inefficient and enormously expensive—and raises the price of food. If this is repeated with other crops, there simply won’t be enough people to do the job. So, there is no real alternative. Currently it’s estimated that insect pollination services across the globe are worth between $235 and $577 billion every year and yet we’re about to pull the plug on that phenomenal contribution to the global economy. What’s more, we don’t have much time to find solutions since the scale of the problem has only recently been recognised—and it turns out that we’re already a long way down a path of no return.

The small German town of Krefeld near Düsseldorf is the headquarters of the local entomological society, and it’s packed with alcohol-filled specimen jars stuffed with insects collected locally since the society’s formation in 1905. In the past they needed so much alcohol to preserve their specimens that the local narcotics bureau took a serious interest. But society member Martin Sorg noticed that recently their alcohol bill had dropped dramatically. The data held by the society are so complete that it allowed Sorg to look at how the abundance of insects on local nature reserves had changed over the last hundred years or so. The results, published in 2017, shocked not only members of this august society, but also scientists and naturalists around the world. On one reserve, insect abundance today was 80% lower than in 1989. That pattern repeated across all the other reserves they looked at. Overall, in the last few decades, insect abundance in this corner of Germany had fallen by three quarters. The speed and scale of the drop was so startling that the paper rapidly became one of the most widely discussed that year among scientists and naturalists across the world. It received a lot of global press coverage too, though, as is often the case, it was soon replaced by other news.

At the same time, a Danish naturalist had noticed that on a drive through the countryside, his windscreen remained free of bugs. The same journey in his youth resulted in a windscreen so spattered in dead bugs that he had to stop frequently to clean it. So, with the support of colleagues, he began to gather quantitative data—by equipping cars with large nets on their rooves. These certainly drew attention from passing motorists, but also from scientists around the world. As in Germany, insect populations had crashed in just a few decades. In my mind, this feels very personal. I’ve been working with insects since the 1970s, so this crisis has happened over my working life. When I began as an entomologist, insects were, in some places, five times more abundant than they are today—and that’s all too obvious when I visit some of my favourite bug-watching places. It’s now clear that this a global phenomenon. Drastic population crashes have also been recorded in Puerto Rico and across North America, where the Xerxes Society, a group dedicated to insect conservation, are reporting declines in many groups of insects. A similar pattern is emerging across Asia and Australia.

The causes are many and varied but it’s not rocket science. We’ve overused insecticides (which kill insects directly) and herbicides (which kill their food plants). We’ve destroyed their habitats on a vast scale. Fully half the land on the planet is now used for farming—and in England, one of the most nature-poor countries on Earth, nearly three quarters of the land is farmed. Light pollution from streetlights and buildings lit up at night reduces populations of nocturnal insects, while introduced invasive species undermine complex ecological webs. And, of course, climate change will have major, if unpredictable, effects on insect distribution. In 2019, the Entomological Society of America held a symposium in St Louis, Missouri, to pull together data from around the world and ended by describing the decline of insects as ‘death by a thousand cuts’.

Some solutions are obvious. Ban the worst of the insect poisons and limit the use of others. Unfortunately, most of these are manufactured by just a few giant companies who, through their immense wealth, have the ear of politicians and lawmakers. We also need to de-intensify farming to create space for insects along with other animals and plants. This could be achieved through reshaping farming subsidies, but this too is painfully slow to filter into the minds of political leaders.

Back among the almond groves of California, one farm stands out. It belongs to Glenn and Leslie Anderson and it’s one of the few organic farms in the San Joaquin Valley. Anderson Almonds is a tiny farm of just 20 acres, dwarfed by the intensive agriculture around, but they have wild pollinators everywhere and no need to pay beekeepers. In fact, beekeepers bring their hives to his land to rehabilitate them, to keep the hives alive after time spent pollinating almond trees elsewhere in the valley, in what must seem like some dystopian post-apocalyptic landscape to a bee.

Our response to climate change has been largely too little too late—even though most people are now well aware of this crisis. Many fewer people realise the implications of the problems we face with insect declines. That’s why it’s more urgent than ever to publicise the scale of this crisis and what it will mean for every human being on the planet. That can be done by making people care more about insects. At the 1968 meeting of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, a Senegalese forester called Baba Dioum said ‘we will only conserve what we love, we will love only what we understand’. He was absolutely right. In Alien Worlds, by telling the story of how insects became so successful and so important, I hope to bring at least some understanding and—who knows—maybe a little bit of love.

Steve Nicholls is an Emmy Award–winning producer and director of acclaimed wildlife documentaries such as Appalachia: The Endless Forest. A Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, he is the author of Flowers of the Field: A Secret History of Meadow, Moor and Wood and Paradise Found: Nature in America at the Time of Discovery.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: https://press.princeton.edu/ideas/insect-apocalypse

Cris Collingwood

Dutch Gold Honey, a family-owned Lancaster company, was founded in 1946 after Ralph Gamber bought three beehives for $27. Today, the company, led by his daughter, Nancy Gamber Olcott, has grown to a more than $290 million enterprise, selling honey nationwide.

Nancy Gamber Olcott shares the story with Central Penn Business Journal.

CPBJ: How did Dutch Honey get started?

Dutch Gold Honey CEO Nancy Gamber Olcott – PHOTO/MARK YANG/ BAMBOO SHOOTS MEDIA

Gamber Olcott: After a heart attack in his early 30’s, Ralph’ Gamber’s doctor suggested he find a hobby, something relaxing. When three beehives and some bee equipment showed up at an auction in the spring of 1946, Ralph was determined to resurrect his childhood fascination with honeybees.

So as the high bidder, at $27, he loaded three hives into his car and headed home to his wife, Luella, who is allergic to bee stings. As if that was not bad enough, the family lived in Lancaster city on State Street and there was not enough yard for three beehives. Not Ralph’s best day!

In 1957, the Gambers were entertaining Woodrow and Rita Miller from California in their Lancaster home. The Millers also had a honey company, so of course after dinner, the conversation turned to business. The quest to find a novel container for honey was the topic for the evening and the end result was – the squeezable honey bear!

Now, the most popular and best loved honey container in the country, the squeezable honey bear was born at the Gamber’s dinner table.

The early plastic honey bears did not have the eyes and noses painted on by the manufacturer, this was the summer job for daughters Marianne, Nancy and their friends. Occasionally, the honey bears were also painted with bright red lips, much to the displeasure of Ralph!

CPBJ: When did the Gamber children join the company?

Gamber Olcott: The Gambers had three children, Bill, Marianne and Nancy, all of whom grew up with the business. They all graduated and moved into other industries, only to return to Dutch Gold Honey as the company expanded and could support additional family members.

At this point, both Bill and Marianne have retired from day-to-day activities. I have served as the company president and CEO since the early 2000s. The third generation of Gamber family, Ralph and Luella’s granddaughter, Emily, is also involved in the company.

CPBJ: When and how did the company go from a small operation to a major player in the honey business?

Gamber Olcott: The company’s sales started to outpace the volume of honey Gamber could produce from his 200+ beehives.

He began reaching out to beekeepers to buy their honey crops, so that Dutch Gold would have enough honey to package. With honeys from various regions reflecting the area’s unique flowers and blossoms, Dutch Gold began marketing honey by floral source; Orange Blossom and Tupelo honeys from Florida, Buckwheat Honey from New York, and Alfalfa Honey from Wyoming.

Distribution grew across the east coast. In addition to the Dutch Gold branded items, the company began to package honey for retail private label programs, and supply honey to food manufacturers.

CPBJ: When did the company move to its current location?

Gamber Olcott: The business started in the Gambers kitchen in 1946 and by the mid-1950’s it had overwhelmed the house. The open lot across the street from their home was purchased and the first “honey house” was built, with a 30 second commute across State Street.

After several additions and trying to unload tractor trailers of honey and packaging materials on a city street, the Gambers bought a 20-acre farm off Rohrerstown Road, close to Route 30. The original 40,000 square foot facility was opened in 1974. The business is still on the same site, but the footprint is now over 200,000 square feet.

CPBJ: What goes into honey production and where are the bees kept these days?

Gamber Olcott: Honey production requires healthy honey bees, plenty of forage area and the cooperation of Mother Nature!

Honeybees collect nectar from flowers and blossom and return this to their hive. The watery nectar is transformed into honey, via the addition of natural enzymes from the honeybee. The honeybees also dehydrate the honey by creating air current through the hive by fanning their wings, in what could be called nature’s most perfect dehumidifier.

Once the honey has been “ripened” the honeybees cap each hexagonal cell with honeycomb. Luckily, honeybees produce more honey then they need to sustain their hive, and beekeepers can remove the excess honey, extract the honey from the honeycomb.

As the beekeeping and honey packaging business expanded, the Gambers faced a question – who do we take of – the honeybees or our honey customers? The honey customers were chosen and the Gambers focused on processing and packaging honey and relied on commercial beekeepers to provide the honey.

CPBJ: When did maple syrup come into the mix?

Gamber Olcott: In 1997, Dave and Wanda McLure, owners of McLure’s Honey & Maple Products, from Littleton, New Hampshire, were looking to sell their business.

This was a perfect acquisition for Dutch Gold, as it added another pure and natural sweetener to the product offering. The plant in Littleton is still fully operational and packages both honey and maple syrup.

CPBJ: From fiscal year 2021 to 2022, the company grew in revenue by 46%. Is that normal growth?

Gamber Olcott: Revenue is driven by the price of our key material – honey! Honey prices skyrocketed due to increased demand from COVID and new tariffs placed on imported honey from certain countries.

CPBJ: How did the company fair during COVID?

Gamber Olcott: Like many other food manufacturers, Dutch Gold Honey was incredibly busy during the COVID years.

We experienced demand levels that were at all-time highs. Honey is a shelf stable food that can be used in a variety of ways. I am sure many people were baking honey bread and enjoying a relaxing cup of tea with honey during the height of the pandemic.

Thanks to the commitment and diligence of our employees, we remained fully operational during the crisis.

CPBJ: Why is honey so popular?

Gamber Olcott: Honey is the perfect sweetener and consumers love the wholesomeness it brings to foods. In addition to the honey section of your local grocery store, you will find products with honey in nearly every aisle of the store, from the dairy case, to the breakfast cereal, bakery and snack food for aisles.

Honey is a key ingredient in beverages as well, including craft beers and distilled spirits. Honey delivers value and a good for you feeling, that other sweeteners can’t match.

CPBJ: Why is Dutch Gold important to the local community?

Gamber Olcott: As the company became more established, one of the most important accomplishments of my parents was the establishment of the Gamber Foundation.

This foundation is focused on our local community and supporting those in need. In 2022, the Foundation donated to 22 local charities, including the Boys and Girls Club of Lancaster, Lancaster/Lebanon Habitat for Humanity, Salvation Army, Milagro House, Water Street Health Services, and Schreiber Pediatric Rehab Center.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Honey business booms at Dutch Gold Honey – Central Penn Business Journal (cpbj.com)

You may have heard America’s honeybees are dying. But what does that mean for the people on the front lines—and what could it mean for what ends up on your plate?

By Lex Pryor

Ringer illustration

“There’s probably bees all over. Inside the truck, outside the truck,” he says, eyes scanning the dim country road ahead. “You’re just as liable to get stung in here as you are outside.”

Crawford is a bee man. More than once, he refers to what we’re doing—driving a load of 80 honeybee colonies from western Massachusetts to a wild blueberry farm in central New Hampshire—as “haulin’ bees.” He is active behind the wheel, but he is not gung-ho. When the road bends, he slows down. On the highway he drives the speed limit.

“One thing that’s different haulin’ bees,” he cautions, “you got a higher center of gravity, so you don’t really want to take too tight of turns.”

The truck is a white Ford F-150 with the printed image of a smiling, anthropomorphic bee on the side and more than 171,000 miles on the odometer. The floors are coated in dried mud. Crawford drinks a Cherry Coke and owns both a flip phone and iPad.

He transports his bees at night so that none of them flutter away. They fly only in the daylight, but Crawford still covers the entire load with one big plastic tarp, fastening it with wooden planks and cargo straps. They are stored for most of the year in one of his beeyards near Springfield. When Crawford readies the bees for transport, it looks like some brand of outlandish NASA training: He and his staff, clad in full, graying bee suits, stack hives that resemble office cabinets from a forklift amid a cloud of soothing smoke and darting yellow fuzz.

He considers the North American black bear to be his sworn enemy. Each of his bee hubs is surrounded by electric fences. In total, Crawford owns around 3,200 colonies, equivalent to upward of 150 million bees. He is one of thousands of commercial migratory beekeepers in the United States. They are the phantom backbone of our agricultural system: The bees pollinate the crops; the beekeepers shuttle them from field to field, coast to coast.

They directly contribute to a third of America’s food: apples, peaches, lettuce, squashes, melons, broccoli, cranberries, tree nuts, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, plums, clementines, tangerines, sunflowers, pumpkins, alfalfa for your beef, and guar for your processed foods. Ninety-eight percent of organic vitamin C sources, 70 percent of vitamin A, and 74 percent of lipids; $17 billion worth of crops annually from honeybee pollination alone. The demand for their services has tripled in the past 50 years and shows no signs of abating.

The problem is they die. You have probably heard this. The number of colonies in the U.S.—2.7 million—is less than half what it was at the midpoint of the 20th century, and it has remained flat since the early 2000s. Virtually every year for the past two decades, U.S. beekeepers are tasked with replacing the third or more of their stock that perish after pollinating the very crops that required the bees in the first place. It is a shell game with titanic stakes. (In other words, it’s very American.) It works how it works because we made it to. This you may not have heard.

The bee-industrial complex is a quagmire linked to antiquity and the modern world. People have harnessed bees for about as long as they’ve harnessed anything at all. They are mentioned in the ancient cuneiform writings of Sumeria and Babylonia. They were domesticated for the Egyptian pharaohs by 2400 BCE. Early Roman naturalists recorded witnessing villages in northern Italy where “they place their hives on ships and take them during the night about five miles up the river” to access new fields of flowers.

“That Christmas puppy syndrome happens with honeybees. And there’s not much I can do about it other than try to impress upon the people who take my class that it is a responsibility.” —Andrew Coté

More than one classical dignitary died abroad and had their bodies preserved in nothing but honey: Agesilaus of Sparta, the philosopher Democritus, Alexander the Great. The Greeks and Romans valued some wild honeys as potential cures for madness. In Europe bees were lobbed on the battlefield at Swedish knights by English infantry. During World War I the Germans rigged trenches with them.

The downward spiral in America began at the beginning of the 20th century, when agriculture started to consolidate and commercialize around the country. Growers increasingly scoured the landscape for potential boosts in efficiency. They noticed that where the honeybee went, higher yields always seemed to follow. “An insufficient supply of bees will hinder the setting of fruit,” read one Kansas farming bulletin in 1899. Spurred by advancements in interstate travel, pollination services soon went mobile. As cultivation continued to bend toward monocrop harvests, the honeybee’s position in the American farming structure was solidified.

That’s when the dying started. Honeybee stocks were decimated in the 1920s and then the 1960s and once more in the 1980s and ’90s. The number of managed colonies had already been slowly eroding for half a century when the bottom fell out in the mid-aughts. Beekeepers went away for vacation and returned to depleted hives. Entire apiaries collapsed in the span of weeks.

This last part is the one that’s most familiar in the public mind—the picture we have been taught to care about, mostly in an environmental sense. “Save the bees,” you will hear, at ice cream shops and farmers markets. A study touting the latest death rates will go viral, and pollinator protection bills will buzz out of state legislatures in response. This is also precisely where the quagmire is at its deepest, where the lines between truth, misconception, and misdirection blur.

The problem of bees in America is not a question of peace with the environment. It’s not really even a matter of conservation, per se. The bees most folks believe ought to be saved are neither natural to the land nor essential to it. They are, instead, integral to our agricultural system, grocery stores, refrigerators, and pantries. We have built a machine in the span of centuries, and it fits so comfortably together. How and why this happened is a story as much about the appeal, adaptability, and shortcomings of American commerce as it is about the dying of bees.

For the Full Article go to; America’s Bee Problem Is an Us Problem – The Ringer

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: America’s Bee Problem Is an Us Problem – The Ringer

Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the “Minefields Honey” project to draw global attention to the issue of de-mining and Ukraine’s new agricultural reality.

by Kateryna Zakharchenko, Petro Zhyzhyian

Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine has become one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.

According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, about eight million hectares of land is now mined in the country. Of these, six million are in the temporarily occupied territories and two million have already been liberated from Russian occupation.

The Ministry calculated that the total area of mined land constitutes 30 percent of the country’s territory – more than 174,000 square meters. This spans private territories, critical infrastructure, bodies of water, forests and fields.

To tackle a problem on such a scale, the Ministry took an “outside the box” approach and partnered with creative agency Saatchi & Saatchi Ukraine, and the agro-industrial company Kernel, to set up The Minefields Honey project.

What is the project about?

The basic idea is to use drones to sow mined fields with seeds of honey plants, therefore avoiding human contact with the mines. Their nectar will be collected by bees. Thus, Minefields Honey!

The Ministry plans for Ukrainian diplomats to take this honey to meetings and on work trips, handing it to public figures around the world.

The project’s creators conducted consultations with agronomists, the State Emergency Service, Dronarium Ukraine (a collective of drone enthusiasts) and the Union of Beekeepers of Ukraine. This involved a combination of preparatory work, test seeding with drones and seeking professional advice on various elements.

The project is set to be fully operational from the next agricultural season and a website for pre-ordering honey is already in place.

Background to the concept

Kostya Shnyder, creative director of Publicis Groupe Ukraine & Czech Republic and Saatchi & Saatchi Ukraine, told Kyiv Post that the product aims to become a powerful symbol to draw attention to the new realities in Ukraine.

“Minefields Honey is a product that should not exist in the modern world; however, due to the war and the area of mined territories, it has become our reality,” Schneider said.

He emphasized that the honey will be a limited product and is not aimed at conquering the global market through store sales.

“First of all, it is intended to be sent to diplomats and influential citizens of other countries who can help Ukraine in de-mining,” Schneider summed up.

How will the project work in practice?

Kateryna Spivakova, communications director of the agro-industrial company Kernel, reported that most honey plants will be sown in the front-line zones, specifically in the Chernihiv and Sumy regions.

“We take a field where, for example, corn or sunflowers were supposed to be growing, but the field cannot be worked on because of mines,” Spivakova told Kyiv Post. “The seeds are then planted using drones.”

During the spring season, drones will begin scattering the honey plant seeds. As soon as herbs start blooming, the bees will take over. Beehives will be situated in a safe and mine-free area next to the fields.

A unique beehive design has been developed for the project, shaped in the form of a mine danger sign.

How is it being funded?

According to Schneider, all project participants are working purely on a voluntary basis. “It’s a social project. Everyone who helps, advises and supports us does so voluntarily,” he explained.

What is the ultimate aim of the project?

The Ministry believes that the collected honey will act as a powerful communication tool to attract more international partners, donors, and additional resources to de-mining Ukraine.

“The project will allow [us] to draw more attention to the problem of Russian mining of Ukrainian land and mobilize additional resources to solve it,” the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, announced at the start of the project.

Mixed opinions

Not everyone in Ukrainian political circles is favorable to the project. According to Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Ukraine’s Integration into the EU, the Foreign Ministry should focus on more important matters.

“It sure would be nice to focus on matters that directly concern the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If we have that many resources to do something on the side, then great. But unfortunately, we do not have enough resources even for the simplest things,” said  Klympush-Tsintsadze said in a comment to Kyiv Post.

“In my next trip abroad, I would much rather take a fragment of a missile or a toy from a house destroyed by a missile strike. And it would be much more impactful than any sweet treat,” she added.

Time will tell whether the Minefields Honey project will prove the diplomatic nectar that the Ministry hopes it to be.

Meanwhile, Kyiv Post has requested further information from the Ministry about how pre-ordering of honey on the website will work; how the price of the product will be set; and how funds from the sale of “minefields honey” will be distributed.

Kateryna Zakharchenko Born and lives in Kyiv. A journalist for Kyiv Post. Writes exclusive articles and interviews.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Minefields Honey: Bees to Help De-Mine Ukraine (kyivpost.com)

A presentation participant practicing a 10-minute BudBurst! observation period.

By Maria de Bruyn
Contributing Correspondent/Columnist

During the sunny afternoon of October 7^th at the Chapel Hill Public Library (CHPL), interested town residents were invited to learn about Budburst!, a citizen science program run by the Chicago Botanic Garden. The CHPL Environmental Educator, Dale Morgan organized a presentation by the NC Botanical Garden’s Youth Education Manager, Elisha Taylor, about the program.

The presentation first focused on how Budburst! aims to promote collaboration between researchers and community collaborators in gathering data to help answer critical questions about how climate change is affecting plants and pollinators

Then, Taylor presented a colorful overview of different types of butterflies and their caterpillars. She explained that butterflies and moths are one category of pollinators. Other categories include hummingbirds, bees and wasps, and beetles.

The session ended with a practice period where participants were allowed to observe a flowering plant in Morgan’s carefully cultivated pollinator garden. For 10 minutes, they watched to see if any pollinators visited the plant and, if so, to which category they belonged.

The informative session ended with all the participants receiving butterfly identification cards, information about joining BudBurst!, and free seeds and a pollinator plant. For information on how you could join BudBurst!, contact Elisha Taylor at the Botanical Garden: taylores@email.unc.edu

Maria de Bruyn participates in several nature-oriented citizen science projects, volunteers at Mason Farm Biological Reserve and the Orange County Senior Center, coordinates a nature-themed book club, posts on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/bruynmariade/) and writes a blog focusing on wildlife at https://mybeautifulworldblog.com.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Promoting citizen science about pollinators – The Local Reporter

Written by Jackie DiBartolomeo

Mike Palmer searches for a queen bee with a partygoer July 19 in St. Albans.  Jackie DiBartolomeo

FRANKLIN COUNTY — In a sunny field just off Kellogg Road in St. Albans, a group of 25 stood wearing an assortment of nets and hats. In their hands and swirling in the air around them were hundreds of bees.

The group gathered Wednesday morning to celebrate local and world-renowned beekeeper Mike Palmer. After buying his first two packs of bees back in 1974, Palmer is now in his 50th year of beekeeping. Over the decades, Palmer has become known internationally for his beekeeping methods with his brood of over 1,000 bee colonies.

Instead of gathering in a party hall to celebrate Palmer’s accomplishments, the group of beekeepers gathered in the place they and Palmer love best: a grassy field surrounded by the little yellow creatures that brought them all together in the first place.

When Palmer pulled up to the field to find 25 people waiting for him instead of the usual four or five, he was surprised and overwhelmed by the support.

“It means everything,” Palmer said. “It doesn’t feel like 50 years.”

Stationed at the 30-some hives placed throughout the field, partygoers took to searching for queen bees among the sticky honey and the dozens of bees attached to each frame.

With each queen found, the beekeepers carried her over to Palmer. Holding the queen in his hand with ease, Palmer took a dot of red paint to label her and put her in her own box, a throne of sorts. Guests watched on with each queen Palmer labeled, admiring his deftness with the small creatures.

Of the 1,200-some queen bees Palmer raises every summer, he sells half of them to beekeepers nationwide.

“This is my favorite thing to do…it’s nice to make nice honey, but it’s so much nicer to make nice queens and to send them all over the country,” Palmer said. “People write back, they call me on the phone; that, to me, is the reward.”

Guests at the party ranged from beekeepers who have been involved in the practice for decades, to amateurs. Yet with one guest qualifying herself as an “amateur” with eight years of experience, it is clear that learning is never really over in the beekeeping world…..

To read the Complete article go to; Local beekeepers catch queens for famed St. Albans beekeeper Mike Palmer’s 50th anniversary | Local News | samessenger.com

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Local beekeepers catch queens for famed St. Albans beekeeper Mike Palmer’s 50th anniversary | Local News | samessenger.com

The sweet stuff can help with burns, coughs, anxiety and more

By Alison Gwinn,

AARP

Photo by Daily Slowdown on Unsplash

Honey’s benefits have been touted since antiquity — and it turns out the ancient Greeks and Romans were onto something: Honey really can hit the sweet spot when it comes to our health.

Though honey — a sweet, sticky liquid made by honeybees from flower nectar — is technically a sugar, “it’s also really rich in a lot of different bioactive substances,” says Mayo Clinic registered dietitian (and hobbyist beekeeper) Joy Heimgartner. Those include a range of good-for-you minerals, probiotics, enzymes, antioxidants and other phytochemicals.

There are four common types of honey: Raw honey is defined by the National Honey Board as “honey as it exists in the beehive or as obtained by extraction, settling or straining without adding heat.” Manuka honey, produced from the flowers of manuka trees, is known for its unique antibacterial properties, attributed to a compound called methylglyoxal, says Jordan Hill, lead registered dietitian for Top Nutrition Coaching.

Organic honey is produced without the use of synthetic chemicals, pesticides or GMOs. And locally produced honey has been reported to provide relief from seasonal allergies to local pollen, though scientific evidence to support that claim is limited, says Hill.

According to Hill, honey can be substituted for sugar in recipes, but remember: It has a distinctive flavor (which varies depending on the source flowers); it’s sweeter than sugar (the general rule of thumb is to use ¾ to 1 cup of honey for every 1 cup of sugar); it’s a liquid, so you may need to cut back on other liquids or slightly increase the dry ingredients in a recipe; and it browns more quickly than sugar (so reduce the oven temperature by 25°F).

But whatever way you use honey — in a recipe or as a condiment — always keep in mind that it is a sweetener. “Honey is a supersaturated sugar solution, and we should limit added sugars of all types,” says Heimgartner. Still, “if you’re looking for a sweetener that has more to offer, honey is fantastic.” Here are six reasons why.

1. Honey doesn’t raise your blood sugar as rapidly as white sugar

“Honey is metabolized differently from white sugar and produces less of a sugar spike,” says registered dietitian and nutritionist Dawn Jackson Blatner, author of The Flexitarian Diet. “Research suggests that honey may enhance insulin sensitivity and may support the pancreas, the organ that produces insulin.” A 2018 review of preliminary studies points to honey’s “hypoglycemic effect” and use as a “novel antidiabetic agent that might be of potential significance for the management of diabetes and its complications.”

And a 2022 study out of the University of Toronto found that honey improves important measures of cardiometabolic health, including blood sugar, cholesterol and triglyceride levels, especially if the honey is raw and from a single source.

2. Honey can help with wound or burn therapy

“Honey has been used for wound healing for centuries, and certain types of honey, like medical-grade honey, have shown potential in wound management due to their antimicrobial properties and ability to promote healing,” says Hill, who nonetheless advises consulting health care professionals for appropriate wound care. Heimgartner, a board-certified oncology specialist, says, “There’s actually a lot of evidence that using honey during oral cancer radiation treatment helps to prevent some of the nasty side effects of mucositis,” or inflammation of the mouth.

How does it work? “Research suggests that honey prevents or controls the growth of bacteria on the wound, helps to slough off dead tissue and microorganisms, and transports oxygen and nutrients into a wound for quicker healing,” says Blatner.

Native plants and naturalistic perennials attract bees and other pollinators.

​Create Your Own Pollinator Garden

If you want to create your own pollinator garden for bees to forage in, consider these tips from Emily Erickson, postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Davis, department of evolution and ecology.

• Opt for native plants or naturalistic perennials.
• Choose plants of varying colors, shapes and bloom times so you can support a variety of pollinators throughout the season.
• Avoid double-flowered varieties (those with extra petals) or plants that look drastically different from their wild relatives.
• Avoid pesticides.
• Leave areas in your yard that can serve as nesting habitats, such patches of bare soil, brush, twigs or woody stems, where many native pollinators make their homes.
• Which plants are right for you depends on your location and climate, so ask your local nursery for advice — or simply walk through a nursery and notice which plants seem to attract pollinators.

3. Honey is rich in polyphenols, including flavonoids

Why does that matter? Because those two substances have both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, meaning they protect our bodies against oxidative stress, which can manifest as cancer, heart disease or other diseases. But Hill cautions that the polyphenols in honeys can vary significantly, depending on the type of honey and its floral source.

4. Honey can be an effective cough suppressant

A 2020 meta-analysis found that honey provides a widely available and inexpensive alternative to antibiotics in controlling cough frequency and severity, though it concluded that further studies were needed. “It is believed that honey’s thick texture and possible antioxidant and antimicrobial properties may provide relief for cough symptoms,” Hill says, but she adds the caveat that honey should never be given to infants under 1 year of age due to a risk of botulism.

5. Honey may provide antidepressant or anti-anxiety benefits.

“Research suggests that polyphenol compounds in honey such as apigenin, caffeic acid, chrysin, ellagic acid and quercetin support a healthy nervous system, which may enhance memory and support mood,” says Blatner. Though more study is needed, a 2014 review of research says that one established nootropic (or cognitive-enhancing) property of honey “is that it assists the building and development of the entire central nervous system, particularly among newborn babies and preschool-age children, which leads to the improvement of memory and growth, a reduction of anxiety, and the enhancement of intellectual performance later in life.”

6. Honey may support a healthy gut

Early research indicates that “honey has an extra-special ability to support a healthy gut microbiome because it contains both probiotics, or good bacteria, and prebiotic properties, which help good bacteria thrive,” says Blatner, though the evidence is limited. A 2022 paper funded by the National Institute of Health, Malaysia, concluded that “honey bees and honey, which have the potential to be good sources of probiotics and prebiotics, need to be given greater attention and more in-depth research so they can be taken to the next level.”

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: https://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/info-2023/honey-health-benefits.html

• By HARLEIGH CUPP Daily News-Record

Barry Gibson, owner of Hannah Bee Apiary, inspects his hives.

A gentle humming filled the air surrounding 12 stacked wooden hives — some painted in pastel pink, blue and yellow — while Barry Gibson lifted the lids to peek in on his treasured honeybees.

Hannah Bees Apiary has a story as simple and sweet as the honey its more than 600,000 bees produce each year.

Gibson is a retired U.S. Navy corpsmen of more than 20 years that served on the front lines in Iraq during several different deployments. He peaked an interest in bees and read through several books about apiculture before having the opportunity to take free classes through Michigan State University as a serviceman.

His education certainly did not go to waste, as Gibson rattled off tidbits about the world of bees that he had grown so fascinated by.

He met Hannah Wills in 2019 and moved to their home in Harrisonburg the following year. Coincidentally, Wills father kept bees growing up and so she encouraged Gibson to start a few of his own in their backyard. He listened and what started as a hobby hive two years ago has grown into a vision for starting a small business.

Last month, Gibson received a $1,000 scholarship through a partnership of Tractor Supply Company and the Farmer Veteran Coalition that he had applied for earlier in the year. As one of 60 Veteran farmer honorees from across the nation, he plans to use the funds to construct a storage building for his beekeeping supplies — which are currently housed under the carport — and to expand his apiary to have hives in other locations.

Gibson’s real dream, he said, is to open a coffee shop as a place to display Hannah’s artwork and provide a space for veterans — and anyone else in the community — to gather and share “old war stories.” Honey is how he plans to get there.

“I didn’t start this to make a profit,” explained Gibson. “I have PTSD, and it helps me a lot just being up there [with my bees]. They have their own little world, and it’s soothing to me just to be up there.”

Get in touch with Hannah Bees Apiary and follow Gibson’s farm journey online through his new website at www.hannahbeesapiary.com.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: https://www.dnronline.com/news/harrisonburg-veteran-wins-tractor-supply-grant-to-expand-apiary/article_7e9ae844-4d1f-56ba-a432-e92939d28057.html

A botanical survey at the end of May revealed more than 30 different plant species

By: Safia Samee Ali

Trinity College in Dublin Dave G Kelly/Getty

A rare Irish orchid was discovered on a Dublin college lawn after the school stopped cutting its grass as part of a “no mow” initiative to promote pollination and wildflower blooming.

A botany professor at Trinity College Dublin found the rare flower, called the broad-leaved helleborine, under a birch tree in one of the school’s sprawling lawns after it stopped mowing.

The find was significant, as the plant is never very common in any one place and is mostly found in woodlands, the college said in a statement.

“This is super exciting; it is a rare native Irish orchid,” Jenny McElwain, who found the flower, told The Irish Times. “If you looked, you would find it in most counties in Ireland, but you’d probably only find one, and it would pop up so infrequently. It might pop up once, and you wouldn’t see it again for 10 years, and three of them have popped up in the lawn.”

The environmental factors required to grow are rare to find, as the seeds of this orchid need the right fungal partner to germinate and grow for the first few weeks of its life.

“This one needs a perfect set of circumstances. If it finds the exact right fungal partner, it forms fungi around its roots,” McElwain said.

This “complex” environment would never have been discovered if the university hadn’t stopped mowing. After discovering the flower, the school extended the no mow period through June, during which time a second orchid species popped up, the college said.

A botanical survey of the lawns at the end of May revealed more than 30 different plant species flowering on the lawns, the college said.

McElwain said it’s not clear how the orchid seeds found their way to the school’s lawn, but guessed they may have been transported by birds, humans, or the wind.

“Or possibly, these orchids have simply been lying in wait, dormant in the soil for decades, waiting to be given a chance to grow.”

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: College Stops Mowing Lawn to Promote Pollination, Discovers Rare Flower – The Messenger