The Honey bee Waggle Dance - is it a Language?

The Dance

More than half a century ago, Karl von Frisch rocked the world of behavioral biology with his conclusion that the honeybees (Apis mellifera) can actually communicate the distance to and direction of valuable food sources through an elaborate “waggle dance.” In what later led to his receipt of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, von Frisch determined that bees recruited by this dance used the information encoded in it to guide them directly to the remote location of the resource.

Bee dance

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10 Amazing Health Benefits of Bee Pollen

Bee Pollen is made by honeybees, and is the food of the young bee. It is considered one of nature's most completely nourishing foods as it contains nearly all nutrients required by humans. Bee-gathered pollens are rich in proteins (approximately 40% protein), free amino acids and vitamins, including the B-complex, and folic acid.

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20 Amazing Honey Bee Facts!

1. The honey bee has been around for millions of years.

2. Honey bees, scientifically also known as Apis mellifera, which mean "honey-carrying bee", are environmentally friendly and are vital as pollinators.

3. It is the only insect that produces food eaten by man.

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What Our World Would Look Like Without Honeybees

A world without honeybees would also mean a world without fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. 

Nearly one-third of the world's crops are dependent on honeybees for pollination, but over the last decade the black-and-yellow insects have been dying at unprecedented rates both in the United States andabroad.

Pesticides, disease, parasites, poor weather, and the stress of being trucked from orchard-to-orchard to pollinate different crops all play a role in the decline of managed honeybee populations. A lack of bees threatens farmers who depend on these nectar- and pollen-eating animals for their pollination services.

We have few planned defenses against a honeybee disaster. The Farm Bill, passed on June 10, 2013, allocates less than $2 million a year in emergency assistance to honeybees. 

"The bottom line is, if something is not done to improve honeybee health, then most of the interesting food we eat is going to be unavailable," warns Carlen Jupe, secretary and treasurer for the California State Beekeepers Association.

Honeybees as a species are not in danger of extinction, but their ability to support the industry of commercial pollination, and by extension, a large portion of our food supply, is in serious danger.

Whole Foods recently imagined what our grocery store would like in a world without bees by removing more than half of the market's produce. Here, we also take a purely hypothetical look at how the human diet and lifestyle would change if honeybees and other bee pollinators disappeared from our planet one day. This is the worst case scenario — it's possible that human ingenuity and alternate pollinators can mitigate some of these outcomes, but not necessarily all of them.

• Dina Spector

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The economic value of honeybees

"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."

There is some debate about who actually made this remark. It is often attributed to Albert Einstein, but few scientists now believe this doomsday scenario will actually happen.

Nevertheless, the apocalyptic vision is an indication of how important honeybees are to the world's agricultural economy. It is estimated a third of the food we eat is pollinated by bees.

So it is no wonder the dramatic and unexplained decline in the population of these insects is worrying for everyone, not just the conservationists.

Fewer bees means less pollination, which results in less honey and fewer plants.

The consequences are damaging industries that depend on the insects' survival and threaten to make the food we eat more expensive.

Fragile industry

Hidden away in quiet corner of Regents Park in London, Toby Mason puffs a calming smoke through the slats of one of his wooden beehives.

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Video Honey Bee at work

Photo: www.phuquocbeefarm.com

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25 Ways to Use Honey in Home Remedies

Sometimes called the nectar of the gods, honey has been a staple in the human diet for thousands of years. The benefits of honey have been touted everywhere from ancient history books to clinical trials in modern society. Honey also has antifungal and antibacterial properties. The high sugar content dehydrates bacteria by producing hydrogen peroxide and other antibacterial chemicals. Honey has been shown to speed up growth of body tissues by helping to form new blood vessels, collagen and epithelial cells. Taking honey and mixing it in with other herbs, fruits and foods can help enhance healing properties. There are countless ways to use honey in home remedies. Below are recipes that aid in ailments. (Click on the link to view recipe.)

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The story of honeybees and their importance in sustaining life

(NaturalNews) They are an amazing and highly beneficial insect species that quite literally underpins the sustenance of life as we know it on planet earth. But honeybees are increasingly threatened by an onslaught of harmful influences, not the least of which includes the perpetuation of industrial agriculture and its excessive use of toxic, bee-killing crop chemicals, both of which have contributed to the massive bee die-off phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD.

Photo: Quang Ánh

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A Devastating Look At Our World If Honeybees Disappeared

A world without honeybees would also mean a world without fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. 

Nearly one-third of the world’s crops are dependent on honeybees for pollination, but over the last decade the black-and-yellow insects have been dying at unprecedented rates both in theUnited States and abroad.  

Pesticides, disease, parasites, poor weather, and the stress of being trucked from orchard-to-orchard to pollinate different crops all play a role in the decline of managed honeybee populations. A lack of bees threatens farmers who depend on these nectar- and pollen-eating animals for their pollination services.

We have few planned defenses against a honeybee disaster. The Farm Bill, passed on June 10, 2013, allocates less than $2 million a year in emergency assistance to honeybees. 

“The bottom line is, if something is not done to improve honeybee health, then most of the interesting food we eat is going to be unavailable,” warns Carlen Jupe, secretary and treasurer for the California State Beekeepers Association.

Honeybees as a species are not in danger of extinction, but their ability to support the industry of commercial pollination, and by extension, a large portion of our food supply, is in serious danger.

Whole Foods recently imagined what our grocery store would like in a world without bees by removing more than half of the market’s produce. Here, we also take a purely hypothetical look at how the human diet and lifestyle would change if honeybees and other bee pollinators disappeared from our planet one day. This is the worst case scenario — it’s possible that human ingenuity and alternate pollinators can mitigate some of these outcomes, but not necessarily all of them.

Source: Dina Spector Business Insider

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The importance of honeybees

Take a look at the sheer number of plants that rely on these under-appreciated workers for pollination, and you'll start to understand what all the fuss is about.

Honeybees pollinate more than just flowers; they're a vital part of our agricultural cycles. (Photo: FrauBucher/flickr)

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If All The Bees In The World Die, Humans Will Not Survive

For some people, bees are simply an annoyance. They buzz around, crawl inside soda cans, chase people down the street and sometimes even sting. If you’re unlucky enough to be allergic, bees can literally be a lethal threat.

Photo Courtesy

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Obama just unveiled a big new plan to save the honeybees

A decade ago, beekeepers in the United States started noticing that their honeybees were dying at suspiciously high rates each winter. It was a disturbing trend, given that these bees are so crucial for pollinating many of our favorite fruits and vegetables.

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Announcing New Steps to Promote Pollinator Health

Pollinators are critical to the Nation’s economy, food security, and environmental health. Honey bee pollination alone adds more than $15 billion in value to agricultural crops each year, and helps ensure that our diets include ample fruits, nuts, and vegetables. This tremendously valuable service is provided to society by honey bees, native bees and other insect pollinators, birds, and bats.

But pollinators are struggling. Last year, beekeepers reported losing about 40% of honey bee colonies, threatening the viability of their livelihoods and the essential pollination services their bees provide to agriculture. Monarch butterflies, too, are in jeopardy. The number of overwintering Monarchs in Mexico’s forests has declined by 90% or more over the past two decades, placing the iconic annual North American Monarch migration at risk. 

That’s why last June, President Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum directing an interagency Task Force to create a Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators. Today, under the leadership of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Task Force is releasing its Strategy, with three overarching goals:

1. Reduce honey bee colony losses to economically sustainable levels;
2. Increase monarch butterfly numbers to protect the annual migration; and
3. Restore or enhance millions of acres of land for pollinators through combined public and private action.

The Strategy released today and its accompanying science-based Pollinator Research Action Planoutline needs and priority actions to better understand pollinator losses and improve pollinator health. These actions will be supported by coordination of existing Federal research efforts and accompanied by a request to Congress for additional resources to respond to the pollinator losses that are being experienced.

Increasing the quantity and quality of habitat for pollinators is a major part of this effort—with actions ranging from the construction of pollinator gardens at Federal buildings to the restoration of millions of acres of Federally managed lands and similar actions on private lands. To support these habitat-focused efforts, USDA and the Department of Interior are today issuing a set ofPollinator-Friendly Best Management Practices for Federal Lands, providing  practical guidance for planners and managers with land stewardship responsibilities. 

The President has emphasized the need for an “all hands on deck” approach to promoting pollinator health, including engagement of citizens and communities and the forging of public-private partnerships. To foster collaboration, the interagency Pollinator Health Task Force will work toward developing a Partnership Action Plan that guides coordination with the many state, local, industry, and citizen groups with interests in and capacities to help tackle the challenge facing pollinators.

Photo: Quang Ánh

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'Bees are good,' Obama says as children

It might have been the White House Easter Egg Roll, but it was bees — not bunnies — that stole the show on Monday.

As President Barack Obama started reading Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are” during the annual Easter Egg Roll event (as is tradition), kids began to make noise as bees buzzed nearby.

Story Continued Below

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This Is How The Obama Administration Plans To Save Bees And Butterflies

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new federal plan aims to reverse America's declining honeybee and monarch butterfly populations by making millions of acres of federal land more bee-friendly, spending millions of dollars more on research and considering the use of fewer pesticides.

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Vietnamese honey loved in foreign markets

(VEN) - According to the Vietnamese Beekeepers Association (VBA), Vietnamese businesses exported more than 27,000 tonnes of honey to 14 countries and territories in the first seven months of 2014, two countries more than 2013, including many hard-to-please markets like Australia and Mongolia.

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Honey: World Production, Top Exporters, Top Importers, and United States Imports by Country

This report covers specifically the product Honey, HS: 0409. We report production of honey by country with a bar chart. We rank the world’s top exporters and the world’s top importers. We conclude with United States imports of honey by foreign country.

Honey Production by Country

Honey, HS 0409, is a naturally produced sweet gathered and used by man for the last 8000 years. There are many different grades of honey available. Natural grade is different from industrial. Every batch of honey is special, even when from a similar region bees gather nectar from a wide variety of plants, producing distinct tastes. For the purpose of this report we lump all grades together under the HS code of 0409. Below is a bar graph of the world’s top honey producers by country and amount. The data is available athttp://faostat.fao.org/site/339/default.aspx. Countries vary by year available. Check website for more specifics.

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More than honey

Xem video More than honey của Markus Imhoof để khám phá giá trị đích thực của loài ong.

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Welcome to Phu Quoc Bee Farm

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