Here’s the story, straight from Dr. Sutherland:

The problem that we face in California and in the world really is that there are many plant pathogens infecting our crops and many times we apply chemical fungicides to combat that. In our lab we hope to teach honey bees to respond to plant pathogens in the field so that we may detect those plant pathogens and reduce the fungicide applications. Insects in general and honey bees included are excellent vapor sensors and have excellent chemo sensors on their antennas so they’re able to detect organic molecules in the air at the low parts per billion. Bees can be taught to associate an odor with a reward through classical conditioning. First, we restrain the honey bees after collection, we restrain the honey bees inside a harness of sorts such that their heads and antenna are protruding then we expose the bees to the smell of an infected grape leaf or grape berry and we feed the bees at the same. So, in time, the bees learn to associate this odor with the sugar reward. So, the next step is actual detection in the field and this is accomplished through some prototype equipment that’s been designed by my collaborators at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The bees that have been trained are placed inside and when they encounter the smell within the box, they respond and this information is relayed to a computer and we were able to see that indeed we have detected the pathogen in the field. The ultimate goal here is to be able to detect plant pathogens in the field earlier than you can do with your eye so that we have an early warning system and we can better plan fungicide applications to be more efficient in time and space.

See also:
Can bees be trained to prevent plant disease? (Smart
and
Bees can be trained to detect plant diseases by Jeannette E. Warnert at UCANR.org

Bees trained to give early warning of plant disease was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

Random Posts

• Upcoming Public Events for Central Beekeepers
• Beekeeping Field Day
• Update on Nosema in Maritime Canada

Time: 6:30 p.m.
Date: Saturday, 21 August 2010
Location: #769 Route 105, Maugerville, New Brunswick

In CBA business at that meeting, we’ll also be looking for any last-minute volunteers who would like to man the beekeepers’ booth at the Fredericton Exhibition coming up in the first week of September.

View Larger Map

Central Beekeepers Potluck Corn Boil 2010 – updated was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

New beekeepers and “interested others” are welcome to join us, to learn more about beekeeping, and maybe find out if keeping bees is right for you!

Central Beekeepers Meet 13 July 2010 was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

NBBA SUMMER SEMINAR AND TOUR

FRIDAY, JULY 23 AND SATURDAY, JULY 24TH
REGISTRATION DEADLINE JULY 2, 2010
PLACE: ST. THOMAS UNIVERSITY CONFERENCE CENTRE
368 FOREST HILL ROAD
FREDERICTON, NEW BRUNSWICK

Guest Speakers

• Jerry Hayes, Chief of the Apiary Section for the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Florida. He has compiled the “Classroom” in the American Bee Journal for the past 25 years.
• Dwayne Mitchell, Apiculture Specialist, Ministry of Agriculture, Canada, currently working in Fredericton, NB.

Accomodations & Reservations

St. Thomas University Conference Centre
368 Forest Hill Road
Fredericton New Brunswick
Free parking on site.

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Room rates: Single occupancy is $47.85 per night tax included.  Double occupancy is $62.86 tax included. Both include a continental breakfast.
Room reservations must be made by 22 June 2010 and can be made by calling 506-460-0328 or by email reservations@stu.ca.

Registration

Registration fee is $65 per person. Please make cheques payable to the New Brunswick Beekeepers’ Association. Deadline for registration is 2 July 2010.

Click here to download the registration form (Word doc).

Contact

For more information, contact Ann Vautourat 506-388-5127 or by email at evangelinemiel@hotmail.com.

Onsite co-ordinators are Central Beekeepers Alliance members Dan and Mae Richards. They can be reached by email at d39m@nbnet.nb.ca or by phone at 506-455-4922.

Bee Tour 2010 in New Brunswick was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

George and Ruth Wheatley of Country Fields Beekeeping Supplies, will be hosting a field day for new beekeepers on Saturday, 12 June 2010, at their site in Upper Coverdale, NB.

This event is put on by the Southeast New Brunswick Beekeepers’ Association and will be focussed on helping the beginning beekeepers, but all are welcome to attend.  For details, please contact Ann Vautour at evangelinemiel@hotmail.com.

Updated: 7 June 2010

If you wish to make purchases at the Country Fields Beekeeping Supply store on Saturday, please place your order with Ruth or George before Friday and you may pick up your items on Saturday after the beekeeping session ends, approximately at 3 p.m.

Beekeeping Field Day 12 June 2010 was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Central Beekeepers Alliance Spring Potluck Supper
Community Room, Sobey’s store,
375 Miramichi Road, Oromocto, New Brunswick
6:30 p.m.

As always, new beekeepers and interested others are welcome to attend.
Here’s a map to help you find us:

View Larger Map

Central Beekeepers Potluck Supper 8 June 2010 was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

Two full days of hands-on education in natural beekeeping methods with Ross Conrad, plus 6 meals of local, organic, seasonal food (Friday supper; Saturday breakfast, lunch and supper; and Sunday breakfast and lunch) are included in the workshop price: $235 plus tax.

Windhorse Farm is one of the sustainability “demonstration sites” for the climate change program of Windhorse Education Foundation, and should be an interesting location for the Natural Beekeeping workshop. If you would like to stay overnight at Windhorse Farm (not included) you can book accommodations with Jim Drescher (jim@windhorsefarm.org) or phone (902) 543-6955. For more information about the workshop itself, please contact Margaret Drescher at Windhorse Farm, 132 Sarty Road, New Germany, Nova Scotia, Canada B0R 1E0; email margaret@windhorsefarm.org; phone (902) 543-6955. You can also download a poster (PDF file format) at http://www.windhorsefarm.org/Uploads/Natural Beekeeping Poster June 2010.pdf.

Note: Central Beekeepers Alliance member Ellen Hawkins plans to attend the workshop, so have a word with her at the next CBA meeting if you’d like to arrange to share a ride.

Natural Beekeeping Workshop with Ross Conrad was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Central Beekeepers Alliance Meeting
Agricultural Research Centre, Fredericton, NB
7:30 p.m.

New beekeepers and “interested others” are welcome to join us, to learn more about beekeeping, and maybe find out if keeping bees is right for you!

Central Beekeepers Meet 11 May 2010 was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

Researchers at the University of Haifa-Oranim have learned that bees are attracted to nectar with microscopic amounts of caffeine or nicotine. Is this evolution’s way of getting bees addicted to certain plants that contain those substances?

Flowers produce nectar, a sweet substance composed of mostly sugars, as a way of attracting pollinators to the plant. But some species of plants produce nectar that contains very tiny amounts of substances known to be toxic. The garden perennial Nicotiana, also known as “flowering tobacco,” for example, has tiny amounts of nicotine in its nectar, and caffeine is present in small concentrations in the nectar of citrus flowers, especially grapefruit flowers.

The research team at the Department of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology and the Department of Science Education of the University of Haifa-Oranim, headed by Professor Ido Izhaki, have discovered that bees actively prefer the “addictive” nectar over “clean” nectar.

While it’s difficult to know for sure whether the addictive substances in nectar evolved as a way to make pollination more efficient, they say, the study does suggest that “the plants that survived natural selection are those that developed ‘correct’ levels of these addictive substances, enabling them to attract and not repel bees, thereby giving them a significant advantage over other plants.” Whether the bees actually become addicted to nicotine and caffeine, however, is still a matter for future study.

Are Honey Bees Hooked on Caffeine and Nicotine? was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

Random Posts

• International Symposium on Honey and Health
• NBBA Closes its Bee Store
• How Bee Researchers Are Tackling CCD

Now, bee researchers have learned special “heater bees” act like a “living radiator” to carefully control the brood temperatures to determine what role the mature bees will fill in the colony — and those empty cells aren’t a problem but a necessary part of how the heater bees function.

According to Dr Jurgen Tautz, head of the bee group at Würzburg University in Germany and author of The Buzz About Bees: Biology of a Superorganism, “By carefully regulating the temperature of each pupae, they change the way it develops and the likelihood of the role it will fulfil when it emerges as an adult.”

Developing bees that are kept at 34°C in their sealed cells will grow up to be housekeeping bees, the ones who clean the hive and feed the brood. Just one degree higher in temperature, and the bees will grow up to be foragers, going out into the fields to find nectar and pollen to bring back to the hive. And it is the “heater bees” who fine-tune the temperature for the developing brood, and effectively decide what roles will be filled by each, making sure that enough bees will be available to fill each important job in the colony.

“By creeping into empty cells, one heater bee can transmit heat to 70 pupae around them. It is a central heating system for the colony,” Dr Tautz told the UK Telegraph, in a recent article, Honey bees secret world of heat revealed. “Now we know that these empty cells are important, then bee keepers can try to avoid selecting for queens that don’t leave these cells empty. It can help to ensure that colonies can regulate their temperature properly and have the right mix of individuals.”

The Secret of Hive Temperature Control: Heater Bees was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

Random Posts

• Honey Recipes by Email
• Central Beekeepers Christmas Dinner 2008
• Canadian Beekeepers Dodge Colony Collapse Disorder

After checking my own hives in the last warm spell and talking to some of the larger beekeepers, it may be a good idea to make beekeepers aware of the possibility of their colonies running short of food supplies.

In this part of NB, in Westmorland County, the pollen in the colonies is almost non-existent, which is unusual before spring brood rearing (April). Syrup and honey supplies are not exhausted yet, however, the present supplies will be quickly used up during brood rearing.

Beekeepers should monitor their hives and feed if necessary.

Feeding with pollen substitute patties is necessary if beekeepers find their hives in the same conditions as I have been seeing them.

If they feed, syrup feeders are not the best to use in cooler temperatures. Frame feeders placed next to the cluster and / or pail feeders above the cluster are best for cool weather feeding. (Temperature less than 10 to 15 degrees Celsius.)

The weather this winter has been unusual in every regard which has caused this unusual condition of lack of pollen and little syrup and honey supplies in colonies at this time of year.

Fletcher 

Beekeeper ALERT: March 2010 was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

• Bee Tour 2010 in New Brunswick
• Beekeeping Field Day 12 June 2010
• 4th Annual Harvey Outdoor Adventure Show

If you are a member of the Central Beekeepers Alliance and you’d like to order any of these shirts, caps or badges, just speak to VP Christine Dembenski at the next CBA meeting.

Special Gear for Central Beekeepers was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

• Central Beekeepers Potluck Corn Boil 2010 – updated
• Central Beekeepers Meet 13 July 2010
• Central Beekeepers Potluck Supper 8 June 2010

A special variation of the CBA logo shown was created at the same time to mark the occasion of our association’s 50th Anniversary, which we’ll be celebrating in 2013.

You’ll also see a miniature version of the CBA’s new mascot bee logo decorating the top header of our website, and members of the group are able to purchase club clothing — caps and shirts — that sports our new logo. CBA members will be all dressed up to put on a fine show at this year’s Maritime Bee Tour!

New Logo Unveiled for Central Beekeepers was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

• Central Beekeepers Potluck Corn Boil 2010 – updated
• Central Beekeepers Meet 13 July 2010
• Central Beekeepers Potluck Supper 8 June 2010

However, as a cartoon introduction to a complex subject, designed for very young children (and a very short video — just over 1 minute long), it’s cute and engaging.

Animation like this could be a good way to answer some of the many questions that kids have for beekeepers, and create interest in beekeeping at an early age. I wonder if a beekeeping association could launch a project to create something similar … but a cartoon that more accurately represents the honeybees of the real world?

via YouTube.com.

What other honeybee-related educational materials for younger students have you come across on the Internet?

Animated Life of Bees was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

• What Would Your Garden Look Like Without Bees?
• How to Keep Bees Like a 5 Year Old Kid
• Starting a New Bee Hive

The event is geared towards outdoor enthusiasts and hobbyist alike. Booths offer items for purchase from farm equipment to archery and include a great variety of groups offering information about activities- (fishing & hunting), programs (Women in Wilderness), raffle tickets and door prizes.

Admission is $5 and a canteen is open all day, not to mention we’ll be selling honey and have live bees on display! It is a great community event full of warm smiles and friendly faces – hope to see you all there.

4th Annual Harvey Outdoor Adventure Show was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

Want to learn more about Beekeeping?

Visitors and new beekeepers are always welcome. Most meetings include an educational session, group discussion, or sometimes a hands-on demonstration for the benefit of beginning beekeepers in central New Brunswick. Oh, and there’s always a coffee break to give a chance to chat with other beekeepers!

Central Beekeepers Meet 13 April 2010 was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

Maritime Action Forum on Pollination Research

Friday, 19 March 2010
Delta Beausejour, 750 Main St.,
Moncton, NB
Registration and networking 7:30 a.m.
Opening remarks 8:30 a.m.

The day-long session will include presentations on bee health, bee diversity in agro-ecosystems, and plant pollination, delivered by experts in native bee taxonomy, pollination biology and plant genetics. As well as having an opportunity to hear from scientists in these areas, producers will take part in working groups to discuss these important issues with researchers.

For more information, see:

• NSERC-CANPOLIN:
  Maritime Action Forum on Pollination Research/Forum d’action des Maritimes sur la recherche sur la pollinisation (PDF)
• NB Environmental Network:
  The Importance of Bees in this Place: Pollination Issues in the Maritimes
• Draft Agenda (PDF)

Or telephone Bleuets NB Blueberries at 1-866-840-2583 or (506) 459-2583.

Maritime Action Forum on Pollination Research: 19 March 2010 was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

While researchers are looking for the causes, honey bee populations around the world continue to decline at alarming rates. Given that more than a third of our food supply is dependent on pollination by honey bees, it is not an exaggeration to say that we have the potential for a major agricultural disaster. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that there are many things that we as individuals can do to promote the health of the honey bee.

Bee the Solution:

• Grow bee-friendly plants
• Create a four-season sanctuary for pollinators
• Become a beekeeper
• Make a drinking fountain for bees
• Buy local, organic, unpasteurized honey
• Stop spraying
• Support bee research

Endorsed by Bee Culture Magazine and Brushy Mountain Bee Farm, A Bee Lover’s Garden has produced a fundraising calendar to support the Eastern Apicultural Society’s Foundation for Honey Bee Research. Kim Flottum, editor of Bee Culture Magazine, will chair a committee to review proposals and make the final recommendation.

What Would Your Garden Look Like Without Bees? was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

• Animated Life of Bees
• How to Keep Bees Like a 5 Year Old Kid
• Starting a New Bee Hive

Discover the essential role bees play in the pollination of many Canadian food crops such as blueberries and apples, as well as to the production of honey and many other by-products, while you explore the role and the tools of the beekeeper. Check out the Museum’s live hive arriving in May and try to find the queen among all the workers and drones.

Not travelling to Ottawa?

You can still enjoy Bees, a Honey of an Idea, a new interactive “virtual” exhibit about bees, pollination, and apiculture presented by the Virtual Museum of Canada (VMC) and the Canadian Agriculture Museum.

Don’t miss the Hive Inspection Video, yummy honey recipes, and some great activities for school teachers, parents, and students of all ages… and maybe the rest of us, too!

New Honey Bee Exhibits at Canada’s Virtual Museum & Agriculture Museum was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

• Maritime Action Forum on Pollination Research: 19 March 2010
• Suspect Named in Canadian Bee Losses
• “Chemical Warfare” Not Working for Many Canadian Beekeepers

Five-year-old Daniel helped his Uncle Don Miksha with the beekeeping chores at Summit Gardens Honey Farms near Calgary, Alberta in May 2008. We’re not sure who shot the video (Daniel’s father, maybe?), but it’s good fun to watch!

And if the family name sounds familiar to you… yes, this is the clan of Ron Miksha, author of the entertaining and educational Bad Beekeeping book, and his brother David Miksa, a Florida queen breeder — “one of about 50 specialists who are maintaining the endangered bee population by providing thoroughbred royalty to raise colonies,” according to the Chicago Tribune.

How to Keep Bees Like a 5 Year Old Kid was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

• Animated Life of Bees
• What Would Your Garden Look Like Without Bees?
• Starting a New Bee Hive

In this video, Colorado beekeeper Dan explains how he installs a 3-lb package of bees with queen into their new hive, showing the protective clothing, tools and equipment that he uses.

He places his hives on a hivestand (base) with a sloped landing deck on the front, set up on wooden pallets levelled into the ground to keep everything dry. His supers are 10-frame full-depth and the frames are filled with plastic foundation — more durable than wax, “and the bees don’t care,” he says. A thump of the package sends the bees to the bottom, then he sprinkles a little sugar water to distract them before dumping the bees into the new hive.

The process for installing the caged queen is demonstrated: removing the cork from the cage and replacing it with a piece of candy that the bees will eat away in a few days, releasing the queen.

An entrance reducer cuts down on the territory that this small new colony will need to protect. Sugar water (syrup) in a feeding jar with holes in the lid is provided for the bees to find and feed on, as it’s too early for forage plants to be much in bloom. Interestingly, he uses a field feeding system — the feeder is set out near the hive, rather than placed directly in or on top of the hive.

You’ll notice a two-wire electric fence set up around the hives. Dan explains that Colorado has quite a bear problem, and the 9000-volt fence gives enough of a jolt to the nose of any curious bears that they’ll keep away. It’s a “short pulse” current, however, so no real harm will be done to the bears or to any passing pets or children.

Later in the video, three days later, you’ll see that it seems like the queen didn’t make it out, so Dan comes to the rescue. He opens the cage, taking care that the queen won’t fly away, and shakes her gently into the hive between the frames.

If you have any comments or questions about this video, please contact Dan by email at mtnbee@msn.com.

Starting a New Bee Hive was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

• Animated Life of Bees
• What Would Your Garden Look Like Without Bees?
• How to Keep Bees Like a 5 Year Old Kid

Over the past few years, the media have frequently reported deaths of honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Most reports express opinions but little hard science.

A recent study of beekeeping history pointed out that extensive colony losses are have occurred at different points in time in many parts of the world. In other words, Colony Collapse Disorder is not the unique event that media attention would lead us to believe — and concern for honey bees has been “magnified by their vital role in agriculture” in the United States, where the $2-billion-per-year California almond industry depends on the pollination services of honey bees. Theories as to the cause of CCD have ranged from mobile phones and genetically modified crops (theories that were quickly dismissed by scientists) to more credible theories that have been the subject of more serious research: pests and diseases, environmental and economic factors, and pesticides.

Although full explanations for these losses are still debatable, the consensus seems to be that pests and pathogens are the single most important cause of colony losses.

There is also growing evidence that the ability of a particular pathogen to kill colonies may depend on other factors, such as the Varroa mire — but it’s not the mite itself that is killing bees, Ratnieks and Carreck point out, but the bee viruses that it carries and passes from one weakened, stressed honeybee to another.

Clarity on Honey Bee Collapse?
Francis L. W. Ratnieks and Norman L. Carreck
Science 8 January 2010: 152-153

Clarity on Honey Bee Collapse? was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

Random Posts

• Honey You Can Hold in Your Hand
• Don’t Try This At Home: Beard of Bees
• Hives and Equipment for Sale

“CCD is an arbitrary name,” Dr. Guzman told the Toronto Star, “designed by U.S. scientists to define a high mortality of colonies that have no explainable reason… Radio waves, even terrorist plots” are among some of the theories.

Certainly, what’s going on in Canada is not the same as what’s been happening in the United States — our bees are not actually disappearing. And that’s the main symptom of CCD cases, that beekeepers don’t find dead bees in the hive. “It’s like they have died in the field and they never came back,” Dr. Guzman says.

“We don’t see that in Canada, I believe, because in the winter they cannot fly out.”

Instead, Canadian beekeepers tend to find piles of dead bees in the bottom of hives when they open them up in the spring.

Heartbreaking for beekeepers, but those sad little corpses actually turn out to be a good thing for us, however — it means that Canadian bee researchers have something to study! And Guzman’s been doing just that. He followed 413 Ontario bee colonies for a year and took a close-up look at the 27 percent of those hives that didn’t make it through the winter.

In a forthcoming report in the journal Apidologie, Guzman blames the varroa mite — that tiny crab-like parasite that sucks the blood out of bees, hopelessly weakening them so even if they aren’t killed outright they become more susceptible to disease –in combination with poor bee populations and low food reserves going into the winter.

Suspect Named in Canadian Bee Losses was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

• Maritime Action Forum on Pollination Research: 19 March 2010
• New Honey Bee Exhibits at Canada’s Virtual Museum & Agriculture Museum
• “Chemical Warfare” Not Working for Many Canadian Beekeepers

“Automatic hive – no beekeeper needed!” That’s what the man says, and offers an online manual with “detailed instructions for constructing and operating fully automatic hives, for which no bee knowledge is required of any kind, since only open to harvest.”

I’m not sure if this method of beekeeping is (a) legal or (b) wise, in this part of the world — but the theory is certainly sure to get beekeepers thinking and talking!

The website that explains this system is Apicultura Extensiva Natural by Oscar Perone, a professional beekeeper since 2002 and teacher of beekeeping at a college in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The photographs and diagrams are interesting in themselves, and Google will give you an English translation to read to get the details.

Automatic Beekeeping? was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

• Animated Life of Bees
• What Would Your Garden Look Like Without Bees?
• How to Keep Bees Like a 5 Year Old Kid

Tuesday, 9 March 2010
Central Beekeepers Alliance Meeting
Agricultural Research Centre, Fredericton, NB
7:30 p.m.

Visitors and new beekeepers are welcome.

Central Beekeepers Meet 9 March 2010 was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

Bees can be trained to recognize human faces, so long as the insects are tricked into thinking that the faces are oddly shaped flowers, new research shows. The insects use the arrangement of facial features to recognize and distinguish one face from another.

Bees recognize human faces using feature configuration. ScienceDaily.

First, the researchers used an arrangement of dots and dashes to represent the eyes, nose and mouth of the human face, and demonstrated that bees could learn to tell the difference between a face-like arrangement and a non-face-like arrangement. The bees learned to recognize the arrangement of features that makes up a face, and to associate a visit to that arrangement with a sugar reward, while non-face arrangements gave no reward.

But how robust was the bees’ ability to process the ‘face’s’ visual information? How would the bees cope with more complex faces? This time the team embedded the stick and dot faces in face-shaped photographs. Would the bees be able to learn the arrangements of the features against the backgrounds yet recognise the same stick and dot face when the face photo was removed? Amazingly the insects did, and when the team tried scrambling real faces by moving the relative positions of the eyes, nose and mouth, the bees no longer recognised the images as faces and treated them like unknown patterns.

Bees Recognise Faces Using Feature Configuration by Kathryn Knight
Journal of Experimental Biology 213, i (2010)

Bees Can Learn to Recognize Faces was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

Random Posts

• 10 Ways to Help Save the Bees
• CBA Potluck Supper 12 June 2007
• Is There a New Nosema in Town?

The topics are similar to another documentary The Vanishing of the Bees.

It was released in the UK in October 2009 and is scheduled for US and international theatrical release in March, April and May. At this point the film is being screened at smaller venues in the states and the next showing is in New York in February. 

The trailer for the film is available on youtube and you can sign up for mailing list updates on their website and follow release dates near you.

New Honey Bee Documentaries was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

Random Posts

• Wanted: Beekeeping Start-Up Equipment
• Central Beekeepers Potluck Supper 9 June 2009
• Guelph Pollination Workshops

Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Central Beekeepers Alliance Meeting
Agricultural Research Centre, Fredericton, NB
7:30 p.m.

Visitors and new beekeepers are welcome.

Central Beekeepers Meet 9 February 2010 was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

Sobeys (Oromocto)
Atlantic Superstore (Oromocto)
Home Depot (Fredericton)
Giant Tiger (Smythe Street, Fredericton)
Burger King (Smythe Street, Fredericton)
Greco Pizza (Dundonald Street, Fredericton)
Hilltop Grill & Beverage (Prospect Street, Fredericton)
Shur-gain Feeds n Needs (Exhibition Grounds, Smythe Street, Fredericton)
A & W (Prospect Street, Fredericton)
Roblynn Home Hardware (Oromocto)
Jungle Jim’s (Smythe Street, Fredericton)
Subway (Oromocto)

Your support of Central New Brunswick beekeepers in the holiday season is greatly appreciated!

Christine Dembenski
Vice-President
Central Beekeepers Alliance

Thank You to Local Businesses was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

• Central Beekeepers Potluck Corn Boil 2010 – updated
• Central Beekeepers Meet 13 July 2010
• Central Beekeepers Potluck Supper 8 June 2010

Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Central Beekeepers Alliance Meeting
Agricultural Research Centre, Fredericton, NB
7:30 p.m.

Visitors and new beekeepers are welcome.

Central Beekeepers Meet 12 January 2010 was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.