Getting the buzz on the value of bees
Further reading
2 March 2011
Honey found to fight bacteria in wounds (By Lauren Day).
A short article that describes how University of Queensland researchers have discovered that honey produced from native Australian myrtle tree nectar may have the strongest antimicrobial qualities of all honeys that are currently on the market.
13 October 2010
Harsh conditions create sterile workers (By Carl Holm)
Summarises Australian research findings that suggests that some native bees have developed sterile castes as an ecological response to scare food supplies, and outlines how such bees could become an important tool in monitoring climate change.
27 October 2009
Bee gene research solves royal riddle (By Karl Kruszelnicki)
Outlines how Australian molecular biologist Professor Ryszard Maleszka’s research group has helped to found the discipline of Epigenetics through working with honeybees.
23 October 2008
The mite that could kill our bees (By Fran Molloy)
Describes the potential impact of the Varroa mite on Australia’s beekeeping and agricultural industries and what is being done to prevent and plan for such an incursion.
14 March 2008
Royal jelly triggers queen genes (By Anna Salleh)
Explains how diet can affect the activity of certain genes and how using the honeybee as a research model may lead to advances into human obesity, longevity, sterility and brain disorders.
Stowaway bees could spread deadly mite (By Anna Salleh)
Describes the potential impact of the Varroa destructor mite on Australian agriculture and beekeeping industries and some of the quarantine programs that are in place to defend against its arrival.
9 November 2006
Aussie bees abuzz (By Rachel Sullivan)
An easy to read overview about Australian native bees, including pictures and details of their behaviour and habitat.
Bee genome gets scientists buzzing (By Reuters)
Describes how unravelling the honey bee’s genetic code has given new insights into their origin and is thought to provide new clues in many diverse areas within biology, agriculture, neuroscience, biomedicine and behavioural science.
Honey bees recognise people (By Larry O'Hanlon)
Briefly describes research that shows that honeybees are capable of human face recognition, and explains how this may help in developing new artificial intelligence and security systems.
Stingless bee rescue (By Wendy Pyper)
Contains interesting facts and pictures about Australian native stingless bees and also provides details of a ‘bee rescue service’ that rehomes native bees displaced by land clearing.
Honey's healing secret
A short article describing some of the medicinal qualities of honey.
Bees give sight to flight (By Abbie Thomas)
Describes the implications of Australian research findings surrounding the dance of the honey bee, and how it is providing clues to help develop simple visual systems that might one day enable remote controlled airplanes and robots to 'see'.
About the House
September 2007
Billion dollar bees (By Georgie Oakeshott)
Considers the true value honeybees to Australian agriculture and looks at the future of beekeeping in Australia in light of numerous imminent threats.
Agriculture Today (Department of Primary Industries, New South Wales)
Surveillance at ports to keep bee pests out (September 2010)
Describes the use of sentinel hives in Australia as a first line of defence against the threat of the deadly bee pest the Varroa mite.
16 May 2012
Equip Robots with Bee Brains, Allow Them To Make Complex Decisions (By Nick Gilbert)
Describes how researchers from Australia and France are working together to develop robots that can solve complex problems on their own by ‘teaching’ them to think like a bee.
January-February 2011
Beetle Threatens Hives (By Stephen Luntz)
Discusses how the African small hive beetle is posing a major threat to both Australian honey production and the fertilisation of crops and native flora, and how the danger is being overshadowed by colony collapse disorder and the varroa mite.
Bee Biz
April 2002
The varroa mite: a cure in sight (By Rosalie Smith)
A article from New Zealand that explains the impact of the Varroa mite in New Zealand. It outlines the research of Australian scientist Dr Denis Anderson in identifying, classifying and developing genetic tools to use against this deadly bee mite which originated from the Asian honeybee. It also explores how Dr Anderson went on to discover nearly 20 different strains of mites from what was originally thought to only be a single strain.
30 March 2012
Common pesticides linked to bee decline (By
Ashley Wright)
Describes US research into the effects of insecticide seed coatings on honeybee populations.
4 March 2011
Asian bee will devastate Australia's honeybees (By Becky Crew)
Summaries the potential impact that Asian bees will have on the Australian beekeeping industry by drawing comparisons to an outbreak that has occurred in the Solomon Islands.
7 March 2007
Mystery of the dying bees (By Benjamin Lester)
Describes the devastating impact that colony collapse disorder and the loss of honeybees is having on US agriculture, and explores some of the reasons behind why the bees might be dying.
16 January 2007
Pleasure chemical controls bee dance (By Jacqui Hayes)
Outlines research findings that the brain chemical that controls the ‘waggle dance’ in bees is similar to the one controlling pleasure in humans, and describes how bees can therefore make good test subjects for studies on drugs with the potential for abuse.
February 2010
Artificial bee silk a big step closer to reality
Describes how Australian scientists are identifying and recreating bee silk in the laboratory in order to develop a range of new tough, strong and durable products that have medicinal and industrial applications. (Status update added April 2012)
February 2009
Pollinator decline not yet limiting yields (Farming ahead)
Australian research has found that whilst pollinators are declining in various parts of the world, global agricultural systems are becoming more dependent on pollinators which could create serious problems in the future.
January 2007
Exotic pests post pollination threat (By Louise Lawrence and Denis Anderson)
A detailed account of how the Australian beekeeping industry and feral honeybee pollination is under threat from several exotic bee and mite species that are already established in countries such as New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, and describes the impact that these threats pose to Australia’s agriculture sector.
28 May 2012
Combating bee pollinator decline (By Rachel Sullivan)
Looks at some of the challenges facing Australia's honeybee pollinators, such as colony collapse disorder, varroa mite and the introduction of asian honeybees, the rise of commerical pollination in Australia and the role of Australian native bees in pollinating domestic crops.
The April-June 2001 edition includes a number of useful articles about native and European honey bees.
Six-legged friends (By Wendy Pyper)
Reports on the stingless native bees of Australia, their honey production and their role in pollinating crops and bushland during their search for nectar and pollen.
Princes of bees (By Wendy Pyper)
Describes the work of 'The Bee Rescue Service' who relocate native bee hives from land destined for clearing.
The sting (By Wendy Pyper)
Outlines Australian research efforts to protect the European honeybee from the parasitic Varroa mite. It involves identifying a chemical signal released by the honeybee that stimulates mite reproduction. Isolation of this signal could lead to the development of bees resistant to the mite.
Food and Agribusiness Research and Advisory (Rabobank)
2011
The plight of the honeybee – Why the loss of honey bee colonies may sting global agriculture
(By Ruben Verwijs)
Describes how the worldwide demand for animal population crops is increasing relative to wind pollinated crops and how production is growing faster than the number of managed bee hives. It also stresses the role of managed bee hives in meeting these global food demands.
June - July 2011
To bee or not to bee (By Lish Fejer)
A short, easy to read outline about colony collapse disorder, the use of 'mail-order bees' for commercial pollination services and what we can all do to help Australian bees.
Quarantine and Biosecurity: An Entomologist’s Perspective (By Max Whitten)
An in depth discussion of the many biosecurity challenges faced by Australia. Written by the ex-chief of Entomology at CSIRO, the Commonwealth Visitor for the Weeds Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) and chairman of the Honeybee Research and Development Council.
Bee research with sweet outcome potential
Reports on research being conducted at Murdoch University in Western Australia that aims to breed honey bees with a natural resistance to the fungus Nosema apis which is found in bee hives around the world. This fungus limits lifespan and productivity.
Nature Australia
Spring 1996
Stingless Bees (By Tim Heard)
An old but detailed account of the biology and habitat of Australian native stingless bees and how they differ to European honey bees.
26 October 2006
From hive minds to humans (By Erika Check - requires a login or payment to access electronically)
Explores how sequencing the honeybee genome may help scientists to gain a better understanding of how genes influence behaviour and provide new insights into human health disorders such as obesity.
16 February 2009
Honeybees under attack on all fronts (By Debora MacKenzie)
Talks about how a combination of problems including infections, lack of food, pesticides and breeding may be responsible for causing the world's honeybees to die off in large numbers.
20 November 2007
Being Queen (By Peter Tyson)
Take an indepth look at the ups and downs of being a queen in a social insect world.
June 2007
What’s killing American honeybees? (By Benjamin Oldroyd)
An article that explores the possible causes of Colony Collapse Disorder including the practices of moving hives for monoculture pollination, inbreeding and hive incubation temperature.
14 May 2012
Bees may improve robot vision (By
RMIT University)
Outlines how Australian and French scientists are studying honeybee vision and cognition in order to develop robots that can solve complex visual problems on their own.
15 June 2011
Bees reveal flight secrets (By the Vision Centre)
Describes Australian research into how bees use their vision to sense their airspeed and the potential for this work to help in the design of better control systems for aircraft.
12 January 2012
Honeybee Deaths Linked to Seed Insecticide Exposure
Describes the accumulative effects that agricultural pesticides are thought to be having on honeybees in the US.
22 December 2010
Toxin-Laden Nectar Poses Problems for Honeybees
Explains that certain types of nectar may have a detrimental effect on honeybees, especially in cases where they have been brought in to pollinate large monocrops.
3 September 2010
Bees Reveal Nature-Nurture Secrets: Extensive Molecular Differences in Brains of Workers and Queen
Describes Australian research which has uncovered extensive molecular differences in the brains of worker bees and queen bees and describes how these differences have arisen due to different diets.
19 August 2010
Bees Warm Up With a Drink, Too!
Outlines research findings with Australian native stingless bees showing that they prefer a warm nectar drink on a cool day and a cool one in warmer weather, results which may have important implications for the distribution of flowers in a changing climatic environment.
19 March 2008
Royal Jelly Makes Bee Queens, Boosts Nurture Case
Explains how researchers from the Australian National University have discovered that royal jelly causes a genetic switch in young bees that causes them to develop into a queen.
10 October 2007
For Honey Bee Queens, Multiple Mating Makes Her Attractive To Workers
Describes research findings suggesting that the length of time a queen bee “reigns” in a hive is linked to the number of times she mates early in her life.
9 May 2007
Scientists Explore Queen Bee Longevity
Reports on molecular research that describes why queen bees are able to live ten times longer than worker bees.
26 October 2006
Pollinators Help One-Third Of The World's Food Crop Production
Describes a study that has found that pollinators such as bees, birds and bats affect 35 percent of the world's crop production and increase the output of 87 of the world's leading food crops.
8 March 2012
To Boldly Go Where No Bee Has Gone (By
Helen Fields)
Looks at research findings that describe how honeybee scouts - bees that venture out to find new food sources for the hive – have some of the same genes that are involved in novelty-seeking in humans.
A Queen is made not born: Epigenesis in honey bees.
Describes how understanding the role of royal jelly in honey bee gene expression might shed light on major problems in human society such as obesity.
You are what you eat: Royal jelly is yielding clues to human disorders.
Explains how the study of honey bees is helping to determine the role of environmental factors in the nature/nurture divide.
The March - April 2011 edition includes a special feature about honeybees and pollination.
The buzz on bees (By Sarah Kellett)
An easy to read article that describes honeybee society, the production of honey, how queen bees are made and how honeybees see.
Pollen under the microscope (By Kate Barnard)
Investigates the importance of pollen and pollen research and looks at pollen up close.
July 2011
Imidacloprid and Honeybees (By David Guez)
Provides a detailed summary of neonicotinoid pesticide research conducted in France that investigated their effects on honeybee behaviour. It also provides a good overview about how and why these pesticides are used in agriculture and how they work upon insects.
The Solomon Experience With Asian Honey Bees (By Nick Annand)
Describes an Australian research project carried out in the Solomon Islands during 2007-10 that aimed to develop new management strategies against the Varroa mite and the recently introduced Asian honeybee pest.
(For more details about the project objectives and reports please see the research project page at the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.)
23 June 2010
Varroa mite simulation exposes weakness
Describes the outcomes of a simulation conducted to assess how Australian honey bees would be impacted by an outbreak of the deadly Varroa mite and our ability to quickly respond and contain this introduced pest.
1 November 2009
Bee beetle battle (By Kim Chappell and Christopher Jay)
A brief article that reports on the impact of the introduced small hive beetle pest on beekeepers in Queensland and New South Wales.
20 December 2009
Bees Show off the Perfect Landing
Outlines research that closely examines just how bees are able to perform delicate and accurate landings
1 December 2010
Robots imitate honey bees for aircraft aerobatics
Describes how Australian scientists have developed a novel autopilot system that is based upon the vision system of a honeybee. It can safely guide aircraft through complex aerobatic manoeuvres by watching the horizon like a honeybee.
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Created July 2011, edited August 2012.