Getting the buzz on the value of bees
Useful sites
Link to short informative clips and movies about honeybees
Australian Honey Bee Industry Council
Provides information about the Australian honeybee industry including how honey is made, quality control for honey production and Australia’s queen breeding programs.
The Asian honey bee - a guide to identification.
A very detailed pictorial brochure that carefully describes the anatomical differences between flies wasps and bees. It also explains the differences between a European and Asian honeybee, and describes how bee wing’s found in the pellets of the bee eater bird is being used as an Asian bee monitoring tool in Queensland.
The Australian Native Bee Research Centre
An extensive and easy to read site that provides lots of details and links to Australian native bee facts, research, surveys and pictures.
Beekeeping (By Subejo Paijo)
An American site dedicated to insects that contains a good historical perspective about beekeeping around the world, and how the different typs of hives are used. It also explains the parts of a traditional European honeybee hive, and how queens and workers are managed for domestic purposes.
Bees Wax: Uses and Trades (By Stefan Bogdanov)
Gives a detailed outline of the history, uses and trade of bees wax throughout the world.
Collaborative Initiative for Bee Research (CIBER)
The site of an interdisciplinary research group at the University of Western Australia that performs collaborative research on honeybees. Listed on their site are details of their individual research projects, as well as an overview of the agricultural worth of honeybees, why their worldwide decline is causing concern and why they are making good scientific models in many areas of science.
Control of Varroa – A guide for New Zealand beekeepers (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry)
A detailed and easy to read review that outlines the impact of the Varroa mite on honeybees and the various ways to reduce its impact in managed honeybee hives.
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
May 2011
A honey bee industry and pollination continuity strategy should Varroa become established in Australia
A detailed and lengthy report that outlines the Australian government’s plan of action should the Varroa mite enter and become established. Includes an outline of the predicted consequences of Varroa entering Australia, Australia’s biosecurity arrangements and potential methods for management and control.
EOL Species
Varroa destructor Anderson & Trueman, 2000 (By Leo Shapiro)
A scientific summary of the Varroa destructor mite as first published by Australian researchers Drs Anderson and Trueman. It also includes high resolution pictures of the mite, a description of its ecology, lifecycle, evolution and relevance to Australia, and provides links to several key Australian research papers.
Maleszka Lab - From molecules to behaviour
A link to Professor Ryszard Maleszka's research page that details his use of honey bees in research involving epigenetics, behaviour and memory.
NSW Department of Primary Industries
Asian Bees (By Doug Somerville)
A short factsheet about the history, biology and implications of Asian honeybees in Australia.
Honeybees
(Agricultural section)
A collection of resources and information about beekeeping associations in Australia, pests and diseases facing Australian honeybees and the importance of honeybees for the pollination of Australian agricultural crops.
Solomon’s Bee Biosecurity Experience (By Nick Annand)
Describes research conducted by Australian scientists in the Solomon Islands that assesses the impact of Asian bees on European honeybee hives, and may assist Australia to control and eradicate Asian honeybees.
Overview of Feral and Managed Honeybees in Australia
Discusses the distribution, abundance and impacts of feral and managed honeybees in Australia.
Project COLOSS (Prevention of colony losses).
A website for the internationally collaborative honeybee research project entitled the “Prevention of colony losses”. It includes information about colony collapse disorder and other issues affecting honeybees, as well as links to similar projects, popular science articles and short, informative movies.
Tales from the hive
A series of informative and interactive web pages and short online videos. Also includes links to pages that contains lots of scientific facts about bees, how they dance to communicate a food source to other worker bees and the anatomy of a hive.
Queensland Department of Primary Industries
Asian honeybee
A very good summary about what an Asian honeybee looks like, why it is of concern to Australia and what control and eradication measures are being taken to control its spread.
Queen bees – Department of Primary Industries
A site designed primarily for beekeepers that contains lots of information about the lifecycle of queen bees.
Rural Industries Research and Development Organisation
12 April 2011
On the front line of protecting our bees
Outlines how Melbourne’s urban beekeepers are helping to keep Australia free of the Varroa mite and other invaders through the ‘Bee Force project’.
10 March 2011
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Summaries a UNEP report entitled ‘Global Bee Colony Disorders and other Threats to Insect Pollinators’ that investigates the reasons behind the emerging decline of bee colonies across many parts of the globe.
10 August 2010
Pollination Aware – The real value of pollination in Australia
A government report on the value of honeybee pollination to Australian industry at state and national levels. It also includes detailed information about the need and impact of honeybees on 35 individual crops that are grown in Australia.
August 2010
Pollination Aware Case studies
A series of 35 brochures produced as part of the Pollination Aware - The Real Value of Pollination in Australia research project that provide case studies for a range of Australian grown crops. Each one includes details about crop production levels in Australian, areas of production and the level of each crop’s dependence on insect pollinators including honeybees.
Victorian Department of Primary Industries
July 2010
Small Hive Beetle - A beekeeping Pest
Describes the lifecycle, spread and damage of this honeybee pest, including pictures of the larvae and the adult beetle.
April 2010
Living in Harmony - Pesticides and Bees
A short article aimed primarily at farmers that outlines the importance of honeybees as crop pollinators and how their exposure to pesticides can be reduced.
October 2009
Nosema Disease
Outlines the cause, lifecycle, incidence, spread and control of this small, unicellular parasite that effects adult worker and queen bees.
April 2009
A Guide to the Field Diagnosis of Honey Bee Brood Diseases
A field guide produced for apiarists to help them identify the four main brood diseases found in Australia: American foulbrood, European foulbrood, chalkbrood and sacbrood. Includes a detailed description of each and photographs of hive damage.
A very comprehensive site from The University of Waikato in New Zealand that outlines the antimicrobial effects of honey. It also provides numerous links to many useful publications.
The Wheen Foundation Australia
The website of a not for profit organisation that aims to further scientific knowledge and research into Australian bees. The site contains numerous links about the role, the importance and biology of native bees and honeybees in Australia.
Short movie clips and films about honeybees
Landline
Tale with a sting (Broadcast 10 April 2011)
A video link and transcript of a story that examines the Asian bee eradication program from both the government and beekeepers perspective. (Runs for 3:05 minutes)
Screen Australia / SBS
Honeybee blues (2009)
A fantastic Australian made documentary that tells the story of the world’s vanishing honeybees and the efforts of Australian scientist Dr Denis Anderson to save them from the destructive Varroa mite. It also features work by University of Queenlsand researchers that using honeybees as a model to better understand insect navigation. Winner of the Director's Choice Award, 2010 Scinema Festival of Science Film Competition. (Runs for 52 minutes.)
A three minute trailer is also available at: http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/showcases/honeybeeblues/
Catalyst
Dr Lynne Milne - all about pollen (Broadcast 24 May 2012)
A video and transcript about the pollen research of Dr Lynne Milne from Curtin University. Dr Milne describes how pollen can be used as a forensic tool for solving crimes, as an archaeological indicator of what ancient people ate and for determining the age of rocks for the petroleum, mining and water exploration industries.
Honey bee aerobatics (Broadcast 15 September 2011)
Features the work of Australian scientists from the Queensland Brain Institute who have developed a new autopilot system that sees the world through the eyes of a bee.
Srini's bees (Broadcast 15 February 2007)
Transcript of a video about Professor Srinivasan's research with robots and honeybees - and how delving into the vision of honeybees has helped his team to develop self-flying helicopters.
Sixty minutes
Bee Afraid (11 May 2008)
A television documentary that examines the role of honeybees in agriculture, the diseases and pests they face worldwide and the use of Australian honeybees in the multimillion dollar Californian almond industry. It also highlights the work of Australian scientist Dr Denis Anderson in the fight against the deadly Varroa mite. Also includes the full transcript. (Runs for 14 minutes)
Silence of the Bees - Inside the Hive (23 October 2007)
A short YouTube video that showcases life inside a honeybee hive and the ‘waggle dance’.
CSIRO
Raising the alarm on bee biosecurity (2006)
An excellent short film that outlines Australia’s dependence on domestic and feral honeybees for pollination, the likely impact of the Asian Honeybee on Australia’s feral honeybee pollination and the work of award winning CSIRO researchers against the Varroa mite (Runs for just over 2 minutes).
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Created July 2011, edited August 2012.