The last time David Nicholson appeared in the Star Tribune, he didn't reveal his face or last name. Nicholson was trying to stay under the radar because he was engaged in an illegal activity: harboring honeybees. But now that Minneapolis has ended its decades-long bee ban, stealth beekeepers are emerging from the shadows to talk up their hobby.

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The beekeeping chain of the municipality of Arenápolis (258 km from Cuiabá) was favored by 15 cubic meters of wood seized by the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA). The action is carried out through an agreement between the Institute of Metrology and Quality of Mato Grosso (IMEQ) and the Special Secretary for Strategic Projects (SEPE) through the Regional Development Program - Regional MT. The wood was in the courtyard IMEQ, located in the Industrial District of Cuiabá.

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The Amherst Daily News story of June 12 (Bee minus) detailed the largely unexplained loss of bee colonies, the inability of hives to survive over winter, an increase in mite infestation, and the so-called colony collapse syndrome wherein the bees go off to the fields and forests and simply do not return to the hive. No one seems to understand why. Even seasoned beekeepers are baffled by the die-off, blaming everything from the weather to longer winters and the increasing devastation by mites. Yet, the answer is very simple: the bees and other nectar seeking flies and insects that are absolutely necessary for the pollination of flowering plants, including vegetables and fruit, are being poisoned, weakened to the point where they can no longer endure the trauma and stress of merely trying to stay alive. Why is it that everyone turns a blind eye to the great volumes of chemical sprays being administered to our food crops on a routine basis? Even though these complicated inorganic pesticides, herbicides and fungicides are all designed to kill, the chemical companies – willing to fight expensive court cases – insist that there is no evidence to prove that their products cause any harm.

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An attempt to resolve an increasingly bitter conflict over labelling and testing standards for manuka honey starts in Wellington on Tuesday. The ministers of agriculture and food safety will be among those attending a meeting to explore ways of ending the row over measuring the unique antibacterial properties of the honey.

 

A small but growing number of Tokyoites are taking up beekeeping as a hobby, setting up bee colonies on rooftops, verandas or in backyards. Interest appears to have been spurred by wide media coverage of beehives built atop buildings in prime locations in central Tokyo. Experts say honey bees do not attack people unless provoked, are capable of adapting to urban settings, and can even be kept as pets. As of January, 92 households were registered with the Tokyo metropolitan government; 105 with Chiba Prefecture; 169 with Kanagawa Prefecture; 146 with Saitama Prefecture; and 210 with Gunma Prefecture.

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"About five years ago, the United States started organizing to understand how climate change would affect ecological systems," said Jake Weltzin, the U.S. Geological Survey scientist now serving as the network's interim director. "It became clear that to really get a handle on what was going on across the entire continent, you'd need lots of observations." That is where volunteers come in, especially since many seasonal changes are easy to track. While the approach sounds simple, some older projects have yielded surprising -- and scientifically sound -- results. An analysis of 50 years of data on lilac blooms, for example, showed that earlier flowers signal warmer, drier years with above-average summer wildfire seasons.

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From August 10 to August 18, 2009 to attend the First Days Patagonian Institutionalization and Development of Apiculture in the City of Esquel. Out of the City of Bahia Blanca.

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A team of French researchers led by Jean-Christophe Sandoz thoroughly studied the nervous system of honey bees (Apis mellifera) and concluded that, in the brain of these insects, calcium acts as a switch and computer memory short-term memory to become long term. The more calcium there is in their brains, the more power your learning ability.

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It will run from 10 to 12 July 2009 in the "Water Square", Mar del Plata city, province of Buenos Aires.

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Paper prepared by A.P. Farnesi, R. Aquino-Ferreira, D. De Jong, J.K. Bastos and A.E.E. Soares.

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