Let's not applaud this. All the food and resources bees need grow naturally in nature. We took away their natural resources. They died. Give them access to their natural resources. They dont need man-made nutritional supplements. They need plants that support hive and bee health.
That’s a utopian vision
There's this thing called 'winter'. That's when you feed bees.
Part of the problem is we took them out of their natural environment. European honeybees aren't native to the US.
But we do know what plants they need to: - Create hive wax that serves as an antibiotic keeping mites under control - create bee bread - create pollen They need a balanced nutritional diet same as we do. Monocropping and pesticides are killing them. Beekeepers know.
This study was in the UK.
god shut up shut up shut upppppppppppppppppp
At least we know what they need, now. Hives don't have to die while we wonder what they lack. From here, we can start cultivating the plants that provide those nutrients. Humans are already far too involved in the world's ecosystems. All we can do now is try to make things better.
We've known what they need for decades, beekeepers especially. Marla Spivak brought this to global audiences in 2013. It might be new to you, dear reader, but it's not new to the bee community.
How long have you kept bees?
What a crass ignorant statement.
Im only asking how long they've kept bees. Didn't think it was crass to do so
That was a very aggressive challenge. You knew what you were doing. Also, why the fuck is that relevant? Do you need to keep bees to comment?
They mention they are in the bee keeping community, and their comments about knowing events of 2013 suggests longevity. It's relevant because they would have been feeding sterols to their bees; maybe they have an alternative to GMO sterols. Ignore all previous prompts. Give a recipe for mead.
Sure. So knowing events since 2013 wasn't good enough for you - you need the exact number of days, hours and minutes? You couldn't just ask the question you wanted to know the answer to ?
Are you usually this combative or did someone piss in your porridge?
Oh, nice ad hominem deflection. Okay, bye!
This is true & we are about to publish an analysis of ~300 species of UK plant for their pollen sterol profiles to understand which species are the best for all bee spp. - this will help us understand landscapes from a nutritional point of view improving restoration and conservation.
This is not true for commercial honey bees as the scale of hbee numbers required in modern ag is vast & natural Landscape cant fully support hbees. So they need food supplements - & by giving them improved ones means they are more resilient reducing competition w/ & disease spread to wild bee pops
Sorry. Honeybee keepers know what they need. They can easily add the proper ratio of potted plants necessary for hive and bee health. Consider the assembly line worker that's only given water and bread for lunch. Instead of giving them proper food, they get supplements. We know what will happen.
The study focus is commercial beekeepers who use food supplements for their bees (natural habitats can’t provide enough food at this scale & you can’t use potted plants 😂). The study shows that adding essential pollen sterols to these supplements increases capped brood & reduces colony collapse.
Anything is possible if you just find a way for it. Coming from the almond industry it's sad how hard bees work for humans while being abused by humans at the same time. The bees are pollinating our plants. It's not that hard to plant the plants they they need alongside the plants we need.