Adventure Ausrama Blog

   It seems that the better, magical, curative bees' buzz comes from Oz. | ▶ | articles stories news taking appliances ear furnishings tackle fashion trappings sets articles up stories on news furniture shebang accompaniments accessories and contraptions articles at stories it news gadgets rig facilities attachment article contrivances utensils articles as stories in news kaboodle array outfit things paragraph provisions setup words articles an stories go news belongings listen appurtenances equipage vestiges fixtures devices habiliments tools provisioning gadget stock writing traps machinery apparatus display impediments kit material baggage fittings read pad collections teams ornaments Attachments | aussie in maluka of honey an best | Many myths are trending in social media. Put something radical on Twitter and people want to follow the latest falsity. There are raves about the properties or Manuka honey from New Zealand, and it must be from kiwiland. Many believe this...

   Apis fall made be corrected by a species in Australia.| bees paragraph kaboodle utensils equipage australia read fixtures machinery bees devices australia in apparatus writing array display vestiges trappings habiliments australia save in bees contraptions provisioning teams article setup sets contrivances australia it save on bees tackle tools material impediments listen traps fittings Attachments australia at save off show funny furnishings fashion furniture appurtenances gadgets on save up bees accessories outfit ornaments stock shebang belongings things save in facilities provisions gadget words attachment accompaniments kit rig stuff and appliances baggage collections ear save adventure | australian affairs current Honey bees are disappearing all over the world.  The loss is increasing: 15 percent 10 years ago reaching as high as 40 per cent today.  Oddly, production has not fallen  mainly because more bee breeding is being done to counter losses. ...

The worldwide threat to the survival of honey bees is still here, but work on improving honey production continues. Selection of the best queen bees ironically has not been done in the past. If breeding queens only of the highest yielding hives is done, output per hive could increase by a kilogram a year. Genetic improvement in cattle has not been a one-off. The gain is cumulative each year. For this gain to be achieved small producers will have to come on board so old poor stock will not be "kept alive". Tests show that the queen bee is the main depository of better genes. Input from males is relatively stable with little change. External factors such as hive location and length of season do affect the quantity of honey, but gene selection would raise output overall. The Genetic Evaluation of Australian Honeybee report recommends the method of data collection and evaluation. Breeders must get into the habit of keeping data. The industry needs to be reformed away fr...

Bees calculate how much energy they need to get pollen. To survive, bees must run on a "profit" basis. They must not use more energy in obtaining nectar than energy the nectar provides. Bees were given the choice of travelling along two pathways to get nectar. One pathway was 10 meters long, the other 20 meters. However, the "scenery" of the 10 meter pathway was designed to trick the bees into perceiving that it was the furthest distance away. When the bees returned to their fellows in the nest they told them with a waggle dance which pathway to use to get more pollen. Despite the 10 meter pathway appearing to the bees to be further away they told other bees to go to the feeder in the 10 meter pathway. Somehow, they had worked out that it used up less energy to go to this feeder than the one on the other pathway. It is believed that bees have "calorimeters" built into their brains. They do not judge energy expenditure solely based on distance travelled...

It was thought that bees were like robots who went about their work on instinct alone, but some bees have "curious" genes. The scouts who find sources of food are actually mischievous seekers. Their genes give them a brain structure similar to humans. Scout bees are independent creatures who don't go along with the mob. They find new food sources by intuition and pure skill. Being female, they go back to the hive do a wiggle dance to pass on directions, then go out again to find a new source. Tests were done on a hive of bees. The hive was put into an enclosure and food was put out in different colored jars. Bees that located the jars were collected and marked with a dot of paint. Later the brains of these scout bees were removed and compared with the brains of normal hive bees. Brain activity in the genes of the two types of bees differed by 16 per cent. The brains of scouts could change the levels of neurotransmitters dopamine and glutamate. Another test w...