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Honeybees

All articles tagged with #honeybees

Queen Bees: A Colony-Crafted Path to Royalty
science3 days ago

Queen Bees: A Colony-Crafted Path to Royalty

New research shows honeybee queens are shaped by a colony’s engineering, not just royal jelly. Young worker bees build specialized, heat-retentive queen chambers from unique wax and, through a dedicated group called queen cell builders, actively nurture future queens. Even with the same diet, larvae raised in queen wax develop better than those in worker wax, underscoring that the environment and social structure are key to queen development and colony reproduction.

via SciTechDaily|
#bee-colony-engineering#honeybees#queen-cell-builders
Quorum Wisdom: How Scout Bees Steer a Swarm to the Best Nest
science24 days ago

Quorum Wisdom: How Scout Bees Steer a Swarm to the Best Nest

Bees decide where to relocate not by a vote but via a quorum-based process: scout bees explore multiple potential cavities, advertise promising sites with waggle dances that encode site quality, and once about 15 scouts cluster at a single site, the swarm mobilizes and leaves for the chosen nest—often the best option, though the process can take two to three days and costs energy for accuracy.

via Space Daily|
#collective-intelligence#honeybees#nest-selection
Invasive yellow-legged hornet spotted in Pacific Northwest
local-news1 month ago

Invasive yellow-legged hornet spotted in Pacific Northwest

A live yellow-legged hornet (Vespa velutina) was found April 30 aboard a ship at the Port of Vancouver on the Lower Columbia River and is being monitored after traps were set; experts warn this invasive, more mobile hornet—smaller than the notorious northern giant hornet—could threaten Northwest honeybees and agriculture and might spread coast-to-coast, though no further nests have been found yet.

via Rogue Valley Times|
#honeybees#invasive-species#local-news
Royal cradle: bespoke queen-cell wax shapes honeybee destiny
science1 month ago

Royal cradle: bespoke queen-cell wax shapes honeybee destiny

A Nature 2026 study shows queen cells are built from specially engineered wax that is chemically and physically distinct from worker wax: richer in unsaturated fatty acids, with lower density and strength but a higher melting temperature. A younger, dedicated crew of bees heats the wax to ~40°C to shape the royal nursery, altering its chemical signature. Grafting queen larvae into standard worker wax caused high mortality (62.5%), suggesting that wax properties, alongside royal jelly, influence queen development and that honeybees use a specialized queen-rearing process. Researchers say the findings may extend to other bee species as well.

via Chemical & Engineering News|
#bee-development#honeybees#queen-cells
Toddler’s question uncovers bees that heat queen cells, revealing a new worker role
science1 month ago

Toddler’s question uncovers bees that heat queen cells, revealing a new worker role

A study led by Kai Wang in Beijing, spurred by a toddler’s question, reveals a new worker-bee class—the 'royal engineers'—that heats its thorax to soften wax and sculpt queen cells. Queen-cell wax is structurally distinct (less dense, more pliable, higher melting point) and appears to create a microenvironment crucial for queen development, challenging the idea that royal jelly alone determines queen fate. Queen cells are thus engineered environments, not just passive containers, highlighting the bees’ sophisticated architectural behavior.

via BBC Wildlife Magazine|
#bee-wax#honeybees#queen-cells
Bees with tiny brains master human-face recognition
science1 month ago

Bees with tiny brains master human-face recognition

Researchers trained honeybees (~1 mm brains) to distinguish human faces using photographs and rewards; the bees achieved 80–90% accuracy and remembered the trained face for at least two days, even when faces appeared from different viewpoints. The bees relied on configural processing—the relationships between facial features—similar to humans, challenging the notion that such high-level recognition requires large brains or specialized neural regions. The findings suggest that small neural systems with general learning rules can solve complex visual tasks and may inform AI approaches to recognition with limited resources.

via Space Daily|
#cognition#configural-processing#face-recognition
Hybrid California Honeybees Show Natural Edge Against Varroa Mites
science1 month ago

Hybrid California Honeybees Show Natural Edge Against Varroa Mites

UC Riverside tracked 236 colonies from 2019–2022 and found locally adapted hybrid California honeybees maintain lower Varroa mite loads—about 68% fewer mites and five times less likelihood of needing chemical treatments—than commercial queens. Lab tests also showed Varroa mites are less attracted to larvae from hybrid bees, especially around seven days old, hinting at a genetic defense formed early in development. The bees aren’t fully resistant, and researchers aim to identify the traits for future breeding to reduce chemical reliance and bolster global pollinator health.

via SciTechDaily|
#bee-genetics#california-hybrids#honeybees
Californian Hybrid Bees Naturally Fight Varroa Mites, Study Finds
science3 months ago

Californian Hybrid Bees Naturally Fight Varroa Mites, Study Finds

Researchers from UC Riverside report that a locally adapted Southern California honeybee population, often feral, shows strong resistance to Varroa destructor mites, with colonies led by Californian hybrid queens exhibiting 68% fewer mites and five times less need for chemical treatments; larval studies indicate mites are less attracted to these bees, suggesting a genetic basis for resistance that could inform breeding programs to improve bee health and crop pollination.

via Good News Network|
#bee-resistance#breeding-programs#california
Superfood Boosts Honeybee Conservation and Global Health
science9 months ago

Superfood Boosts Honeybee Conservation and Global Health

A new study highlights the importance of specific sterols in honeybee diets, particularly 24-methylenecholesterol, which is crucial for brood development. Researchers used genetic engineering to produce these sterols in yeast, creating a potential supplement to support bee colonies during pollen shortages, thereby improving colony resilience and sustainability.

via Earth.com|
#beekeeping#biotechnology#honeybees