If you are a serious gardener, you should also consider having your own bee hives for pollination. Cathy Isom has some great information about how to raise your own queen bees. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours. It can be easy to purchase your queen bees online, or from local breeders, but there are also some valid reasons …
Growing Wildflowers Attracts Pollinators All Year
Do you want something to grow with little to no upkeep? Cathy Isom explores the reasons why you should grow wildflowers. That’s coming up on This Land of ours. Wildflowers come in many shapes and sizes and at different times of the year, blending a huge array of colors across the landscape. They do all of this without being planted, …
Agriculture Celebrating National Pollinator Week
Agriculture groups, including the National Corn Growers Association, are celebrating this week as National Pollinator Week. Twelve years ago, the U.S. Senate approved the designation of a week in June as National Pollinator Week. NCGA is working cooperatively with numerous groups like The Honey Bee Health Coalition, Farmers for Monarchs, and the Environmental Defense Fund to expand pollinator awareness through …
Bees Required to Create an Excellent Blueberry Crop
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA, (USDA/ARS)—Getting an excellent rabbiteye blueberry harvest requires helpful pollinators—particularly native southeastern blueberry bees—although growers can bring in managed honey bees to do the job, according to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists. This is especially true for commercial rabbiteye blueberry producers in Mississippi and Louisiana. With sufficient pollinators, they have been able to increase the percentage of flowers …
ARS Microscopy Research Helps Unravel the Workings of a Major Honey Bee Pest
Research by scientists at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the University of Maryland released today sheds new light — and reverses decades of scientific dogma — regarding a honey bee pest (Varroa destructor) that is considered the greatest single driver of the global honey bee colony losses. Managed honey bee colonies add at least $15 billion to the value of U.S. …
Genome Published of the Small Hive Beetle, a Major Honey Bee Parasite
Beekeepers and researchers will welcome the unveiling of the small hive beetle’s genome by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and their colleagues. The small hive beetle (SHB) is a major parasite problem of honey bees for which there are few effective treatments. The SHB (Aethina tumida Murray) genome—a genome is the sum total of all an organism’s DNA; a gene codes …
Agri View: Value of Bugs Pollinating Crops
Everett Griner talks about bugs of value to farmers for pollinating crops in today’s Agri View. Value of Bugs Pollinating Crops A lot has been said about the decline of the honeybee. We can be comforted in the fact that they are nowhere close to extension. They do need help pollinating plants of this world. I think I have already …
USDA: Honey Bee Colony Number Steady
Elevated winter colony losses have not resulted in enduring declines in colony numbers, according to new data released by the Department of Agriculture (USDA). Instead, the number of U.S. honey bee colonies is either stable or growing depending on the dataset being considered. USDA says at the state level, loss rates are uncorrelated with year-to-year changes in the number of …
New Bee Lab for UF/IFAS
Last month, the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) opened a brand new bee lab mini-campus at its Entomology and Nematology Department in Gainesville. Jack Payne, UF/IFAS senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources, is excited about this new edition. New Bee Lab for UF/IFAS Sponsored ContentCIR Agriculture Harvester ProductsNovember 1, 2024Nuseed Carinata Covers New GroundOctober …
USDA Reopens Application Period for Producers Recovering from Cattle Loss, Other Disasters
Signup Begins June 4 for Livestock Indemnity Program and Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees, and Farm-raised Fish The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will begin accepting disaster assistance program applications on June 4 from agricultural producers who suffered livestock, honeybees, farm-raised fish and other losses due to natural disasters. USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is reopening the application period for two …