Good sample logistics
INSIGNIA at the world beekeeping congress
Norman Carreck presented the INSIGNIA project in front of the world’s beekeepers and scientists at the Apimondia congress running in Montreal in September. The aim of Apimondia is to connect science and beekeepers all over the world. More than 5.000 participants took part in the 5 days congress. Several parallel sessions on exciting beekeeping issues are discussed. More than 500 posters were presented. A huge exhibition on beekeeping material attracted lot of beekeepers. And the beekeeping world award, showed how competitive beekeepers are to produce the very best products on honey, mead, wax, inventions, books etc. Technical tours and visits are taking place as well. This is the right place to disseminate the INSIGNIA project, discuss and getting response.
* Flemming Vejsnæs
INSIGNIA: Applied science with impact
The INSIGNIA study aims to be applied science with impact. The prerequisite of impact is sharing knowledge with stakeholders. The INSIGNIA stakeholders are on one hand the European beekeepers and on the other hand the beekeepers’ organizations and the lobby/pressure groups on bees-bees welfare-pesticide-environmental-interaction-pollination-conservation. The latter stakeholders are informed by regular notes about the achievements and progress we are making in the INSIGNIA pilot study. The beekeepers will be informed via the European beekeepers’ magazines.
Today the first note to the beekeepers’ organizations and lobby/pressure groups have been sent. The notes to the beekeepers magazines will follow soon.
Sjef van der Steen
How much pollen does a colony need?
In Flemming V’s blog of last week, 35 kg pollen was mentioned as the amount a colony collects. Is this realistic, too much or too few? Continue reading “How much pollen does a colony need?”
35 kg of pollen per year
Do bee colonies make pollen stores? Yes, they do!
One of our old very valued scientists in Denmark Orla Svendsen long time ago made the nice picture with a big pollen bag on the roof of a bee colony to illustrate the consumption/need of pollen as protein supply for a production honeybee colony. Literature claim different values, but he claimed a colony needs around 35 kg a year. Sjef van der Steen (personal comments) did some very nice calculations on this subject that does support this saying 30-35 kg. This is a lot. Continue reading “35 kg of pollen per year”
Introduction of the Insignia pilot study in the Netherlands
Sjef van der Steen
To inform the Dutch beekeepers about the Insignia pilot study, an introduction in the Insignia pilot study” was published in Bijenhouden, the monthly journal of the Dutch Beekeepers Organisation (NBV).
Counting bees…thanks to Beecounters!
written by Marco Pietropaoli, Giovanni Formato, INSIGNIA Consortium
For the INSIGNIA project (“Environmental monitoring of pesticide use through honey bees” PP-1-1-2018) (https://www.insignia-bee.eu) our laboratory in parallel with other project partners from Denmark (Danish Beekeepers Association), Netherlands (Stichting Wageningen Research) and Latvia (Latvian Beekeepers Association) is carrying out a small field trial to check the relation between colony size and forage activity in order to calculate the exposome.
How to count honey bees flying out of the hive? Thanks to Beecounters!
They are light plastic boxes with a micro-processor powered with a 12V current (Figure 1). Just put them at the hive entrance, power on and that’s it!
The colours of pollen
The colours of pollen do much the RAINBOW! Different plants, different pollen grains, different colour of pollen and aromas, this is the paradise of bees’ life! But it is not only the beauty in the colours of pollen as you see in this combination picture.
The more colourful your pollen is, the more nutritious it is! and this has been proven many years ago. Of cource there are exceptions and there are some plants that can be very very nutritious alone, as the Rubus sp. for example, but usually mixed pollen is better for the bees health as well as for humans. I suspect that you eat pollen, right? Think that 2 teaspoons of pollen and 1 teaspoon of honey every morning can give you the energy you need for the whole day!
Fani Hatjina
INSIGNIA Sample collection Greek tour No 2!!!
On our way to meet the Citizen Scientist we pass from Volos (see previous post), where we saw this beautiful ancinet ship ‘ARGO’. Maybe, the treasure for ancient Jason and his Argonauts was the Golden Fleece (kept in Colchis by the father of Medea) but for us it was the pollen and bee bread samples colelcted for 5 weeks by the Citizen Scientists. And for sure we did not travel to collect them by ‘ARGO’ as Jason did during the mythical times! Ouaou, isn’t the right moment to say that Science meets History?
Back to the laboratory though the next day, it took us several hours to separate and register the samples, as well as to prepare them to be sent to the analytical laboratory. Laborious task indeed but pleasant, as you can see 1, what samples the CS collected at every time point; 2, the way the samples were stored and prepared; and 3, how much effort is required to have these samples ready for analysis! Colours of pollen so different! We just hope the results will be great and informative!
Fani Hatjina
Sample checking and processing
All samples collected by our citizen scientists have to go through the hands of each country’s national coordinator prior to shipping them to the corresponding labs in Greece, Spain and Portugal. The national coordinator checks the information on the sample bags (sample ID, the sample date and the bee colony from which the sample stems from) and compares it to our backup system (LimeSurvey answers). Afterwards, the sample processing takes place as it was described in a previous post: https://www.insignia-bee.eu/samples-in-the-laboratory/#more-599
Kristina Gratzer