The Northern Great Plains region of the US annually hosts a large portion of commercially managed U.S. honey bee colonies each summer. Changing land use patterns over the last several decades have contributed to declines in the availability of bee forage across the region, and the future sustainability of the region to support honey bee colonies is unclear. We examined the influence of varying ...

The change of the location of the beehives on the diverse honeyfull pastures is the usual apiarists activity in the Republic of Croatia. The main reasons are the climatic and vegetation diversity, and richness of the floral composition, with numerous bee forage plants. Our study aimed to detect consequences of honeybee broods (Queen-bee of different lineage) moving, from one habitat to another ...

Beekeeping plays an important role in increasing and diversifying the incomes of many rural communities in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. However, despite the region’s relatively good rainfall, which result in better forage conditions, bees and beekeepers are greatly affected by seasonal shortages of bee forage. Because of these shortages, beekeepers must continually move their colonies in search of ...

Bumble-bee declines across Europe have been linked to loss of habitat and forage availability due to agricultural intensification. These declines may have severe ecological and commercial consequences since bumble-bees pollinate a range of wildflowers and crops. In England, attempts are being made to reintroduce forage resources through agri-environment schemes, yet there are few data on how th...

1. Foraging range is a key aspect of the ecology of 'central place foragers'. Estimating how far bees fly under different circumstances is essential for predicting colony success, and for estimating bee-mediated gene flow between plant populations. It is likely to be strongly influenced by forage distribution, something that is hard to quantify in all but the simplest landscapes; and theories o...

Habitat restoration to promote wild pollinator populations is becoming increasingly common in agricultural lands. Yet, little is known about how wild bees, globally the most important wild pollinators, use resources in restored habitats. We compared bee use of native and exotic plants in two types of restored native plant hedgerows: mature hedgerows (>10 years from establishment) designed for n...

Bees feed almost exclusively on nectar and pollen from flowers. However, little is known about how food availability limits bee populations, especially in high elevation areas. Foraging distances and relationships between forager densities and resource availability can provide insights into the potential for food limitation in mobile consumer populations. For example, if floral resources are li...

Bees are important pollinators of plants in both agricultural and non-agricultural landscapes. Recent losses of both managed and wild bee species have negative impacts on crop production and ecosystem diversity. Therefore, in order to mitigate bee losses, it is important to identify the factors most responsible. Multiple factors including pathogens, agrochemical exposure, lack of quality forage...

There are about 40 species of native bees in New Zealand, all belonging to the two most primitive bee families. Seven species have been introduced and established, five of which belong to the most advanced family of bees. All bees exploit similar resources such as nest sites, pollen, and nectar, so the question arises as to whether native and introduced bees are competing for these resources. S...

BACKGROUND Traditional apiculture has been practised in Ethiopia over a long historical period and still remains a benign means to extract direct benefits from natural ecosystems. While its contribution to economic development and watershed protection is increasingly recognized its cultural significance is however, seldom noticed. This study was conducted using an ethnobotanical study approach ...