Scientists stung by theft of research bees

Scientists stung by theft of research bees

ca.news.yahoo.com

LONDON (Reuters) - Several thousand bees that were part a multi-million pound neuroscience research project have been stolen from a British university.

Police in the Scottish region of Tayside were appealing for information Tuesday after four bee hives containing several thousand British black bees were stolen from a medical school in the city of Dundee.

"This theft will undoubtedly hamper our research," said Dr Chris Connolly, the lead researcher on the Dundee project, who reported the bees missing Sunday.

In a statement he described the bees as "very unique" and said they should

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I just went to a DIY fair this past weekend and bought my first bee keeping book yesterday. I find the entire subject fascinating.... from Colony Collapse Disorder, to delicious honey, the effects of royal jelly, flowers, the list goes on and on. I wonder who would steal these bees and for what purpose. Watch the bees, they like nature's canary in the mine. Thoughts??? Advice???

ca.news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Interesting, as obviously this is not something vandals would steal, meaning this came from respectable individuals. Wonder what they want these "special bees" for. I'm just happy to hear bees are still alive.

Or they were stumbling down a path someone didn't want them to go down and took their research away from them. Neuroscience from bee's...

That's awful news.. the British Black (and European dark) bees are not susceptible to the nastiness that is ravaging the other species especially the hybrids..

and it seems a lot of scientists in the UK are putting their faith in the British Black providing a potential real solution to the problems of the honey bee die offs.. (Sussex University is another Uni working along similar lines)

Now who would want to cripple that type of research???

reply to post by thoughtsfull


Holy snikes man!!! I had just started reading that book yesterday and that was the 'suggested' type of bee because they have some built in defense againt those mites or whatever. . . which people use Roundup or some other Monsanto-derived crapola. What was strange was that after bees left the hive or died off...no bees returned. Like the hives were 'no man's land'. Good call!

reply to post by Bonified Ween


I thought i had read somewhere that DARPA was once, or still is, researching bees and how they use chemicals and pheromones to communicate with each other and whether there were any useful 'military applicability'. I'm a dual major, one of which is psych... Ill talk to my friend at the University of Chicago to see what she knows about neuroscience and bees.

Originally posted by crazyray
reply to post by thoughtsfull

 

Holy snikes man!!! I had just started reading that book yesterday and that was the 'suggested' type of bee because they have some built in defense againt those mites or whatever. . . which people use Roundup or some other Monsanto-derived crapola. What was strange was that after bees left the hive or died off...no bees returned. Like the hives were 'no man's land'. Good call!

I have a wild British black colony (small) in my garden.. wonderful bees and quite amazing.. Here's a linky that might give you a little more info British Black/European Dark Honey bees from the work by Sussex University

www.sussex.ac.uk...

Unlike Dundee Sussex is working along these lines

Main aims: To breed and test a stock of hygienic, native British black honey bees, Apis mellifera mellifera, and to make this available to beekeepers to use in queen rearing and in hives.

The Sussex plan runs over 5 years so I can only imagine the negative impact to the Dundee project that stealing their hives would cause.. I must say that it is really sad news.

reply to post by thoughtsfull


Thanks for the reference. I can't imagine that these bees are really that valuable on the black market, unless there is something special to these bees. The setback due to this theft has got to be huge. Hope they find the idiots that stole them, doubt it though.

Awesome on keeping your own little hive in your garden, i'm planning on doing 2 boxes with 8 slots per box.

reply to post by crazyray


Great find. I wish you luck with your bees.

The bee and bat die-off are a pet concern of mine.

S & F

It might have been PETA or another like-minded group who thought the bees were being abused in some way. "Free The Bees!" Too bad they didn't think things through - without that research, food production is at stake.

reply to post by crazyray


Maybe they are taking them to the Seed Vault?

I keep wondering about the bee aspect of the future of seeds.

Originally posted by crazyray
reply to post by thoughtsfull

 

Thanks for the reference. I can't imagine that these bees are really that valuable on the black market, unless there is something special to these bees. The setback due to this theft has got to be huge. Hope they find the idiots that stole them, doubt it though.

Awesome on keeping your own little hive in your garden, i'm planning on doing 2 boxes with 8 slots per box.

I believe pure British Black/European Darks are very rare.. and it seems that is the type the Universities are using.. so I'm guessing if this is something to do with a black market then it would be that rarity that might give them some value..

I don't know which would show humanity in a worse light.. stealing them for some black market or stealing them to disrupt the studies themselves..

It is worth noting that the Nazis actually had a policy to exterminate all European Dark Honey bees..

Anyway.. heres a picture of one on my garden wall from last year.. for size, the cement joint is about 1/2 inch.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/280e12c3cb60.jpg[/atsimg]

Good luck with setting up your own hives

reply to post by crimvelvet


I literally sit in my backyard and watch LITERALLY 20 bats fly around. Never a single bug, i love it. Good call. Will check out the bat thing

reply to post by burntheships


HA! I never though of how they'd pollinate post Apocalyse. lol. I figured just in a lab in the mountain ..but what then, right??? Seems like a gimmie. Should check and see if they planning on that.

reply to post by thoughtsfull


The Nazi's had a vendetta for honey bees?!?!? Jesus. It's all connected, lol

With everything we as a species are doing to negatively impact things... stealing for profit and screwing someone else over and then minorly contributing to killing planet as a result should give warning to aliens, our next lives, and the general universe to be nicer, LOL.

Nice pic. good ref