• Bee deaths stir up renewed buzz

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News
    This past winter has been exceptionally rough for honeybees — and although it's too early to say exactly why, the usual suspects range from pesticides that appear to cause memory loss to pests that got an exceptionally early start last spring.

    Joe Raedle / Getty Images

    Steve Corniffe works on collecting honey produced by the bees at the J & P Apiary and Gentzel's Bees, Honey and Pollination Company on April 10, 2013 in Homestead, Fla.

    Friday marked the start of an annual survey that asks beekeepers to report how many bees they lost over the winter, conducted by the Bee Informed Partnership, the Apiary Inspectors of America and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The advance word is that the results will be brutal.  The New York Times, for example, quoted beekeepers as saying the losses reached levels of 40 to 50 percent — which would be double the average reported last year.

    Joe Raedle / Getty Images

    John Gentzel collects honey in Homestead, Fla. Honey bee owners along with scientists continue to try to figure out what is causing bees to succumb to the colony collapse disorder which has devastated apiaries around the country.

    One beekeeper in Montana was quoted as saying that his bees seemed healthy last spring, but in September, "they started to fall on their face, to die like crazy." Read full story.

    Joe Raedle / Getty Images

    Honey bees are seen at the J & P Apiary and Gentzel's Bees, Honey and Pollination Company in Homestead, Fla. Reports indicate that the disorder which kills off thousands of bees at a time has resulted in the loss of some 30 percent of honey bee populations among beekeepers since 2007.

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  • Oh honey, why so blue? French beehives take a mysterious colorful turn

    Vincent Kessler / Reuters

    A coloured honeycomb from a beehive is seen in Ribeauville near Colmar Eastern France, on Oct. 5. Bees at a cluster of bee hives in northeastern France have been producing honey in mysterious shades of blue and green, alarming their keepers who now believe residue from containers of M&M's candy processed at a nearby biogas plant is the cause. Since August, beekeepers around the town of Ribeauville in the region of Alsace have seen bees returning to their hives carrying unidentified colourful substances that have turned their honey unnatural shades.

    Vincent Kessler / Reuters

    French apiarist Andre Frieh holds a sample green colored honey at his home in Ribeauville near Colmar Eastern France, on Oct. 5.

    Reuters -- Bees at a cluster of apiaries in northeastern France have been producing honey in mysterious shades of blue and green, alarming their keepers who now believe residue from containers of M&M's candy processed at a nearby biogas plant is the cause.

    Since August, beekeepers around the town of Ribeauville in the region of Alsace have seen bees returning to their hives carrying unidentified colorful substances that have turned their honey unnatural shades.

    Mystified, the beekeepers embarked on an investigation and discovered that a biogas plant 4 km (2.5 miles) away has been processing waste from a Mars plant producing M&M's, bite-sized candies in bright red, blue, green, yellow and brown shells. Asked about the issue, Mars had no immediate comment.

    The unsellable honey is a new headache for around a dozen affected beekeepers already dealing with high bee mortality rates and dwindling honey supplies following a harsh winter, said Alain Frieh, president of the apiculturists' union.

    Agrivalor, the company operating the biogas plant, said it had tried to address the problem after being notified of it by the beekeepers.

    Read the full story.

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    Vincent Kessler / Reuters

    The village of Ribeauville is seen near Colmar Eastern France, on Oct. 5.

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    Beekeepers in France discovered their bees were visiting a nearby M & M candy bio-gas plant after their honey turned green and blue. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

     

  • 'Buzzing' over the newest residents atop NYC hotels

    Kathy Willens / AP

    Waldorf Astoria hotel culinary director David Garcelon uses a smoker to calm honey bees residing in hives on the hotel's 20th floor roof in New York, on June 5. The hotel, a favorite stopover for numerous presidents, plans to harvest its own honey and help pollinate plants in the skyscraper-heavy heart of the city, joining a mini beekeeping boom that has taken over hotel rooftops from Paris to Times Square.

    AP reports -- An iconic hotel in the heart of midtown Manhattan is buzzing with thousands of tiny new visitors. But watch out: They'll sting if you get too close.

    Honeybees have taken up residence at the Waldorf-Astoria New York, one of New York City's most famous institutions and a favorite stopover for many U.S. presidents. The hotel plans to harvest its own honey and help pollinate plants in the skyscraper-heavy heart of the city, joining a mini beekeeping boom that has taken over hotel rooftops from Paris to Times Square.

    Read the full story.

    Kathy Willens / AP

    Honey bees that reside in hives on the 20th floor roof of the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York swarm to consume their own honey as they are removed for a routine inspection, on June 5.

  • Berlin beekeeper boasts bountiful honey harvest

    Sean Gallup / Getty Images

    Urban beekeeper Erika Mayr checks on the health as well as the honey content of one of her honey bee colonies on the roof of a building in Kreuzberg district on May 22, in Berlin, Germany.

    Sean Gallup / Getty Images

    Mayr is among a growing number of city dwellers who are giving urban beekeeping a try.She sells the 100kg of honey she harvests annually at local markets.

    Sean Gallup / Getty Images

    Mayr maintains colonies that contain approximately 200,000 bees at two rooftop locations in Berlin

    Honeybees may be victims of widely used insecticides coated on a variety of crop seeds. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.

     

    Related story: Beekeepers ask EPA to ban pesticide toxic to bees

  • Swarms of bees surround keepers collecting honey in the Gaza Strip

    Ali Ali / EPA

    Palestinian bee keepers collect honey in Al-Ashqar apiary in Deir Al-Balah, the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. The Al-Ashqar farm has 35 hives, and produces around 350 kilograms of honey per season. Gazans reportedly also use honey for medicinal purposes. Reports state that the Gazan Ministry of Agriculture confirmed that although there is an annual demand for 400 tons of honey, only 200 tons are produced locally. The deficit has been attributed by local bee keepers to the ongoing Israeli blockade of Gaza and the resulting economic difficulties. The bee keepers also highlighted issues in accessing their farms which are located near the Israeli border, as well as a lack of necessary equipment for quality testing.

    Ali Ali / EPA

    Palestinian bee keepers collect honey in Al-Ashqar apiary in Deir Al-Balah.

    Ali Ali / EPA

    A Palestinian bee keeper collects honey in Al-Ashqar apiary.

    See more images of Gaza in PhotoBlog, and also more images of bees

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  • Beekeeper suits up in 73-pound coat of bees

    China Daily via Reuters

    An apprentice uses burning incense to drive bees away from She Ping's face during a world record attempt in Chongqing Municipality, China, on April 18, 2012.

    By David R Arnott, NBC News

    China Daily via Reuters

    A Chinese beekeeper covered his body with 73 pounds (33.1 kg) of bees — that's an estimated 331,000 of the creatures — during a world record attempt on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

    Local media reported that She Ping, 32, had broken the previous world record of 59 pounds (26.8 kg) of bees which had been set by another Chinese beekeeper, Ruan Liangming, in 2008.

    However, the Guinness World Records website does not mention either man, instead awarding its "Heaviest mantle of bees" honor to Vipin Seth, an Indian whose burden is said to have weighed 136 lb 4 oz (61.4 kg). Could She Ping's brave attempt have been in vain?

    China Daily via Reuters

    Local media reported that She had set a new world record.

    Slideshow: Guinness World Records 2012

    Navesh Chitrakar / Reuters

    Look through images of the biggest, fastest, longest, weirdest and wackiest record breakers from the 2012 edition of Guinness World Records.

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    How do you get rid of 25,000 bees that have decided to hang out on your car? A Tennessee man had to find out the hard way. WMC's Jerica Phillips reports.

  • Flowers bloom in an early sign of spring

    Matthias Hiekel / AFP - Getty Images

    Crocuses are covered with raindrops on Feb. 28 in Dresden, eastern Germany. First signs of spring come up across the country.

    Ali Jarekji / Reuters

    A bee collects pollen from an almond blossom in early spring at park in Amman, Jordan, on Feb. 28.

    By Natalia Jimenez, NBC News

    Just a few weeks ago Europe was going through a bitter winter, which seemed to have no end in sight. Now, the first signs of spring are popping up with blooming crocuses, and there are still three weeks left before the official start of spring.

    We have experienced a mild winter so far in the New York City area, and while the lack of snow is a little disappointing, it does not keep me from eagerly anticipating the warmer weather.

    Are you looking forward to the spring? Still want more winter? Take a look at some of the best winter images this season in our slideshow:

    Slideshow: Winter wildness

    Petr Josek / Reuters

    Winter has arrived with chilling force in many parts of North America, Europe and Asia.

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  • Gary Kazanjian / AP file; Pedro Pardo / AFP - Getty Images

    (Left image) In this Dec. 17 photo, honey maker and packer Matthew Cary shows his bees that are busy making honey in Lindsay, Calif. In an effort to certify the honey being sold, honey companies and importers are launching a program to stop illegally-sourced honey called the True Source Honey Initiative which will start in January. (Right image) A member of the state police (seen behind a windshield broken by gunshots) guards the crime scene after a clash between rival gangs, apparently of the drug-related organized crime, in the resort city of Acapulco, Guerrero state, Mexico on March 14. Latin America pays a strong tribute to its wars against drug trafficking.

    A honeycomb and a bullet-riddled windshield become comparable through composition

    By Carissa Ray

    By chance, these two file images moved to us with related stories today within a couple of minutes of one another. The abstract element that the two photographers achieved by getting so close to these two unrelated subjects (in one case a honeycomb, the other, an officer seen through a cracked windshield littered with bullet holes), made these compositions very comparable, and abstract.

  • Steve Newton of Wake County Emergency Management via News and Observer via AP

    Charles Weatherly, past president of the N.C. Beekeeper's Association collects bees while Wake County Deputy Brandon Jenkins sits inside the police cruiser in Wake County, N.C. Weatherly lives near where the incident happened on the Smithfield Road exit on U.S. 64.

    The incident

    I hope the deputy had brought his lunch with him. Might have been a long day.