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Read how can trees help bees. Life as a bee is becoming increasingly difficult. Since the initial detection of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in 2006, honey bee keepers have been losing roughly 30% of their hives annually.
Although CCD is not fully understood, it appears to have several contributing factors. These include but are not limited to pesticides, parasitic mites, and increased viral levels.
However, help is at hand how can trees help bees.
It turns out that certain fungus that grows on trees is abe to improve hive health. This Blog post will discuss some of the work of Paul Stamets. Paul is a fungi expert and who along with other scientists has developed solution to the problem of declining bee numbers.
Why should you care if bees are under threat?
If not for the the fact that bee decline is likely as a result of human activity, for more selfish reasons; 1 out of 3 bites of food you eat is thanks to pollination by honey bees. Pollination is not only important for human food but also for a large percentage of the food eaten by the other inhabitants of the world.
So where do the trees come into it?
Trees are the host to a certain type of fungi called Fomes fomentarius also known as the horse hoof fungi or tinder fungus. In 2015, experiments began where honey bees drank different mushroom extracts containing this fungus.
Research is indicating that these extracts provide essential nutrition that benefits bees’ immune systems. This nutritional support goes on to improve hive health.
Unfortunately, due to modern farming and forestry practices that reduce biodiversity bees have lost access to many sources of nutrition. Stamets and his colleagues believe that fungi extracts may prove to be a powerful support for bees as they endure more challenging conditions in our ecosystem.
Through his company, Fungi Perfecti, Stamets has donated large amounts of research time and money into developing practical methods to benefit bees (and the wider ecosystem) from the results of his work. Through this process they have created the BeeMushroomed Feeder™.
This device replicates what a fungus would have provided in the forest environment. It is a feeding station for bees that can be hung anywhere and will deliver the mushroom extracts that they need to be healthy.
More information about this topic can be found at the following link along with a video explain the BeeMushroomed Feeder.
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Rossy and the Team.
Rossy | 021 508 806 | treecareauckland.co.nz
