Thursday, December 1, 2011
Honey Bees
Honey bees are actually very important to human nutrition despite the fear for the stinging ways. Honey Bees are important pollinators of many of the crops humanity grows and therefore are quite important to us. However, it has been seen that their life spans are decreasing for a variety of reasons. One reason, is not enough protein. Dr. Heli Havukainen, researcher at Norwegian University of Life Sciences, says that more protein the bees get, the longer their life and the better health the bees have. The protein of interest here is vitellogenin. Vitellogenin not only helps the bees live longer, but assist in many important bodily functions. Increasing the production and longevity of the honey bees not only helps save the species, but helps agriculture around the world.
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It would be interesting to see if the protein that these bees so desperately rely on, has any direct effect to the quality of honey they produce or whether or not their ability to pollenate is effected (outside of the "not dying").
ReplyDeleteI've heard a lot about the honey bee's decline and although I do not particularly favor the insect, I do agree it is an important staple of the agricultural community.
ReplyDeleteThis is quite an interesting discovery. I would not have imagined that something like protein could be so valuable to a bee let alone prolong it's life cycle. My only question is how do the bees obtain their protein in the wild?
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