Shortcut to a sweet feed – who
knew bumblebees are thieves?
The buzzy insects have now
been found guilty of stealing
pollen and nectar from hives
in close vicinity to their own,
according to researchers at the
University of Sussex.
Tracking devices affixed to bees
at three different hive nests
revealed that around 14% of
tracked bees took a shortcut to
filling their pollen bags by stealing
as opposed to hunting for flowers
in the wild, researchers said in a
report in the British Telegraph.
The find has implications for the
location of beehives by apiarists
and raises a host of questions for
further research, the authors said.
PS: Hide your honey jars.
And while we’re on the subject,
there was a particularly sticky
situation in Turkey’s eastern
province of Mugla last weekend,
when a truck carrying several
dozen behives crashed and
overturned, according to the state
news agency Anadolu.
Eighteen people were stung and
two Finnish tourists were taken
to a nearby hospital with their
injuries, while emergency services
attended the scene and sprayed
suppression foam on the hives
and in the air to kill the insects.
the global obesity crisis has hit
Belgian law enforcement, with
officials in Brussels warning that
male police officers there are
getting too fat to do their jobs.
The average body mass index
of policemen in Belgium is 26.52,
above the healthy range of
18.5-25, and has been steadily
increasing each year, possibly due
to an excess of waffles, chocolate
and “frites,” the delicious local
version of hot chips.
Belgian policewomen were OK,
with an average BMI of 22.9.
