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Queen Bee Catherine delights in unusual getup

<p>Catherine, Princess of Wales, has gotten into the spirit of World Bee Day with a bee-autiful new look. </p> <p>In a picture shared to the prince and princess’s official Instagram account, taken the previous year by photographer Matt Porteous, Kate could be seen standing in front of a beehive in a full beige beekeeper suit - complete with a protective veiled hat and boots - and holding a rack covered in the pollinators.</p> <p>“We are buzzing about #WorldBeeDay,” came the honeyed words of the post’s caption. “Bees are a vital part of our ecosystem and today is a great opportunity to raise awareness of the essential role bees and other pollinators play in keeping people and the planet healthy.”</p> <p>While the image was taken at Kate’s country home in Norfolk, beekeeping is reportedly one of Kate’s long-treasured hobbies, and she even has bees at home at Anmer Hall. And in June 2021, she turned that beloved hob-bee into a sweet - albeit quite sticky - affair, taking a jar of her own honey to give to children at London’s Natural History Museum.</p> <p>The royal honey isn’t limited to just Kate’s hives, either, with both Buckingham Palace and Clarence House producing their own for their hardworking kitchens - enough that they could be considered self-sufficient.</p> <p>Despite their success on the honey front, however, all attention in 2023 was on Kate and her suit - though some made note of her previous gift-giving in their comments, among the loving buzz towards the princess. </p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CsdcUTmNhGk/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CsdcUTmNhGk/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by The Prince and Princess of Wales (@princeandprincessofwales)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>“Even in this outfit she looks stunning! Whatever she wears she always looks so classy and beautiful,” one fan wrote. </p> <p>“Oooh, I remember The Princess bringing honey from her bees to an engagement and let the children taste it,” another shared. “Lovely photo!”</p> <p>Meanwhile, another had to ask, “is there anything that this lady can’t do? I don’t think so.”</p> <p>“Awww, a ‘honey’ checking the Bees,” wrote one devoted pun-ster. </p> <p>Some - while pleased with this latest insight into royal life - were grateful to Kate for raising awareness over the important date, with one writing “thanks for shining a light on so many important matters.”</p> <p>“Such an informative update! i have no idea there's something called #WorldBeeDay haha,” one declared. </p> <p>“There is and you can have a small bee lover plant to benefit bees in your area,” came a well-intended suggestion in response, “they love lavender.” </p> <p>And as another put it, “wow she’s a beekeeper too, lucky bees”, before noting that she “will be the queen bee anyway”.</p> <p><em>Images: Instagram</em></p>

Family & Pets

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One, then some: How to count like a bee

<p>If you were a honeybee, how would you choose where to find flowers? Imagine your first flight out of the hive searching for food. What would you do if you saw flower patches with one flower, or three, or twelve, or twenty?</p> <p>Our new study, published in the <a href="https://jeb.biologists.org/content/223/9/jeb223610">Journal of Experimental Biology</a>, tested honeybees on exactly this question. We wanted to understand how honeybees choose where to forage in environments like greenhouses where our food is pollinated, in local parks, or in our own backyards.</p> <p>Specifically, our research looked at whether honeybees with no specific numerical training could choose a flower patch based on the quantity of flowers it had.</p> <p>We found the bees could tell the difference between groups of 1 vs 4 flowers – but not between, say, 4 vs 5. Basically, they couldn’t differentiate between groups of 2 or more flowers.</p> <p><strong>A mathematical matter of life and death</strong></p> <p>The ability to tell the difference between two quantities can mean life or death for an animal. “Quantity discrimination” can be vital for survival in tasks including:</p> <ul> <li>resource comparison: choosing a larger quantity of food</li> <li>aggressive interactions: choosing to avoid conflicts with larger groups of individuals, and</li> <li>avoiding predators: choosing to stay with a larger group of animals of the same species to reduce your chance of being eaten.</li> </ul> <p>We are gaining a better understanding of quantity discrimination across the animal kingdom. <a href="http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150826-the-animals-that-can-count">Primates and other mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds and fish</a> all display some form of quantity discrimination in day-to-day tasks. For example, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoaling_and_schooling#Predator_avoidance">fish</a> use quantity discrimination to stay in larger groups to reduce the chance of being eaten by a predator.</p> <p>However, little is known about spontaneous number choices by insects.</p> <p><strong>How do bees choose where to forage?</strong></p> <p>Honeybees assess the available flowers based on several factors, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/plants-use-advertising-like-strategies-to-attract-bees-with-colour-and-scent-92673">scent, colour</a>, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/cz/article/65/4/457/5244969">shape</a> and <a href="https://digital.library.txstate.edu/handle/10877/2557">size</a>.</p> <p>Honeybees typically visit around 150 individual flowers per flight from the hive to collect resources such as nectar or pollen. For a honeybee, a high quantity of flowers in a single area would mean less energy exertion than having to fly to many flower patches with less flowers.</p> <p>Using different numbers of artificial flowers, we wanted to test whether individual honeybees could discriminate between a range of quantities, and how they might determine the quality of a flower patch.</p> <p>Our honeybees were shown pairs of flower quantities ranging from easier number comparisons (such as 1 flower vs 12 flowers) to more challenging scenarios (such as 4 flowers vs 5 flowers).</p> <p>Interestingly, despite previous findings that trained honeybees can discriminate between <a href="https://theconversation.com/bees-can-learn-higher-numbers-than-we-thought-if-we-train-them-the-right-way-124887">challenging quantities</a> and can also learn to <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-bees-do-maths-yes-new-research-shows-they-can-add-and-subtract-108074">add and subtract</a>, the bees performed poorly in our spontaneous number task.</p> <p>We found they were only able to discriminate between 1 vs 3, 1 vs 4, and 1 vs 12 flowers – wherein they preferred the larger quantity. When 1 flower was an option they succeeded, but confused any comparisons between groups of 2 flowers or more.</p> <p>This result suggests flower patch choice based on numerical-type cues is difficult for honeybees. And this has implications for how flower displays are interpreted.</p> <p>With today being <a href="https://blog.publish.csiro.au/world-bee-day/">World Bee Day</a>, why not take the opportunity to discover what bees are doing in gardens near you. Chances are they’re going to any flower patch with more than one flower, rather than paying much attention to absolute numbers.</p> <p><em>Written by Scarlett Howard and Adrian Dyer. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-then-some-how-to-count-like-a-bee-138815">The Conversation.</a> </em></p>

Caring

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The bee necessities: why you should take up beekeeping and how

<p>Thanks to disease and mites, beehives are in decline around the world. With every third mouthful of food we eat directly linked to the work of bees, their shrinking numbers are somewhat alarming. Luckily, Australia’s isolated location has kept us insulated from a lot of the troubles plaguing the world’s bees.</p><p>So it’s heartening to note that backyard beekeeping is on the rise, bringing this age-old hobby to gardeners and amateurs alike. Bees are wonderful for your gardens as well as our food supply, so we thought we’d give you a quick run-down of some things you might want to know about how to set up your very own backyard bee hive.</p><p><strong>Basic tips</strong></p><ul><li>Keep your hive/s in a sunny location</li><li>Keep only docile strains of bees</li><li>Provide water for the bees</li><li>Speak with your neighbours about your intentions and listen to any concerns they might have</li><li>Hives should be kept in the back yard if you live in a suburban area</li><li>It’s a good idea to belong to a beekeeping association</li><li>To buy the essentials, you should be ready to part with around $600, at least. But you won’t need to fork out much after your hive is set up.</li></ul><p><em><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="/news/news/2015/02/flow-beekeeping-device/" target="_blank">Related link: The Australian father &amp; son revolutionising the beekeeping industustry around the world</a></span></strong></em></p><p><strong>Where to get your bees</strong></p><p>You can obtain a hive of bees by purchasing them from someone else, or by catching a swarm yourself. If you’re inexperienced, however, you’re best bet is to obtain your bees from a commercial breeder. Bees from a breeder are less likely to have any disease.</p><p><strong>Hive locations</strong></p><p>When setting up your hives, it’s important to choose a location you’re happy with. Moving bees a short distance (like form one side of a garden to another) can disorient the bees. Anything less than 2 metres should be fine, but more than that, and the bees will simply return to the old site. Thus, relocating your hives can be a hassle. It’s best to plan carefully first.</p><p>You’ll want to choose a space that gives you room to inspect the hive from beside it, while you keep any equipment behind it. You don’t want to stand in front of the hive, because this will interrupt the flight path of your bees.</p><p><strong>Time</strong></p><p>Unlike other “pets” you might have, your bees are relatively low maintenance. They will get themselves up and put themselves to bed, as well as find their own food. In spring, you’ll want to check on your bees once a week, but during the winter you can leave your bees alone for up to a month at a time.</p><p><em><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="/lifestyle/outdoors/2014/10/a-beginners-guide-to-herb-gardening/" target="_blank">Related link: This is our must-see beginner’s guide to herb gardening</a></span></strong></em></p><p><strong>Stings</strong></p><p>It’s a fact of life that if you’re going to keep bees, you’ll end up being stung at least occasionally. So it’s important to be aware if you have severe reactions to bee stings. Most beekeepers end up regarding being stung as a nothing more than a nuisance, but we recommend good protective clothing anyway.</p><p><strong>Honey</strong></p><p>Ah, the sweetest part of beekeeping: the honey. You may find that, in time, you have excess honey you want to get rid of. Occasionally, packers will be willing to buy surplus honey to process for sale in the export or local markets. Your other option is to sell directly to the public. Food regulation laws vary, but usually the honey extraction plant must approved.</p><p><strong>Want more details?</strong></p><p>We’ve barely scratched the surface here, on the world of beekeeping. If you’d like more information, here are many helpful books that are excellent for beginners. Check your local library or book store.</p><p><strong>Related links:</strong></p><p><em><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="/lifestyle/outdoors/2014/10/7-ways-to-make-sure-your-garden-is-eco-friendly/" target="_blank">Here are seven ways to make your garden more eco-friendly</a></span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="/lifestyle/outdoors/2015/01/how-to-grow-chillies/" target="_blank">Learn how to grow your very own chillies</a></span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="/lifestyle/outdoors/2015/01/companion-planting/" target="_blank">If you don’t know why you should be companion planting, we’ve got the answers</a></span></strong></em></p>

Home & Garden

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The Australian beekeeping invention that’s making millions

<p>Calling all beekeepers – an Australian father and son duo have set the beekeeping world on fire with their revolutionary invention that has been hailed as “the most significant innovation in beekeeping since 1852”, and has raised over $3.3 million in funding in just three days.</p><p>Their invention allows honey to be collected from beehives by simply turning a tap. No, really, that’s all you have to do. Cedar Anderson and his father Stuart have been working on “Flow” for ten years, finally unveiling it to the world earlier this week.</p><p>“Flow” is a system that fits into a standard bee box, but unlike traditional frames, contains partially formed honeycomb cells that slope downwards. The bees fill the cells with honey, sealing the top with wax. When the beekeeper turns the handle at the back of the box, the cells split open and honey flows down the hive and out through a pipe.</p><p>As if this easy honey collection wasn’t exciting enough as it is, the system means that honey doesn’t need to be processed, and can be harvested without disturbing the bees.</p><p>Cedar and Stuart launched a <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/flow-hive-honey-on-tap-directly-from-your-beehive" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo</strong></span></a> on February 22, with a goal of raising $90,000. Three days later, and with 40 days left of their campaign, “Flow” has been funded by close to 7,000 people already, reaching more than 3,000% of its goal.</p><p><em>Image credit: Facebook</em></p><p><strong>Related links:</strong></p><p><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="/news/news/2015/02/retro-kitchen-for-sale/" target="_blank">This retro kitchen hasn't been touched since 1956</a></strong></span></em></p><p><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="/news/news/2015/02/healthiest-diet-in-world/" target="_blank">Guess which country has the healthiest diet in the world</a></strong></span></em></p><p><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="/news/news/2015/02/australia-introducing-tactile-banknotes/" target="_blank">A 13-year-old boy has gotten tactile bank notes introduced in Australia</a></strong></span></em></p>

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