Beekeeping

Due to the abrupt shifts in temperatures, heavy rainfall had detrimental effects on the country's largest honey producers, resulting in a 50 percent decrease in honey yields this year compared to last, yet the honey has turned out to be of a much higher quality.

An oppressive heat beats down on the central Iraqi province of Babylon, where drought and rising temperatures are hitting bees and honey production hard.

Beekeeper Mohamed Aliawi knows it all too well as he checks on dozens of hive boxes placed at the feet of tall palm trees in the fields of Al-Reghila village.

The Berlin Museum of European Cultures has launched an exhibition called Buzzing Slovenia: Of Bees and People focused on Slovenian bee-keeping as a lifestyle and Slovenia's close relationship with nature.

Photographs, objects, beehive models, painted beehive panels and media stations represent Slovenia's apiculture.

A bee infestation in some parts of Istanbul has taken locals by surprise, as they fear bee stings and possible allergic reactions, but an expert has declared that there is no need to be alarmed.

The swarming period, which occurs every spring with honeybees reproducing, has caused some anxiety among locals in Istanbul.

Slobodan Davidović, a young Serbian researcher whose work focuses on wild bee colonies, has won the Golden Bee, Slovenia's prize for beekeeping achievements.

A man from the Black Sea province of Rize has developed a time-cycled mechanism that makes unpleasant sounds to scare away bears that haunt his beehives.

Muharrem Çelik, who is engaged in beekeeping in the Derecik village of Rize, took action against wild bears that woke up from hibernation, descended to the region and smashed their hives.

Despite a bloc-wide ban on toxic pesticides that wipe out pollinators, several European Union member-states, including Greece, continue to export more than 10,000 tons of "bee killer" a year, mainly to poorer countries, an investigation by Greenpeace and the Swiss NGO Public Eye has revealed.

The first Slovenian police bees flew out to gather nectar and pollen in the Maribor City Park after the rooftop of the city's police headquarters provided a new home to four bee colonies.

A small ceremony, featuring a police brass band, was held on 11 April to inaugurate the beehive on top of the police building adjacent to the City Park.

30% of beekeepers in Bulgaria are at a crossroads whether to stop working. The industry is collapsing, citing the unrealized output from last year as the main reason. Bulgarian producers have not been able to sell 50% of the produced honey, due to competing imports from Ukraine. Because of this, Bulgarian beekeepers have lost important markets abroad.

A bear conservation group has released camera footage showing an adult bear raiding a bee farm on Mount Paiko in northern Greece and is advising beekeepers to keep a radio playing near their hives.