Scientists have developed a breakthrough food supplement that could help save honeybees from devastating declines. By engineering yeast to produce six essential sterols found in pollen, researchers provided bees with a nutritionally complete diet that boosted reproduction up to 15-fold. Unlike commercial substitutes that lack key nutrients, this supplement mimics natural pollen’s sterol profile, giving bees the equivalent of a balanced diet.
    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      16·
      7 days ago

      Sorta. If you’re a beekeeper I can see this being a major deal. Not clear on how hard this yeast is to grow or how well the process scales.

      Bees got a threefold problem, and we need to get at the roots of the issue.

      • Pesticides and herbicides. Won’t happen, but governments need to ban these products for consumers, restrict them to professionals. Karen and Ken don’t need a perfect lawn sacrificing the bottom of the food chain.

      • We need to grow more, and more indigenous, plants of all kinds. Working on it in my yard, doing well so far. Last year the bumblebees were so loud I thought it was construction on the next block over. :)

      • Verona mites are a monster issue. They came to America in the 90s and are whipping our ass. Haven’t looked into beekeeping for awhile, not sure where we’re at with that.

    • Frozengyro@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      7 days ago

      Good for bee keepers, but most plants are pollinated by wild bees. So this could help, but doesn’t really change much in the grand scheme.