Thursday, July 23, 2009

Honeybees sterilise their hives

A friend sent me an article on how bees sterilise their hives.

"Honeybees sterilise their hives with antimicrobial resin, scientists have discovered.

In doing so, they give the whole colony a form of "social immunity", which lessens the need for each individual bee to have a strong immune system.

Although honeybee resin is known to kill a range of pathogens, this is the first time that bees themselves have been shown to utilise its properties."

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