As you probably know the bee population has been on the decline for many years. Some of the causes for this include pesticide use, loss of forage lands and a virus carried by mites which infest colonies. It is estimated that 40% of beekeepers colonies in the US were decimated in one year. Paul Stamets, a mycologist, together with scientists at Washington State University performed a study where bees were fed sugar water with extracts of two mushrooms, reishi and amadou. This seemed to significantly strengthen the bee’s immune system and helped them to survive viruses. See the New York Times article about this here. Stamets hopes, along with other colleagues and a nonprofit organization, to make available a bee feeder and the mushroom extracts to put in our yards so that we can all do our part in saving the bees.
Click here to sign up to participate. We can’t really live without them.
