this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2025
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[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 80 points 2 weeks ago

Well this story is the bee's needs!

[–] Jarix@lemmy.world 72 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Colonies fed with the enriched diet were more likely to continue rearing brood up to the end of the three-month period, whereas colonies on sterol-deficient diets ceased brood production after 90 days.

Uhh m not crazy right, that's the same thing?

[–] adj16@lemmy.world 71 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I’m with you, it’s confusing. But I think what it means is this:

The study ran for 90 days. Non-sterol bees had stopped doing bee sex by then. Sterol bees were doin it all the way up to the end of the 90 days - and then the study ended. We can therefore assume they wanted to continue having freaky beedsm sex for even longer.

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[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 18 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Some were observed brooding for up to 12 weeks!

[–] ArsonButCute@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 weeks ago

Amateurs, I've been brooding for years!

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[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 13 points 2 weeks ago

one group continued to the end of the study period, the other group had stopped by the same time

or, one group stopped doing a thing, and the other group didn't show signs of stopping

[–] AceBonobo@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Gotta be AI bullshit. But I'm reading it as, group A never stopped while group B stopped breeding at the end of the period.

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[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 58 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

TL;DR: They found six sterols found in pollen could be produced from engineered yeast and increased brood production dramatically. The article talks about them as essential nutrients but is it possible they are signaling molecules affecting bee behavior?

[–] Deebster@programming.dev 23 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Your second sentence is your own thoughts, not part of the tldr summary, right? I think you should make that separation clear (in Wikipedia terms, I'm flagging this as "original research").

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[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 49 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

In the new study, the research team succeeded in engineering the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica to produce a precise mixture of six key sterols that bees need. This was then incorporated into diets fed to bee colonies during three-month feeding trials. These took place in enclosed glasshouses to ensure the bees only fed on the treatment diets.

Key findings:

  • By the end of the study period, colonies fed with the sterol-enriched yeast had reared up to 15 times more larvae to the viable pupal stage, compared with colonies fed control diets.
  • Colonies fed with the enriched diet were more likely to continue rearing brood up to the end of the three-month period, whereas colonies on sterol-deficient diets ceased brood production after 90 days.
  • Notably, the sterol profile of larvae in colonies fed the engineered yeast matched that found in naturally foraged colonies, suggesting that bees selectively transfer only the most biologically important sterols to their young.
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[–] Godort@lemmy.ca 47 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

"Oh, so we can kill 15 times more before it becomes an issue" - Monsanto, probably

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 26 points 2 weeks ago

And then goes on to kill 30 times more.

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[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 44 points 2 weeks ago

Allow native wild flowers and plants to grow and get rid of the damn grass.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 44 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

For anyone wanting to save the bees, look into making bee hotels. If you have a power drill and a variety of small bits, easy money. Spend a half hour watching videos, not too much to learn. They're basically free to make if you can lay your hands on some wood or non pressure-treated lumber. Chunk the old one every year and roll an new one.

Damned cool when you see your first guests having waxed off the entrance hole!

[–] fluxion@lemmy.world 27 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Easy money? Do they pay rent?

[–] Hupf@feddit.org 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
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[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

If you can collect. All I get are pollinated plants. YMMV.

[–] threeduck@aussie.zone 18 points 2 weeks ago

I researched that, maybe it's just in Australia but apparently the bees here don't use those bee hotels? They apparently just get stacked with earwigs. I read the best thing you can do for bees here is plant native flowering plants like the Bottle Brush, and let leaves biodegrade naturally instead of hoovering em up.

[–] angrystego@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Also please check whether honey bees are native in your area. If they're not (or if there's too many of them) it leads to decline of other bee species and threatens other pollinators and rare plant species.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 23 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Not sure what that has to do with my comment? Bee hotels are for solitary bees, not honey bees. Exactly what we want!

[–] angrystego@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Yep, sorry. Still I kind of think it's worth repeating over and over, so treat it as not aimed at you :)

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

We need more food and less pesticides for our bees more than houses for bees in the US.

No really, it's really bad. Flowering seasons across much of the south and west have been reduced, farmland and pesticides everywhere, people don't grow gardens in suburbs and everything is suburbs.

In the early 2000's I could drive across country and have to stop at every gas station to clean my windshield. Now on the same exact route my windshield is almost spotless after 5 hours on the road. This is really, really bad. It's not just bees, it's everything.

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[–] sfjvvssss@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Also, stop using pesticides/ herbicides in you garden, plant native flowering plants, mow after they finished flowering, let grass grow a bit, maybe mow alternating areas.

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[–] RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 37 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

Um, isn't this like majorly good news? Like maybe among our most important discoveries?

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 29 points 2 weeks 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.world 15 points 2 weeks 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.

[–] KSPAtlas@sopuli.xyz 9 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

The whole "save the bees" thing is about wild bees, not domesticated ones I think

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[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 35 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

I am expecting the Trump Regime to take this miracle and use it to raise Murder Hornet colonies or something.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 19 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Genetically engineered to be attracted to minorities and immigrants

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 19 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (5 children)

Fun facts: "killer bees" are also known as "africanized bees". In the 1970s there was great alarm in the US about the spread of africanized bee strains because they're so much more aggressive than European bees. There was even a terrible horror movie about it, but this particular catastrophe never materialized. I had a friend in graduate school in the '90s who was part of a team of scientists investigating the problem. It turns out that if you raise an africanized queen in a temperate climate, the bees she produces are no more aggressive than European bees; likewise, a European queen raised in a hot, tropical climate produces bees just as hyper-aggressive as typical africanized bees. So the entire thing was just bee racism all along. Bracism?

Of course global heating is going to make this a bigger problem everywhere, but fortunately we'll be fucked a lot worse by all the other problems this is going to produce.

[–] wizzor@sopuli.xyz 7 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Really? This is super interesting. I have been stressing out about when the swarms of murder bees reach me here in the north still in 2020s and you are telling me this is one of the few things I didn't need to worry about...

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[–] random_character_a@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Oh, Trump will definitely cook up some "emergency" as an excuse to stay in power.

Stop giving him ideas.

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[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 27 points 2 weeks ago

It’s the bees needs.

[–] meliante@lemmy.pt 23 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] trailee@sh.itjust.works 22 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (7 children)

This is the most uplifting science article I’ve read in a while. The process they describe in the article sounds long and involved with many dependent steps. Great work!

[–] plyth@feddit.org 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Until you realize that wild bees and insects won't receive that food but the cause of their detriment won't be adjusted because we now have enough bees to pollinate the fruits on the farms.

[–] trailee@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I do love native plants and I will deeply mourn the mass extinction of the Anthropocene. You’re not wrong.

But I was choosing the bright side here. It’s a lovely contrast to the destruction of NASA, the NSF, and all the trickle down effects in the science world. This bee work is delightfully from the UK and will be harder to cancel. It will help agriculture keep up with exponential human growth amid climate change and water overuse for slightly longer than it would last otherwise. I’m deeply pessimistic, but the bee thing is a little hopeful, ok?

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[–] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I thought that honeybees were the last bees that we should be saving since they harm native bee populations, which are move vulnerable.

[–] Sludgehammer@lemmy.world 16 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

The European honeybee in the Americas is kinda a double edged sword. It's an invasive species, which both steals resources from and spreads diseases to native bees. However, for better or worse at this point a good portion of agriculture is dependent upon the European honey bee.

... And they produce honey, which I like.

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[–] oce@jlai.lu 12 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I thought the reason they die was pollution. I'm confused at why some new nutrient would save them.

[–] Sludgehammer@lemmy.world 20 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

There's a lot of problems bees (both honey bee and native bees) are facing. There's varroa mite, a virus spread by mites, pesticides, pollution, habitat loss, monoculture... a lot of stuff. However, healthy bees are more resilient, so healthy hive is much more likely to shrug off a event that could be "the straw that broke the camels back" for a weakened malnourished hive.

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[–] Deebster@programming.dev 12 points 2 weeks ago

They die for a variety of reasons, including disease, pollution, heat waves, etc. Not being half starved of essential nutrients means that they're more resilient.

From the article:

[Unaffiliated expert] said: "[...] bees face many stressors. Good nutrition is one way to improve their resilience to these threats, and in landscapes with dwindling natural forage for bees, a more complete diet supplement could be a game changer. This breakthrough discovery of key phytonutrients that, when included in feed supplements, allow sustained honey bee brood rearing has immense potential to improve outcomes for colony survival, and in turn the beekeeping businesses we rely on for our food production."

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[–] Bosht@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

Hope they can get it to mass production. I have some bees in the area and would love to help the little guys.

[–] apftwb@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

QUICK. What flowers produce pollen high in Sterol.

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