Bee beauty contest from the land of milk and honey

There are cat shows and dog shows, even ferret shows. And during county fair season, there are plenty of chances to pick the best pig, cow or rabbit. But a beauty pageant for bees?

From The Times' blog on events in the Middle East, Babylon & Beyond, comes a report about such a competition held at a boutique honey farm in Israel. The blog notes that honey gift baskets are a common holiday present among Israelis, who consume 3,600 tons of honey a year. Indeed, when Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, arrives this month, many Israelis will observe the holiday tradition of eating apples with honey -- the symbolic promise of a sweet year.

Along with details about the bee beauty pageant, held at the Dvorat Ha'Tavor farm, Babylon & Beyond shares this tidbit about the challenges of raising bees in Israel:

And there's also the name thing. Israeli apiarists appealed to the Hebrew Language Academy several years ago, asking to find a new word for the profession since the existing word, kavran, (from kaveret, hive), sounds like the Hebrew word for undertaker. They finally gave up and issued a unilateral declaration changing it to dvorai (from dvora, bee) instead.

Pictured here is one of this year's pageant contestants.

-- Steve Padilla

Photo credit: Dvorat Ha'Tavor

Bee swarm attacks hikers, kills dog in Chatsworth

A swarm of bees stung a group of teenage boys hiking in a San Fernando Valley park Tuesday, sending one of them to the hospital and killing a dog that disturbed the beehive, according to the Associated Press.

The five boys and the dog, a boxer named Rocky, were hiking in Stoney Point Park in Chatsworth when the attack occurred, said Jane Kolb, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks.

The bees stung Rocky and the boys numerous times, Kolb said.

One of the boys, who tried to pick up the dog and carry it to safety, was stung "as many as 200 times," Chris Jones, the father of one of the teenagers and the owner of Rocky, told KCAL-TV.

"He carried the dog as far as he could and then collapsed," Jones said.

The injured teenager, Brian Magbitang, was taken to a hospital for treatment. He was given pain medication and released.

Magbitang told KCAL that he saw blood dripping from Rocky's mouth when he grabbed the dog. He said Rocky collapsed in his arms, and he later dropped the dog when "the bees were way too much. They were in my mouth and I tried to wave them off."

The bees continued to swarm near Rocky, prompting authorities to close access to the trail so they could retrieve the downed animal.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Robert Durell /Los Angeles Times

Queen bees could be the key to reviving decimated honeybees

Queen bees are central to efforts across the country to fight the sudden and poorly understood disappearance of honeybees that has been termed Colony Collapse Disorder,  McClatchy Newspapers reports.

So as scientists struggle to understand the bees' sudden  decline, beekeepers are working to produce more queen bees in hopes that they will revive the population. Bees are vital to agriculture worldwide for their ability to pollinate crops and add billions of dollars in value by making the plants more bountiful.

Clint Walker, a third-generation Texas beekeeper told McClatchy that after his hives were hit by colony collapse disorder in 2006, he switched his focus to breeding queens.

"I can't raise enough queens; I turn down orders every day," he said.

"The California almond crop alone requires 1.3 million colonies of bees, roughly half of all honeybees in the U.S. By 2010, the almond crop is projected to need 1.5 million colonies," McClatchy reports.

For more information on why the loss of honeybees is such a crisis, check out the Q&A and action plan maintained by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

-- Tony Barboza

Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press

Cop shoots hive, bees attack cops

Here's a gun safety tip: Never open fire on a beehive, especially one inhabited by "killer" bees. The Associated Press, reporting from Mexico City, tells what happened:

    At least 70 police officers were hospitalized after so-called Africanized bees swarmed a police shooting range in southern Mexico, authorities said Tuesday.

    The attack occurred Monday in Tapachula, Chiapas, after one of the policemen hit the bees' hive with a bullet, local police officer Miguel Serrano said Tuesday. At least 10 of the 70 officers stung were in serious condition, he said.

   "It was really bad. I haven't seen anything like it, even in the movies," Serrano said.

    Africanized bees, a fierce hybrid strain sometimes referred to as killer bees, are the result of an experiment to increase honey production in Brazil. A swarm escaped a lab in 1957 and began heading north.

UC Riverside maintains a website with useful information about Africanized bees and bees in general.

Photo: Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times