Town bees do better than country bees

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2006

PARIS (AFP) — Bees reared in the town are healthier and produce more honey than their counterparts in the country, according to the surprise findings of a study by the Union of French Apiarists (UNAF).

A higher ambient temperature and diverse urban plant-life mean that city bees enjoy a longer period of pollenation from a wider variety of flowers, while escaping the pesticides and other crop treatments that have badly hit honey production in rural areas.

Car fumes do not seem to affect them.

Hives placed on the roof of a theatre in the western city of Nantes easily outproduced country hives 30 kilometres (20 miles) away, while the mortality rate among the city bees was six percent compared to 33 percent for their rural cousins, UNAF reported.

"Bees...