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This short article presents loss rates of honey bee colonies over winter 2017/18 from 36 countries, including 33 in Europe, from data collected using the standardized COLOSS questionnaire. The 25,363 beekeepers supplying data passing consistency checks in total wintered 544,879 colonies, and reported 26,379 (4.8%, 95% CI 4.7-5.0%) colonies with unsolvable queen problems, 54,525 (10.0%, 95% CI 9.8-10.2%) dead colonies after winter and another 8,220 colonies (1.5%, 95% CI 1.4-1.6%) lost through natural disaster. This gave an overall loss rate of 16.4% (95% CI 16.1-16.6%) of honey bee colonies during winter 2017/18, but this varied greatly from 2.0 to 32.8% between countries. The included map shows relative risks of winter loss at regional level. The analysis using the total data-set confirmed findings from earlier surveys that smaller beekeeping operations with at most 50 colonies suffer significantly higher losses than larger operations (p < .001). Beekeepers migrating their colonies had significantly lower losses than those not migrating (p < .001), a different finding from previous research. Evaluation of six different forage sources as potential risk factors for colony loss indicated that intensive foraging on any of five of these plant sources (Orchards, Oilseed Rape, Maize, Heather and Autumn Forage Crops) was associated with significantly higher winter losses. This finding requires further study and explanation. A table is included giving detailed results of loss rates and the impact of the tested forage sources for each country and overall.

The aim of this study was to improve cage systems for maintaining adult honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) workers under in vitro laboratory conditions. To achieve this goal, we experimentally evaluated the impact of different cages, developed by scientists of the international research network COLOSS (Prevention of honey bee COlony LOSSes), on the physiology and survival of honey bees. We identified three cages that promoted good survival of honey bees. The bees from cages that exhibited greater survival had relatively lower titers of deformed wing virus, suggesting that deformed wing virus is a significant marker reflecting stress level and health status of the host. We also determined that a leak- and drip-proof feeder was an integral part of a cage system and a feeder modified from a 20-ml plastic syringe displayed the best result in providing steady food supply to bees. Finally, we also demonstrated that the addition of protein to the bees' diet could significantly increase the level ofvitellogenin gene expression and improve bees' survival. This international collaborative study represents a critical step toward improvement of cage designs and feeding regimes for honey bee laboratory experiments.

Nosema ceranae is present in honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies worldwide. Studies on the comparative virulence of N. ceranae and N. apis showed significant differences in individual mortality, and the prevalence of N. ceranae seems to be predominant in both the continental and the Mediterranean climate regions. This study attempted to monitor the geographical and seasonal distribution of these two Nosema species in Hungary, using a simple laboratory method. The distribution of N. ceranae and N. apis infection rates along all seasons was homogeneous (P = 0.57). In co-infected samples, the intensity of N. ceranae infection was always significantly higher than that of N. apis infection (P < 0.001). The infection rate of infected bees in exterior samples was higher than in interior samples in each season; however, the differences were not statistically significant. The species N. ceranae had been present in Hungary already in 2004. Statistical analysis of data shows that the infection level is best represented by sampling exterior bees to establish the proportion of infected bees rather than by determining the mean spore count.

The first and only large toy store in Budapest, the socalled Árkád-bazár was built in 1908-09 according to the designs of József and László Vágó. The company that commissioned the building, Késmárky & Illés, was one of Budapest’s leading toy trading companies. Founded in 1879, it sold not only toys but also a wide range of home ornaments and furnishings. Its shops were always located along Rákóczi Road and Kossuth Lajos Street, which was one of Budapest’s foremost arteries of commerce, connecting Keleti railway station with the inner city of Pest. In 1907 the company undertook its largest investment ever, the construction of a new building to house their toy trade branch. The building to be erected was not a department store but an example of the shop-cumapartment block combination so typical of the commercial avenues of Budapest from the 1890s onwards. Above its two business levels it had four residential ones. In April 1907 the owner and his wife bought two adjoining lots at the corner of Dohány Street and Síp Street, well visible from Rákóczi Road. It was the renowned modern architectural firm of László and József Vágó whom they commissioned with planning the new building. The Árkád-bazár in Budapest was a typical multifunctional metropolitan building, with an interior arrangement determined – apart from the specificities of the building lot – primarily by the desire to maximize retail space, shop window length and the income from rents. Fire-safety considerations stressed by the municipal authorities also played a considerable role in forming the building. Like other buildings of the similar type, it was to appear in the cityscape first and foremost as a giant advertisement of the trading company housed on its lower floors. Instead of working with the routine elements of early 20th century commercial architecture József and László Vágó met these requirements in an innovative way, with unique and personal solutions to the distribution of the retail space and the composition of the elevations. In 1909 the sharp lines, prismatic forms, geometrically stylized, contrasting volumes of the Árkád-bazár were unquestionably a novelty in the architecture of the Hungarian capital, a rupture with the soft, smooth, wavy forms of the art nouveau houses so popular in the previous years. However, the most important merit of the Árkád-bazár was probably that here the Vágó brothers found innovative solutions to the very specific artistic problems of the building type: uniting the swathes of the commercial and the residential levels into one coherent composition, integrating the advertising function into the building fronts. By utilizing a few characteristic elements of early 20th century ‘children’s art’ on and in their building, the Vágó brothers not only found a truly adequate form of advertising the toy store housed in it, but also managed to endow Árkád-bazár with a certain charm and humour unique in the local architecture of the period.

No abstract

Varroatosis as the current bane of the beekeepers is causing the biggest economic damage in the apicultural sector. Consistent control of varroatosis should be provided without harmful effects such as the occurrence of toxic residues in the hive products. In the technology of organic beekeeping only natural materials are allowed to be used such as essential oils and organic acids. Since 2013 within the beekeeping on-farm research program, we are collaborating with beekeepers throughout Hungary in comparative trials for testing the efficacy of different types of varroa control treatments and management practices. The trials are set up in market operations. One essential task of the program is to monitor the infestation level systematically with practical mite-counting techniques.