[AG-EQ] Article copied from MNN Mother Nature Network + bees

Tue Aug 20 12:58:49 UTC 2019

Thanks for that bit of bee lore I didn't know.
Which ones are broad beans?  Limas?  Or something else?  I have some flat
Italian green beans that are pretty broad, but I think broad beans are
something different.
Tracy

> Some plants:  broad  bean and lucerne:  alfalfa, I think in your lingo:
> etc, have very deep flower
> parts and the honey bee cannot reach the nectar chamber with its tongue,
> so here cometh the bumble
> bee with it longer tongue and habit of biting through the base of the
> flower so it can get to the
> nectar, but just how it transfers its coating of polin from one plant to
> the next, search me!
> Maybe, the stamens or whatever the polin organs is called are, also, at
> the base of the flower and
> when sticking its head in to get the nectar, the bumble gets polin on it
> and this is rubbed off on
> the next plant when it repeats its bite trick!
>
>            Jewel
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Tracy Carcione via AG-EQ" <ag-eq at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 20, 2019 1:53 AM
> To: "Agricultural and Equestrean Division List" <ag-eq at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: "Tracy Carcione" <carcione at access.net>
> Subject: Re: [AG-EQ] Article copied from MNN Mother Nature Network + bees
>
> Thanks Jewel.  That was interesting.
>
> I heard something interesting the other day.  Apparently, bumblebees are
> better at pollinating some crops than honeybees.  Among those crops are
> blueberries.  Bumblebees don't live in colonies like honeybees.  The best
> way to help and encourage bumblebees is to plant a variety of native
> wildflowers, so that the bees can always find something to eat.  You get
> more blueberries, and you also get more flowers.  I am trying this, just
> because I like the flowers.  I did have a good blueberry crop this year.
> I think this also works for squashes, but my squash seed must be old; none
> came up.
> Tracy
>
>> As like everyone else who subscribes to this list, anything that has a
>> connection to Nature, and
>> that is, * almost:  no forget the * * almost,  everything, I have an
>> abiding interest in the marvels
>> and mysteries of the natural world.
>> The Mother Nature Network, MNN, though it has a goodly percentage of
>> photograpical input, also has
>> sufficient text to make it, perfectly, accessible to blind folk.
>> Here is an example that I copied out just a few moments ago.
>> "Why Growing Up On A Farm Is Beneficial to Your Immune System"
>>
>>
>> Researchers may have figured out what it is about life on a farm that
>> protects kids from allergies
>> and boosts their immune systems. (Photo: Andy Dean
>> Photography/Shutterstock)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Health experts have known for years that kids who grow up on a farm have
>> fewer incidents of
>> allergies and asthma than city kids, but continued research is helping
>> them better understand the
>> connection between the immune system and microbes only found in that
>> setting.
>>
>> A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine compared 30
>> Amish
>> children and 30 Hutterite
>> children from two farming groups in North Dakota. Researchers chose
>> these
>> children because asthma is
>> rare among the Amish but common among the Hutterites, even though the
>> groups have similar genetic
>> backgrounds and diets and little exposure to tobacco smoke, polluted air
>> and indoor pets. The one
>> key difference lies in their farming methods: The Amish shun electricity
>> and industrialization,
>> while the Hutterites embrace it. Because of this, the children are
>> exposed
>> to different microbes.
>>
>>
>>
>> "We never thought we would see a difference," Carole Ober, an author of
>> the study and the chairwoman
>> of the department of human genetics at the University of Chicago, told
>> The
>> New York Times. But to
>> their great surprise, "we saw whopping differences with very, very
>> different cell types and cell
>> numbers."
>>
>>
>> The Amish children all had a large proportion of neutrophils, white
>> blood
>> cells that are part of the
>> so-called innate immune system. The Amish kids' neutrophils "were newly
>> emerged from their bone
>> marrow, evidence of a continual low-grade reaction to microbial
>> invaders,"
>> the Times reported. In
>> contrast, the Hutterite kids had "old" neutrophils, and researchers
>> found
>> their blood was full of
>> another type of immune cell, eosinophils, which provoke allergic
>> reactions.
>>
>> "I keep saying if everyone would just put a cow in their house, no kid
>> would have asthma, but that's
>> not very practical," Ober told Live Science. Instead, Ober envisions an
>> air mister parents could use
>> to spray the beneficial microbes into the air.
>>
>> The link from gut to immune system
>>
>> Girl hugging lamb on the farm
>> The Amish babies involved in the experiment all lived in rural homes
>> with
>> farm animals. (Photo:
>> Elizaveta Galitckaia/Shutterstock)
>>
>>
>> Scientists from The Ohio State University took note of this connection
>> and
>> took it a step further.
>> In a small study of Ohio babies, they found that Amish babies in rural
>> settings had much more good
>> bacteria than urban babies, which wasn't surprising given the previous
>> studies. But they also found
>> evidence that a healthier gut microbiome may lead to healthier
>> development
>> of the respiratory immune
>> system, according to a press release from OSU.
>>
>> They made this connection with the help of young pigs. They essentially
>> did a fecal transplant,
>> placing the Amish babies' poop into the intestines of newborn pigs,
>> essentially testing the hygiene
>> hypothesis with the help of pigs, which have an immune system more
>> similar
>> to humans. The results
>> were an increased development of immune cells, particularly lymphoid and
>> myeloid cells in the
>> intestines.
>>
>> "We wanted to see what happens in early immune system development when
>> newborn pigs with 'germ-free'
>> guts are given the gut microbes from human babies raised in different
>> environments," said
>> Renukaradhya Gourapura, co-lead author of the study. "From the day of
>> their birth, these Amish
>> babies were exposed to various microbial species inside and outside of
>> their homes."
>>
>> The research was published in Frontiers in Immunology.
>>
>> A closer look at farm dust
>>
>> cows feeding
>> Researchers were especially interested in dust on dairy farms. (Photo:
>> Ewa
>> Studio/Shutterstock)
>>
>>
>> Researchers at two Belgian universities collaborated on a study that
>> looked at one particular aspect
>> of farm living - the dust. They found that a bacteria detected in farm
>> dust might initiate an immune
>> system response that reduces the body's reaction to allergens and
>> asthmatic triggers. Their work was
>> published in the journal Science.
>>
>> According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 6.8 million
>> children in the U.S. have
>> been diagnosed with asthma and about 17 percent of kids suffer from
>> respiratory allergies to things
>> like pollen and mold. But over the last few decades, health care
>> providers
>> have observed that kids
>> who grow up on farms are much less likely to be affected by these
>> conditions than their
>> urban-dwelling peers.
>>
>> So researchers have been looking at farm dust to better understand how
>> it
>> protects kids from
>> respiratory problems. For the 2015 study, researchers exposed mice to
>> bacteria found in farm dust.
>> After two weeks, they exposed those mice to dust mites. They found that
>> the mice who had been
>> exposed to the bacteria were less likely to have an asthmatic or
>> allergic
>> reaction to the dust mites
>> than the unexposed mice.
>>
>> What's more, researchers found that when the mice were exposed to farm
>> dust, they produced a protein
>> in their lungs called A20. When they deactivated this protein, these
>> mice
>> had a normal allergic
>> response to the dust mites.
>>
>> Researchers confirmed these findings with human surveys where they found
>> that people who suffer from
>> allergies and asthma have a deficiency in A20 protein. Finally, they
>> took
>> a look at the kids growing
>> up on farms who develop asthma and allergies. You guessed it - those
>> kids
>> have a mutation in their
>> A20 gene that impedes the production of A20 protein.
>>
>> By narrowing down the mechanisms behind certain asthmatic and allergic
>> reactions, these researchers
>> may have opened the door for the development of vaccines and treatment
>> options for people who suffer
>> from these conditions.
>>
>> End of copied article, but delay your further reading for just a moment.
>> I remember that, in some
>> blog to which I had access yonks ago, the writer advised that the
>> contents
>> of the dustbag of a
>> vbacuum cleaner should be, regulary emptied into a baby's
>> basinette/cot!!!
>>  The blogger didn't
>> specify that the dust should include farm dust, but if you city slicker
>> type folk can ask your rual
>> cousins to send you the occasional delivery of hay, straw, various types
>> of polin and other dusts
>> that are to be found out there in ruraldom,   later on when his/her
>> school
>> mates are sneezing and
>> wiping  streaming eyes while he/she isn't,  the mucky little brat may
>> think to thank its
>> forward-looking parents!!! !
>>
>>         Jewel
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> AG-EQ mailing list
>> AG-EQ at nfbnet.org
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/ag-eq_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> AG-EQ:
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/ag-eq_nfbnet.org/carcione%40access.net
>>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> AG-EQ mailing list
> AG-EQ at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/ag-eq_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> AG-EQ:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/ag-eq_nfbnet.org/jewelblanch%40kinect.co.nz
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> AG-EQ mailing list
> AG-EQ at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/ag-eq_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> AG-EQ:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/ag-eq_nfbnet.org/carcione%40access.net
>