Buzzing Belgian biotech to save the bees
A biotech company based in the province of West Flanders may have found a solution to save Belgium’s honeybee population.
The bees are being targeted by Asian hornets and they’re struggling to find nectar and pollen, and that pollen is especially crucial in the process that allows the queen bee to lay her eggs. The pollen problem is where a father and son from the Belgian town of Wingene come in.
After more than two decades of research at various universities, they’ve developed a sort of artificial nougat that can act as a replacement for the pollen, and now it’s time to go full steam ahead, as the company have said. They’ve found investors who believe in their vision, allowing them to scale up their production in Belgium, and they’re working on creating a facility in the US as well, so things are moving forward in a big way for this family trying to save the bees.
They might give you a nasty sting, and this author may have swatted one or two in their lifetime, but bees are actually really important to the ecosystem, because of how they pollinate they allow fruit to grow, for example. No bees, no apples, catch our drift?
May this Belgian biotech company have a buzzing future!