Not a joke, here's the deal -

Bees cannot taste neonics in sucrose as far as can be told from the usual
clues, but since they chose the neonic-laced sucrose when given a choice,
they are still said somehow "prefer" sucrose containing neonics over
untainted sucrose.
But how, exactly, can a bee "prefer" what it cannot detect?
And how, exactly, does a claim that a bee can "prefer" what it is said to be
unable to detect make it into the journal "Nature"?
So many questions, so little time.

"Here, using a two-choice feeding assay, we show that the honeybee, Apis
mellifera, and the buff-tailed bumblebee, Bombus terrestris, do not avoid
nectar-relevant concentrations of three of the most commonly used
neonicotinoids, imidacloprid (IMD), thiamethoxam (TMX), and clothianidin
(CLO), in food. Moreover, bees of both species prefer to eat more of sucrose
solutions laced with IMD or TMX than sucrose alone. Stimulation with IMD,
TMX and CLO neither elicited spiking responses from gustatory neurons in the
bees' mouthparts, nor inhibited the responses of sucrose-sensitive neurons.
Our data indicate that bees cannot taste neonicotinoids and are not repelled
by them. Instead, bees preferred solutions containing IMD or TMX, even
though the consumption of these pesticides caused them to eat less food
overall. This work shows that bees cannot control their exposure to
neonicotinoids in food and implies that treating flowering crops with IMD
and TMX presents a sizeable hazard to foraging bees."

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature14414.html
http://tinyurl.com/ld5l864

Today is "Earth Day", and we were treated to a blue-sky morning, perfect for
keeping bees, followed by afternoon showers and a very bright rainbow over
the Tri-Boro Bridge.
After such a long cold winter and spring with near-zero flight days,
everything from Maple to Cherry is in full bloom all at once.
"April in Paris" came to New York this year.

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