Posted on 05/04/2010 2:37:26 AM PDT by Daisyjane69
Disturbing evidence that honeybees are in terminal decline has emerged from the United States where, for the fourth year in a row, more than a third of colonies have failed to survive the winter.
The decline of the country's estimated 2.4 million beehives began in 2006, when a phenomenon dubbed colony collapse disorder (CCD) led to the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of colonies. Since then more than three million colonies in the US and billions of honeybees worldwide have died and scientists are no nearer to knowing what is causing the catastrophic fall in numbers.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
And why do my fruit trees have a bumper crop this year? I didn't see any shortage of bees.
We’ve had an unusual spring here in the southeast, pollen went wild as did just about every blooming thing, it was copious. I’ve never seen hollies bloom like that. The insects noticed, too. The hollies on the corners of my house had an audible hum from a distance. Honeybees, I checked. If there is or was a problem here, it’s no longer evident.
Too cold for bees ehh.
Way back when, normal losses were 10-20%. Since mites arrived, losses have been about 25-35%, so this is actually not new news.
Beekeepers split their colonies to make two or more from one, so the losses can be made up. The current problem is a combination of pathogens that should soon be identified and can be controlled.
Most of the hype comes from the anti-pesticide group, but the losses have nothing to do with it.
Hardly. The banning of cell phones would rescue society from perpetual teenage girldom syndrome.
They'll give you their cellphone when you take it from their cold, dead hands.
Same here in Alabama! I too had a buzzing Holly. I have a 40 foot holly tree that was audibly covered in honey bees. Never saw (or heard!) so many bees in one place out of a hive.
Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics.
Benjamin: Just how do you mean that, sir?
Two years ago we had 3 swarms in one summer. It meant that there were tons of bees zooming out of that hive during each swarm. I was pleased with the amount of bees we were getting.
Last year we had another very active hive, but didn't have one swarm. I don't feel the need to panic at this point. But it will be interesting to watch the colony this summer.
Thanks for the info. I read a story a month or so ago about a guy that transports his hives all over for pollination work. He didn’t make any statements about losing bees.
I had a beehive in a tree in our backyard. The bees came in mid-summer last year and went to work. I had a bee keeper come and look at it. He speculated the hive would not survive the winter because they started building so late and with dry conditions, there would not be enough pollen available to make enough stores for the winter. Sure enough, they died off in December.
Amazing thing to watch.
It’s those d$$ned Tea Partiers again. Now they’re going after the busy little bees.
It’s lack of affordable housing. There’s plenty of bees around, they just don’t want to live in these hives because the grasping mean old beekeepers charge too much rent (steal all their honey).
We need affordable housing for bees—where they can live rent free, where their honey isn’t stolen by greedy capitalists.
Free the Bees, I say. We need a Federal Department of Bee Housing Authority and Paperwork. They can set up a Blue Ribbon Panel to investigate how to create a Federal Bee Planning and Pollen Options Commission to start to figure out how to plan an Emergency Reponse Team to create affordable bee housing.
Never waste a good crisis.
“...pollen went wild as did just about every blooming thing, it was copious. “
Saw the same in SC. Lime-colored pollen covered cars. The air was thick with insects, including lots of fat honeybees.
Another leftist “return to the caves” research crap just like gw.
LLS
Carlin was a self loathing liberal misanthrope. Underneath it all he hated pretty much everyone and everything. He died a miserable human being.
“Another leftist “return to the caves” research crap just like gw.”
I have no idea as to who you are referring to as a leftist.
I was only reporting a theory that has been presented.
I never endorsed it, even though my entire life has been devoted to radio communications, including owning microwave sites.
Maybe we could sit you in front of a 18 ghz dish for a few hours and see how you fare.
One would have to ask the question; do bees receive using CDMA technology or GSM? Are they G3 or G4 compliant? And, how much do they pay per month for an unlimited data plan? ;-)
“Saving endangered species is just one more arrogant attempt by humans to control Nature!”
Uh, huh. We drive a species such as tigers or the bald eagle to the edge of extinction, and attempting to save them is an arrogant attempt to control nature. Yeah, right.
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