New Article: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees

Yikes!

Everytime I see and article about this it is longer and full of more bad news. I lost 2 of my 3 colonies but I am pretty sure it was not related to this epidemic. I think mine died of just plain cold weather.

It seems to bee snowballing. I read and article the other day about a BK who went into the winter with 1200 colonies and expects only 9 to survive. I believe he was in California

:wave:

This comment is from someone who is taking a
newbie beekeeper class. We finished out second class.

This topic was brought up in our class and the three
instructors of the class (many with more the 30 years
of experience) all said that in their opinion that a
lot of the die off is due to poor colony management.

Many large corp beekeeper companies do not manage their
hives correctly.

That the instructors we make sure that we will know
what to do with our hives and not to worry about this.

The newbie students showed concern about this but
the beekeeper instructors and wranglers did not.

They showed us some info on a hybrid bee that looked
like it showed promise on beating the mite problems.

Just some info a second class newbie beekeeper
is passing on.

:cheers:
Wolf

Wolf-Tracker, I agree with your instructors that die-off is from poor colony management. Commercial BK take short cuts and that's bad. But this is not die-off, these bees have disappeared, gone, vanished. 10's of thousands of colonies of bees have just disappeared! Dude, that ain't poor colony management, that's down right scary.
Right now about 1,000,000 or so colonies from all across the country are in Ca. for the Almond pollination. What if this is contagious? There are billions of bees flying around touching each other, walking on the same blossoms, going back to their own colonies, ect. ect. ect. And to top it all off, these colonies are going to come back to their home states. The almond pollination just might be a *Melting Pot* of disaster. JMO
My advice is, buy your honey now while it's still cheap. I may be wrong but at least you'll have honey.

Bee Cool, Dennis

You would think with all the implications of a bee shortage the government would step in and say your bees aren't moving over state lines. Its probably impossible to put a stop to that in the next month or so as spring approaches but if this is some kind of contagious pathogen we may not be through the worst of it yet. I would imagine that not only would the cost of honey go up but also the cost of packaged bees. I need 2 as it is and wanted to expand my yard this year but it is not looking promising.

:wave:

The instructors we have ... have ordered
about 1K packages for the club and the classes

From GA.

They are charging us about $58 for each package.

Is this a good price

We are going to get our woodwork form Bushy Mountain
we think

8 frame medium suppers ... we think

thoughts comments???

:wave:
WOLF-TRACKER, yes $58.00 is a good price. I buy from Bee-Weaver in Texas and last year they charged $90.00 for a 3# package with a queen. Your getting a group price.
I use BEE-MAX polystyren?spelling hives. Deep, 10 framers with plastic frames.
IMO only, they are lighter, and provide better insulation in cold weather or hot.
But beekeeping equipment is personal.

Bee Cool, Dennis

Re: New Article: Earth Life Threats - Article for Louisiana paper

http://tinyurl.com/ypnrxs

Excellent article WOLF-TRACKER, however I'm still worried. :sad1:

Dennis

Just read a good article about CCD in the local paper, another cause that is being looked at is the pestacide imidacloprid which is used on termites and confuses thier ability to return home when out in the field. Nobody is sure on the vector that the insectacide takes to get to the bees. Seems there are a lot of questions with no answers yet.

can you share a link to the article??

I tried but the paper charges 2.95 to access the link, damn capitalists .

This is a frightening issue as bees are vital to our current food production. They are even beginning to cover the problem on the local news (Milwaukee news occasionally spends a couple of minutes a night on the death of some world leader, or the sinking of Africa into the oceans, before going back to detailing what Bret Favre found between his toes yesterday). Although I am very much against "big government, big brother", it would seem that this looming disastor warrants a more agressive course of action on our elected leaders parts.

An interesting article, with a very informative report here.

“Pesticides linked to honeybee population decline: Bees are critically important to farm ecosystems because of their role as pollinators that allow crops to produce edible fruit and seed. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is a phenomenon described by beekeepers, researchers and government officials when entire hive populations seem to disappear, apparently dying out. A CCD working group was recently formed with researchers from the University of Montana, The Pennsylvania State University, the USDA/ARS, the Florida Department of Agriculture, and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to analyze the problem. Their preliminary report indicates how pesticides may be a factor, specifically neonicotinioid pesticides, including imidacloprid, clothianiden and thiamethoxam. According to the CCD report, "If bees are eating fresh or stored pollen contaminated with these chemicals at low levels, they may not cause mortality but may impact the bee's ability to learn or make memories. If this is the case, young bees leaving the hive to make orientation flights may not be able to learn the location of the hive and may not be returning causing the colonies to dwindle and eventually die." Porterville Recorder reporter Sarah Elizabeth Villicana interviewed a Terra Bella, California beekeeper, Eric Lane, who suspects harm to the bees is linked to imidacloprid, made by Bayer Crop Science. "It is my personal belief that this chemical is responsible for thinning the bee population," Lane said. "It was used it France and killed 70 percent of the bee population in France."

a quote from the Pesticide Action Network Update Services (PANUPS), http://www.panna.org/resources/panups/panup_20070222.dv.html

Angus

At least they may be closing in on a potential cause. Actually, if it is pesticide induced instead of caused by some infectious agent, this may be a good thing. Use of pesticides can be restricted; we have no such controls on viruses or bacteria. Anyone here know how long neonicotinoids stay active in the ecosystem? Do they break down readily? I hope so, because I would not want to see something with the halflife of DDT let loose on the bee colonies of the world.

Another article - CCN Money website

A new one for today that really just repeats what we've already seen.

One researcher says it's stress suppressing the bee's immune system. Maybe they need some echinacea pollen...

http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/29/news/honeybees/

Angus said:

Although I am very much against "big government, big brother", it would seem that this looming disastor warrants a more agressive course of action on our elected leaders parts.


Angus

Click to expand...

You said it Angus. If they're going to be hanging around they should atleast make themselves usefull. When will polotics cut the crap and pay a little attention to science? :-\

PS--anyone else catch mention of the bee epidemic on the Colbert Report?

The Florida beekeepers are saying that the US Department of Agriculture is moving way too slow addressing this problem. There was a follow up article in the paper about how little was being done to identify the cause of CCD by our government. According to the paper comercial beekeeping is on the ropes in the US. Low priced imported honey, mites and now CCD are hitting domestic beekeepers hard. If there isn't something done soon the entire pollination industy will collapse. I wonder if africianized honey bees suffer from CCD also?

updated article

http://tinyurl.com/2rztlj



wolf