So what's up with the disappearing Bees?

Chip · #1 (**permalink**) 01-April-2007, 08:32 AM

Its been going on for ten years or more, and was written about last year, but has suddenly escalated. Any new news about what's causing entire bee hives to vanish and is this a potential threat to our food supply? Some links:

http://www.earthfiles.com/news/news....ry=Environment

http://www.organicconsumers.org/arti...ticle_4557.cfm

Doodler · #2 (**permalink**) 01-April-2007, 12:56 PM

Happened before, will happen again.

Doodler · #3 (**permalink**) 01-April-2007, 01:04 PM

Quote:

RIGHT, AND WHAT HAPPENS IF ALL THE HONEY BEES DISAPPEAR?

First of all, a third of the food supply in the United States – and actually the world – a third of the food supply is directly related to the honey bee: fruits, vegetables, nuts, just a lot\ of stuff that we eat, that we’re accustomed to have every day, the honey bee is directly responsible for it. And then, there is probably another 30% of what we consume that honey bees are indirectly responsible for. Take the milk we drink. The cows have to have hay. They’ve got to eat clover and alfalfa to produce milk. And if you go back and listen to what (Albert) Einstein told us – he said if the honey bees disappeared off the face of the Earth, within four years, all life would be gone. Even the wildlife depends on plants pollinated by the honey bees for berries and so on. So, it’s not just humans not being able to get apples and carrots. We’re talking about a real big, serious problem!

WHEN YOU TALKED WITH THE PEOPLE IN THE GOVERNMENT AND THEY SAID THE HONEY BEES WERE LIKE A CANARY DOWN IN THE COAL MINE WARNING THAT IF THE BIRD DIED, THEN THE MINERS MIGHT DIE – WHAT DID THE GOVERNMENT PEOPLE SAY THAT THEY THOUGHT MIGHT BE THE PROBLEM?

They really don’t know. That was in the preliminary stages, but that’s the first time in my 40 some years of beekeeping that anybody had ever said that to me. I mean that was something I’d never heard before.

Ambiguous, poorly cited, and a logical fallacy (appeal to authority).

Chip · #4 (**permalink**) 01-April-2007, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doodler

Happened before, will happen again.

Yes, also ambiguous. Sources?

GeorgeLeRoyTirebiter · #5 (**permalink**) 01-April-2007, 08:28 PM

If European honeybees are on the decline here, doesn't that just open up more opportunities for native bees?

Ronald Brak · #6 (**permalink**) 02-April-2007, 01:06 AM

Bought some honey the other day. Thought it was a little pricey, but not as high as I'd expect it to be if the world wide shortage of bees was too severe. I also should admit that I tend to think that everything is a bit pricey. (I mean the bees work for free, don't they?)

novaderrik · #7 (**permalink**) 02-April-2007, 02:15 AM

could be that thing called "evolution" that everyone likes to talk about so much.
something in the climate has changed, and the bees that don't adapt or aren't fit for the new environment die off.

sarongsong · #8 (**permalink**) 02-April-2007, 02:42 AM

ToSeeked

Ronald Brak · #9 (**permalink**) 02-April-2007, 02:44 AM

Quote:

Bought some honey the other day. Thought it was a little pricey, but not as high as I'd expect it to be if the world wide shortage of bees was too severe.

However, in Get Smart when there was a shortage of potatoes the government replaced them with edibal plastic substitutes to prevent a potato panic, so who knows what we've actually been eating? Maybe motor oil mixed with sugar?

notawoowoo · #10 (**permalink**) 02-April-2007, 09:30 AM

If it has not been mentioned before..As beginning to turn up on C2C and the rest of the usual woowoo media (talk radio/online sites)..this missing bee
crisis is thrilling the chemtrail HB woo woos greatly!
At last they claim concrete proof of the damage being done by the chemtrails! Myself my bet is just a as yet unfound virus/fungus pandemic,
which has arrived in NA due to modern global trade..

Ronald Brak · #11 (**permalink**) 02-April-2007, 09:45 AM

I wouldn't surprised if commercial bees are closely genetically related as farmers try to get the most productive bees. This might leave them vunerable to some pathogen.

I assure you that I'm not doing the bees in as an attempt to increase my companies sales of aphid juice - squeezed fresh from the aphid by our trained ants and twice as good as honey because it goes through two insect stomaches before it gets to you, not just one. Regurgiatated twice for your enjoyment.

Peter Wilson · #12 (**permalink**) 03-April-2007, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chip

Any new news about what's causing entire bee hives to vanish and is this a potential threat to our food supply?

Along with global warming; rising human population; collapsing fish stocks; rising sea-level; increasing desertification; the property tax; the escalating conflict between east and west (Islam/Christianity); sudden-oak-death syndrome; box-jellyfish explosions; dutch-elm, lyme & mad-cow diseases; droughts; the global haline circulation system; top-soil erosion...

Sigh. Better add disappearing bees to the list

Chip · #13 (**permalink**) 05-April-2007, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter Wilson

...Sigh. Better add disappearing bees to the list

On the other side of the coin,...er...um...I mean, ocean, when I was a kid, the mysterious and extremely illusive "giant squid" was very rarely seen or photographed. (Except in Walt Disney's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".) However, recent news items via Comcast online have stated that giant squids have been spotted more and more just off the coasts of Japan as well as California, near the surface. - I'm not implying a squid-bee connection. Just an interesting observation.

Peter Wilson · #14 (**permalink**) 05-April-2007, 09:30 PM

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention endagered whales

With whales being the giant squid's main predator, I assume the whale's loss is the squid's gain.

Argos · #15 (**permalink**) 05-April-2007, 09:48 PM

Bees down here are faring very well, thanks. It´s not a global catastrophe.

sarongsong · #16 (**permalink**) 05-April-2007, 10:10 PM

Our local (SoCal) Farmers' Market honey farmer said this morning it's an ongoing mystery; the worker bees simply leave the affected hives and don't come back, starving the queen and her attendants.

Swift · #17 (**permalink**) 05-April-2007, 10:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sarongsong

Our local (SoCal) Farmers' Market honey farmer said this morning it's an ongoing mystery; the worker bees simply leave the affected hives and don't come back, starving the queen and her attendants.

Maybe they formed a union and are going out on strike

novaderrik · #18 (**permalink**) 07-April-2007, 07:07 AM

maybe the worker bees are just getting sick of being treated like dirt?

BigDon · #19 (**permalink**) 08-April-2007, 01:00 AM

And lets not forget the sparrow decline. Half of them are gone compared to 1980 populations. This still leaves 400 million of them, true, but you have to procede with caution when any species you share the same enviroment with crashs by 50%.

01101001 · #20 (**permalink**) 08-April-2007, 01:54 AM

Nice article in the gardening section of the local newspaper today about how to provide nests for native solitary, non-social, bees. Basically, they consist of aged wood with multiple holes drilled in it, 3/16 to 5/16-inch diameter, variety for different species, 4 to 6 inches deep, shaded from intense sun. Mud plugs indicate they have been used. Sounds easy enough. (Cal Berkeley advice for Northern California nest makers)

They gave some astonishing figure for how much more effective at pollinating were the native bees over honey bees, as I recall at least a couple of orders of magnitude -- because honey bees collect pollen in sacs to bring back to the hive, while "good-for-nothing" native bees just get dusted all over with pollen as they go from flower to flower.

I don't have many flowers, thanks to shade trees, but I'll sure stick a bunch of nests up around the back yard. A few logs from the wood pile, a drill, and 10 minutes of effort and I'll become a bee-landlord.

HenrikOlsen · #21 (**permalink**) 08-April-2007, 07:03 AM

And a bee-landlord of unemployed "good-for-nothing" bees at that.

Let's see how long it takes for one of then to open a bar and have the property value plummet.