Scientists researching Colony Collapse Disorder have determined that at the present rate of depopulation, bees as a species will become extinct by 2035.
This also means that there will be a drastic reduction in the number of fruit and vegetable species as well because many of them depend on these little pollinators to reprocreate. Ours will end up a much poorer and unhealthier world without the vital link of life that bees provide for free.
Let us fight for their survival, and ours.
Franklin
champignon
11-14-2008, 08:20 PM
I think that it is time that we learned to do the work of bees. We can pollinate flowers by hand. Maybe this is something that we can teach our children.
Caleb
Scientists researching Colony Collapse Disorder have determined that at the present rate of depopulation, bees as a species will become extinct by 2035.
This also means that there will be a drastic reduction in the number of fruit and vegetable species as well because many of them depend on these little pollinators to reprocreate. Ours will end up a much poorer and unhealthier world without the vital link of life that bees provide for free.
Let us fight for their survival, and ours.
Franklin
ruthnew
11-16-2008, 04:44 PM
From Hulda Clark's November newsletter ( Check out the link):
In discussion with Dr. Clark about the Bee Problem she surprised me by telling me that she was once a beekeeper and that she knew exactly why the bees were dying off in record numbers. In her opinion the bees are dying off because farmers are pressing the bees to become larger and thereby more productive. The bees are crossbred to jumbo size. Then they are supplied with ready-made plastic honeycombs covered with wax that most likely contains various chemicals. The cells in the honeycombs are much larger than the bee would make themselves.
Due to the fact that the cells in the honeycombs are both deeper and have a larger diameter the bees have to work extra hard to fill it with honey – exhausting them.
Unfortunately all kinds of pollutants such as fungus have an easier time to settle into those king-size cells.
As far as we can gather, most commercial beekeepers treat the bees with an onslaught of chemicals:
• anti-fungus
• antibiotic medicines
• pesticides
• fumigation
The chemicals reduce the immunity of the over worked and over-sized bees even further, Dr. Clark mentioned to me.
A few months passed. When I looked into this problem again I found this headline online:
Surprise! Organic Beekeepers Reporting Zero Losses
Apparently thousands of organic beekeepers, including commercial beekeepers have healthy bees and experience no colony collapses.
Why didn't I hear about this from the mainstream media? Like with alternative medicine the mainstream media does not report but one side of the problem. Big media usually take the side of big industry that pay the advertising bills.
Should they dig deeper they would come up with headlines that read something like this:
Chemicals Used By Beekeepers Responsible for Colony Collapse Worldwide.
Here is the quote from the obscure article that I found online:
"I'm on an organic beekeeping list of about 1,000 people, mostly Americans, and no one in the organic beekeeping world, including commercial beekeepers, is reporting colony collapse on this list." said Sharon Labchuck. Attached to the article is a discussion board of organic beekeepers. Click Here to see the Article (https://www.groovygreen.com/groove/?p=1388)
Thank you organic beekeepers… for saving the world! I sure will only buy organic honey from now on! But wait there is more we can all do! Please contact your local editor of a newspaper and put them on the right track on reporting on this important problem.
Finally you can help the bees (and everyone) by reducing pollution.
Drive less, bicycle and walk more = less air pollution
Drive a more fuel efficient car = less air pollution
Keep your car maintained = less air pollution
Oskar Thorvaldsson.
I think that it is time that we learned to do the work of bees. We can pollinate flowers by hand. Maybe this is something that we can teach our children.
Caleb
tdavis
11-16-2008, 06:42 PM
I'm an organic beekeeper. I don't treat my hives with any chemicals or antibiotics.
The Bees are in danger. No doubt about it. I'm glad there is more growing concern for the problem. However, there are some problems with Dr. Clarks newsletter, and I want to be sure that people understand the reality.
Organic beekeepers ARE losing bees, CCD doesn't discriminate. Sonoma county is filled with beekeepers that don't treat their bees and they also have had devastating colony losses.
It is true that untreated colonies seem to suffer lower losses, but there is a stress factor there to consider as well. Bees that are stressed will be more susceptible to any disease that comes along... bees that have been treated for disease or pests are already stressed (by the diseases and the pests!)... add to that stress being exposed to pesticides and it doesn't take much else to succumb.
Thanks to pesticides, the wild bees are actually more likely to suffer from Colony Collapse, and nobody is treating those bees with Apistan or Terramycin.
The wild bee population that is in danger right now. It is city beekeepers (organic and otherwise) that may be the only hope for the bees if something doesn't change. In the city, there are fewer pesticides than in agricultural areas and people are good about watering their plants, so there is less of a nectar dearth and more variety for the bees to forage on. Bees that live where there is only one main crop (just almonds, apples, etc) first have a feast, but then nothing for the rest of the year to sustain them. The lack of adequate forage is a major problem for the wild population... I wouldn't want to be a bee in the central valley.
One of the great things that happens with organic beekeeping (which is basically just not treating your bees with chemicals and antibiotics) is that the bees that do survive are going to be more resistant to the diseases and pests than the colonies that are being artificially sustained (god bless Charles Darwin). Any colony that is being artificially sustained and then swarms (which is how a colony reproduces; basically half the bees go out to form a new colony.) will have almost no chance to survive in the wild.
Also.. bees don't like plastic cell foundation, so a lot of beekeepers don't use it (you can make them use it, by not giving them anything else, but it slows production tremendously and makes them consider finding a better place to build their comb than your hive). The cells in both plastic and beeswax foundation are not bigger... if the cells were bigger, the queen would lay Drone eggs in them, which would kill the colony because all the work is done by the females... they raise the brood, build the comb do the foraging and defend the hive... the male Drones only mate with queens (not even from the same colony) so bigger comb would not be a good thing.
If anyone knew the EXACT cause of CCD, something could be done, but there are many contributing factors (yes including the use of chemicals by some beekeepers and bee stress from being overworked and pushed too hard) but the biggest culprit seems to be (surprise) pesticide use... the pesticides are created to deal with bugs and guess what bees are?... Neonicitoid pesticides have now been outlawed in France, Italy and Germany specifically because of catastrophic bee losses. The chemical companies (Bayer in particular, but not alone) all say that their plant treatments are safe for the bees, but they don't have the data to show what happens with the pesticides are not applied correctly (the neonicitoids are supposed to be applied with a sticky agent but it's expensive and an extra step... so many skip that step, allowing the pesticide to become airborne... so then even grapes which the bees don't work, become dangerous when their treatments make their way through the air to whatever other forage is nearby). These pesticide companies have done testing to determine an 'acceptable' level of safe exposure is, but the studies don't really show what could happen with continued exposure to their determined 'acceptable' levels of pesticide treatments... I good example of this is that everyone advises you to cook your chicken to 163 degrees, where salmonella bacteria dies instantly (yay!) but you could also be sure that your food stays at 140 degrees for 10 minutes and it will also kill off the beasties.
Again, I'm glad to see the buzz (pardon the expression), but I want to be sure that people don't get the idea that it's the beekeepers themselves that are causing CCD... it just ain't so joe... at least not single-handedly. Apologies to Sharon Labchuck and her list, but she's just wrong. Organic Beekeepers are also suffering losses... and that's probably why that found article was so obscure... Perpetuating the idea is going to prolong the search for the real cause and answers to the problem of CCD...
Did I mention that I'm an organic beekeeper?
sorry for the rant... I hope it was somewhat intelligible.
Jonathan
(trish's husband who tries to stay off of discussion boards so as not to get sucked into the potential rant possiblities....)