Been feeling like there aren't as many bees around as usual.
What's your experience?
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Been feeling like there aren't as many bees around as usual.
What's your experience?
An article about them several years ago said that the ground-dwelling bees were always later to emerge in spring; they don't come out until the ground warms up. The almond growers in California weren't getting their trees pollinated, because the trees bloom too early for most of the bees there.
So maybe it's just a bit early for most of them, although the climate change factor may be screwing them up along with a lot of other species of animals, including us.......
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Posted in reply to the post by photolite:
Don't know who said it but there is a quote somewhere saying once all bees are gone humans only have four years left to live; whether that is true, I don't know. Just a thought.
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Posted in reply to the post by Sara S:
i have been a beekeeper many years, starting in 85... now i host two strong hives, i gave up looking for honey years ago, now i just try to provide a home. bees are struggling to survive. the majority of hives die each year. they are on an evolutionary fast track. i am writing about honey bees, we know far less about other bees, like the one you picture, who are just as important to plants. i experience them as less abundant now too.
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Posted in reply to the post by photolite:
My daughter and her partner keep bees in Big Sur, and they just got a whole new bunch because all the ones they had are gone. Some swarmed--something made them decide to leave--and they think the others died. Many other beekeepers in their area have lost their bees too. No one quite knows why. The bees aren't talking. At least not to humans.
I read there's bio-engineered atmospheric chemistry (chem-trails) at play in the bees decline. Think Exon Valdese in the air with toxic gases. see: https://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/
Seeing a lot more bees over the past week.
Now I'm waiting on the bluebirds.
I have a hive of bees living in the wall of my redwood home, board and batten. They are very healthy and been there 3 years. I don't bother them and they don't bother anyone. They keep my yard pollinated and I'm very grateful. Rainbows, Suzanne
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Posted in reply to the post by photolite:
Bluebirds arrived yesterday!
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Posted in reply to the post by photolite:
Harvard study shows neonicotionoids are devastating colonies by triggerring colony collapse disorder
Well folks, Harvard has the smoking gun. Neonicitinoids alter winterization behavior in apis melifera:
"Honeybees abandoning hives and dying due to insecticide use, research finds
Harvard study shows neonicotionoids are devastating colonies by triggerring colony collapse disorder
The mysterious vanishing of honeybees from hives can be directly linked to insectcide use, according to new research from Harvard University. The scientists showed that exposure to two neonicotinoids, the world's most widely used class of insecticide, lead to half the colonies studied dying, while none of the untreated colonies saw their bees disappear.
"We demonstrated that neonicotinoids are highly likely to be responsible for triggering 'colony collapse disorder' in honeybee hives that were healthy prior to the arrival of winter," said Chensheng Lu, an expert on environmental exposure biology at Harvard School of Public Health and who led the work.
The loss of honeybees in many countries in the last decade has caused widespread concern because about three-quarters of the world's food crops require pollination. The decline has been linked to loss of habitat, disease and pesticide use. In December 2013, the European Union banned the use of three neonicotinoids for two years.
In the new Harvard study, published in the Bulletin of Insectology, the scientists studied the health of 18 bee colonies in three locations in central Massachusetts from October 2012 till April 2013. At each location, two colonies were treated with realistic doses of imidacloprid, two with clothianidin, and two were untreated control hives..."
Full article from The Guardian found here: https://www.theguardian.com/environm...-harvard-study
The article links to the actual Harvard study. Bayer can no longer duck this. Neonicitinoids cause apis melifera to attempt nectar and pollen gathering during the middle of winter rather than the standard winterization behavior.
The smoking gun has been found. Bayer is the evil corporation killing off the honeybee.
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Posted in reply to the post by photolite: