The Disappearing Bees

[iaim2xl]

Most of you have probably heard that our honey bees are disappearing in alarming numbers. Everyone should be concerned, since bees are so essential to the foodchain that we literally might not be able to live without them.

I have heard various theories about the cause, but none so compelling as in this video. It takes 10 minutes, but boy, does it appear to nail down the reason!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_XnvZAcM0U

The questions is, what are we going to do about it? I, for one, am emailing a link to this to my congressman. Perhaps you could figure out something else to do that may make a difference.

The ball is in your court.

Good luck!

[Snook]

European honey bees are an introduced species who's sole purpose was to provide honey to early settlers. They have caused great harm to native bee populations and their demise would not cause many real problems. The honey industry and giant monoculture farming operations couldn't survive without them but the native bees would be happy.

In news reports there seems to be great joy in reporting about the bee collapse with all of the required doomsday predictions about human starvation. None of these predictions are realistic because honey bees are not required for much of our food. They are, however, required in large agricultural operations where a sterile, bugless environment is prefered. These operations are addicted to honey bee fertilization and will go out of business without introduced bee hives. This is a good example of industrial farms' misguided attempts to increase profits at the expense of common sense. Bankruptcy for these operations might actually be a good thing for humans in geneal, though we'll have to say goodby to cheap almonds.

The miilions of pounds of pesticides being used on farms is obviously a bad idea and with only a bit of reflection could be considered a form of mass insanity. There are many pesticides currently being used that are lethal to honey bees. The honey bee has only become the new poster child for reducing pesticides or EMF's or whatever the cause du jour is now.

The illness and death of millions of honey bees is very sad and is probably caused by human deeds. Showing concern for disappearing bees by equating it with our own survival is wrong and confuses the much deeper issues with shallow, selfish ones.

Most of you have probably heard that our honey bees are disappearing in alarming numbers. Everyone should be concerned, since bees are so essential to the foodchain that we literally might not be able to live without them.

I have heard various theories about the cause, but none so compelling as in this video. It takes 10 minutes, but boy, does it appear to nail down the reason!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_XnvZAcM0U

The questions is, what are we going to do about it? I, for one, am emailing a link to this to my congressman. Perhaps you could figure out something else to do that may make a difference.

The ball is in your court.

Good luck!

[Lenny]

As a bee keeper I find your notion interesting. As one bee hive "feeds" or is responsible for about 120 people (food wise) one can see that what you are pointing towards is starvation. If you wish to remove 1/3 of our food from the tables of the world, and thus reduce world population in many countries, then I suppose you have a point. Practically if you wish to have food prices go up substantially, and promulgate this notion of too much food due to bees, then your point may be valid. While locally we all me fatter than we wish, we, as well as other places need bees. They have an additive nature to begin with. If you wish to look into a more "sustainable" approach to beekeeping, for a family or person, then google Top Bar Hive, or Kenyan Bee Hive.
If you find malnutrition, starvation, and poor health to be a life style that you wish to politicize, and not address your concerns via other methods, then you may have a valid point. But I don't think so.

European honey bees are an introduced species who's sole purpose was to provide honey to early settlers. They have caused great harm to native bee populations and their demise would not cause many real problems. The honey industry and giant monoculture farming operations couldn't survive without them but the native bees would be happy.

In news reports there seems to be great joy in reporting about the bee collapse with all of the required doomsday predictions about human starvation. None of these predictions are realistic because honey bees are not required for much of our food. They are, however, required in large agricultural operations where a sterile, bugless environment is prefered. These operations are addicted to honey bee fertilization and will go out of business without introduced bee hives. This is a good example of industrial farms' misguided attempts to increase profits at the expense of common sense. Bankruptcy for these operations might actually be a good thing for humans in geneal, though we'll have to say goodby to cheap almonds.

The miilions of pounds of pesticides being used on farms is obviously a bad idea and with only a bit of reflection could be considered a form of mass insanity. There are many pesticides currently being used that are lethal to honey bees. The honey bee has only become the new poster child for reducing pesticides or EMF's or whatever the cause du jour is now.

The illness and death of millions of honey bees is very sad and is probably caused by human deeds. Showing concern for disappearing bees by equating it with our own survival is wrong and confuses the much deeper issues with shallow, selfish ones.

[Sara S]

This seems very logical, but I remember several years ago, when the decline in honey bees was first noticed, an article in the SF Chronicle that attributed the decline to an infestation, into the hives, of some kind of mite (if I recall correctly). The article also had drawings of the four or so other varieties of bees here, which are usually sufficient to pollinate the later-blooming crops. This was so because the other bees nested in the ground, rather than in trees, and so emerged later in the spring than the honey bees. The main need for the honey bees was for the almond farmers in the Central Valley, since almonds bloom earlier than most crops.

Sara

European honey bees are an introduced species who's sole purpose was to provide honey to early settlers. They have caused great harm to native bee populations and their demise would not cause many real problems. The honey industry and giant monoculture farming operations couldn't survive without them but the native bees would be happy.

In news reports there seems to be great joy in reporting about the bee collapse with all of the required doomsday predictions about human starvation. None of these predictions are realistic because honey bees are not required for much of our food. They are, however, required in large agricultural operations where a sterile, bugless environment is prefered. These operations are addicted to honey bee fertilization and will go out of business without introduced bee hives. This is a good example of industrial farms' misguided attempts to increase profits at the expense of common sense. Bankruptcy for these operations might actually be a good thing for humans in geneal, though we'll have to say goodby to cheap almonds.

The miilions of pounds of pesticides being used on farms is obviously a bad idea and with only a bit of reflection could be considered a form of mass insanity. There are many pesticides currently being used that are lethal to honey bees. The honey bee has only become the new poster child for reducing pesticides or EMF's or whatever the cause du jour is now.

The illness and death of millions of honey bees is very sad and is probably caused by human deeds. Showing concern for disappearing bees by equating it with our own survival is wrong and confuses the much deeper issues with shallow, selfish ones.

[Zeno Swijtink]

The experts are still battling it out on Bee Colony Collapse Disorder. See recent letter in Science, which also exposes some international tension and stings.

*****


Science 8 February 2008:
Vol. 319. no. 5864, pp. 724 - 725
DOI: 10.1126/science.319.5864.724c

LETTERS
The Latest Buzz About Colony Collapse Disorder

The Report "A metagenomic survey of microbes in honey bee colony collapse disorder" (D. L. Cox-Foster et al., 12 October 2007, p. 283) identified Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) as a putative marker for colony collapse disorder (CCD). It also purports to show a relationship between U.S. colony declines as early as 2004 and importations of Australian honeybees. We believe these links are tenuous for several reasons: (i) Importations of Australian honeybees to the United States did not commence until 2005. (ii) No evidence is presented for a causal link between IAPV and CCD. Koch's postulates, as modified for viruses by Rivers (1), were not demonstrated. Several CCD colonies were free of IAPV and the "shivering phenotype," and the death of bees close to the hive associated with IAPV in Israel (2) was not observed in CCD colonies. (iii) The case definition for CCD is ambiguous, and the symptoms are indistinguishable from those of the normal winter colony collapse reported in the United States since the late 1980s and attributed to Nosema infection and/or the secondary effects of varroa (3). Many scientists are unconvinced that CCD is a new disorder (4). (iv) Members of the Kashmir bee virus complex (including IAPV) persist as nonacute (harmless) infections in honeybee colonies (5). They are opportunists and only cause acute infection in association with a primary pathogen (such as Nosema apis) (6). (v) Neither CCD nor large-scale, unexplained mortality events have occurred in the Australian bee industry. The implication that the absence of varroa in Australia may explain the absence of CCD is incorrect. Modeling has shown that fast-replicating viruses (such as IAPV) cannot cause colony collapse when associated with varroa (7). (vi) Other countries reporting CCD (such as Greece, Poland, and Spain) have not imported bees from Australia.

A followup paper by coauthors on the Science Report has now been published in the American Bee Journal (8) describing isolation of IAPV from specimens of Apis mellifera collected within the United States in 2002. This is more than 2 years prior to the commencement of importation of Australian packaged bees. It would now be appropriate for the authors of the Science Report to issue a retraction of the claims linking CCD to importation of Australian bees.

Future collaboration between United States and Australian scientists can only lead to a better understanding of colony collapse and IAPV and result in more secure trade for package honeybees to meet the growing demands of the United States pollination industry.

Denis Anderson
CSIRO Entomology
Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
Iain J. East
Office of the Chief Veterinary Officer
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Barton, ACT 2600, Australia
References
1. T. M. Rivers, J. Bacteriol. 33, 1 (1937).
2. E. Maori, E. Tanne, I. Sela, Virology 362, 342 (2007).
3. M. Sanford, Bee Cult. 135, 38 (2007).
4. E. Stokstad, Science 316, 970 (2007).
5. D. L. Anderson, A. J. Gibbs, J. Gen. Virol. 69, 1617 (1988).
6. D. L. Anderson, Am. Bee J. 131, 767 (1991).
7. S. J. Martin, J. Appl. Ecol. 38, 1082 (2001).
8. Y. Chen, J. D. Evans, Am. Bee J. 147, 1027 (2007).

Response

In their letter, Anderson and East suggest that CCD is an ambiguous disorder consistent with normal winter losses. We do not agree. CCD is characterized by a rapid loss of adult bees; excess brood, in all stages, abandoned in the hive; low levels of varroa; and a lack of dead bees in or near the hive. In CCD, levels of varroa do not reach those associated with normal winter losses, distinguishing CCD from colony declines attributed to parasitic mites. Although Anderson and East imply that we claim to have determined the cause of CCD, the final paragraph of our paper states, "We have not proven a causal relationship between any infectious agent and CCD.…"

The notion that all viruses within a phylogenetic group can only present as a single syndrome is invalid. Differences in virulence are common even among closely related viruses (1) and may reflect differences in the host, the microbe, or both. Indeed, genetically distinct lineages of IAPV sequences found in Israel differ in pathogenicity (2). With regards to varroa, most evidence points to a link between bee viruses and varroa and indicates that varroa acts as both a vector and an activator of latent viruses (3). Finally, given work from Anderson describing "Disappearing Disorder," it is not clear that Australia is free of unexplained losses of honey bees (4).

We appreciate that research on products important to international trade may lead into politically and economically sensitive territory. However, trade issues should not color research. Anderson and East note that subsequent work from our group indicates the presence of IAPV in bees in the United States as early as 2002 (5), predating recognition of CCD or the formal importation of bees from Australia. Infectious agents, including IAPV, do not respect national boundaries. IAPV is not confined to the United States or Australia. It has also been found in bees in Israel and royal jelly from Manchuria. We anticipate that with the new focus on IAPV and the distribution of diagnostic reagents, we will learn that it is even more widely distributed. Nonetheless, IAPV lineages have now been found in U.S. bees; one of them correlates genetically with IAPV found in bees in Australian shipments. The presence of IAPV strains in older U.S. samples does not eliminate a role for this virus in CCD.

Diana Cox-Foster
Department of Entomology
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802, USA
Sean Conlan
Center for Infection and Immunity
Mailman School of Public Health
Columbia University
New York, NY 10032, USA
Edward C. Holmes
Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics,
Department of Biology
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802, USA

Fogarty International Center
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
Gustavo Palacios
Center for Infection and Immunity
Mailman School of Public Health
Columbia University
New York, NY 10032, USA
Abby Kalkstein
Department of Entomology
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802, USA
Jay D. Evans
Bee Research Laboratory
USDA-ARS
Beltsville, MD 20705, USA
Nancy A. Moran
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721, USA

The Center for Insect Science
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Phenix-Lan Quan
Center for Infection and Immunity
Mailman School of Public Health
Columbia University
New York, NY 10032, USA
David Geiser
Department of Plant Pathology
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802, USA
Thomas Briese
Center for Infection and Immunity
Mailman School of Public Health
Columbia University
New York, NY 10032, USA
Mady Hornig
Center for Infection and Immunity
Mailman School of Public Health
Columbia University
New York, NY 10032, USA
Jeffrey Hui
Center for Infection and Immunity
Mailman School of Public Health
Columbia University
New York, NY 10032, USA
Dennis Vanengelsdorp
Department of Entomology
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802, USA

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture
Bureau of Plant Industry-Apiculture
Harrisburg, PA 17110, USA
Jeffery S. Pettis
Bee Research Laboratory
USDA-ARS
Beltsville, MD 20705, USA
W. Ian Lipkin
Center for Infection and Immunity
Mailman School of Public Health
Columbia University
New York, NY 10032, USA
References
1. A. C. Brault et al., Nat. Genet. 39, 1162 (2007).
2. E. Maori et al., J. Gen. Virol. 88, 3428 (2007).
3. M. Shen, X. Yang, D. Cox-Foster, L. Cui, Virology 342, 141 (2005).
4. D. Anderson, Rural Industries Research and Development Council Publication #04/152 (2004).
5. Y. Chen, J. D. Evans, Am. Bee J. 147, 1027 (2007).


The editors suggest the following Related Resources on Science sites:
In Science Magazine
REPORTS
A Metagenomic Survey of Microbes in Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder
Diana L. Cox-Foster, Sean Conlan, Edward C. Holmes, Gustavo Palacios, Jay D. Evans, Nancy A. Moran, Phenix-Lan Quan, Thomas Briese, Mady Hornig, David M. Geiser, Vince Martinson, Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Abby L. Kalkstein, Andrew Drysdale, Jeffrey Hui, Junhui Zhai, Liwang Cui, Stephen K. Hutchison, Jan Fredrik Simons, Michael Egholm, Jeffery S. Pettis, and W. Ian Lipkin (12 October 2007)
Science 318 (5848), 283. [DOI: 10.1126/science.1146498]

[Valley Oak]

I heard somewhere that the recent arrival in the United States of the 'Africanized bees' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africanized_bee) will eventually replace current bee populations in the North America but this will take between 10 and 20 years. This is supposed to be the case because, although slightly smaller, the Africanized bee is much, much tougher than our docile breeds, which have been bred down to be ideal for the commercial production of honey. Most breeds present in North America are not even native to this continent. These observations say a lot.

The following link has an animated map showing the A-bee's migration pattern in the United States from 1990 to 2003:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Killerbees_ani.gif

The downside is that the A-bees are ferocious and have already killed people in Texas in recent years, as they were arriving in this country through their natural course of migration. An advantage to the A-bee is that it produces more honey than the commercial breeds. The same is true of Asian breeds but no bees from Asia are present in North America.

I have had a few colonies of regular bees myself in the past. I bought them at 'Bee Kind' in Sebastopol.

Edward

Most of you have probably heard that our honey bees are disappearing in alarming numbers. Everyone should be concerned, since bees are so essential to the foodchain that we literally might not be able to live without them.

I have heard various theories about the cause, but none so compelling as in this video. It takes 10 minutes, but boy, does it appear to nail down the reason!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_XnvZAcM0U

The questions is, what are we going to do about it? I, for one, am emailing a link to this to my congressman. Perhaps you could figure out something else to do that may make a difference.

The ball is in your court.

Good luck!

[Lenny]

As I understand it, or recall, the 1990s had an introduction of a mite called verona, that diminishes a colony, and while not under "control" it is possible for a colony to "live" with them, but if poorly managed, the colony dies. Also, bees, on their own, would rather NOT pollinate almonds, but with mass production/application the Modesto area will be filled with professionals and their hives. Whole different kettle of fish. Around here the main reason for bees is simply the pleasure of it, though some do make $ off of it.
From my POV, top bar hives is the way to go. Easy, cheap, low tech, and something folks can do.

This seems very logical, but I remember several years ago, when the decline in honey bees was first noticed, an article in the SF Chronicle that attributed the decline to an infestation, into the hives, of some kind of mite (if I recall correctly). The article also had drawings of the four or so other varieties of bees here, which are usually sufficient to pollinate the later-blooming crops. This was so because the other bees nested in the ground, rather than in trees, and so emerged later in the spring than the honey bees. The main need for the honey bees was for the almond farmers in the Central Valley, since almonds bloom earlier than most crops.

Sara

[Sasu]

[QUOTE=Zeno Swijtink;50204]The experts are still battling it out on Bee Colony Collapse Disorder. >

Sounds familiar.................here's another link:
https://www.hese-project.org/hese-uk...mr.php?id=bees

Bees that vanished when a house went wireless
There was only one snag with Ryan Ferguson’s new home, a three-storey Georgian house in Bath. When the 29-year-old digital sales director moved in three years ago, he found 30 nests of bees in his attic. ‘They got everywhere𔄩, he says. ‘In the shower, the windows, the light fittings. It used to be quite dangerous. You would walk about at night without shoes on and they’d be all over the floor.’
He twice called in exterminators, but the bees just came back. Then, last summer, he installed a WiFi system. They left and never returned.
reported Independent on Sunday, 22/04/07

[cloudwalker]

I've been a beekeeper for over 20 years and I do live honeybee removal as a business. It would take me hours to respond in detail to every point that has been made in this thread....but I'd like to at least say that much of what you folks have written is erroneous/incorrect....disinformation.

It's tempting to repeat something that we've heard that is interesting although unreliable, and even sites on the internet that we read may be inaccurate, but if you really want to better understand what's going on with the honeybees....then do some thorough research.

....sorry to sound peeved and righteous, but it's frustrating to spend as much time as I do trying to educate people about bees.....and then to read a thread where people who have a shallow understanding of the topic make statements parading as fact that are so far from the truth.

I don't keep abreast to the latest CCD research developments....but here's a couple of websites that I've been reading lately that might be a start for further honeybee understanding.
https://www.celsias.com/2007/04/13/c...#comment-41264
https://www.beesource.com/news/index.htm

[nicofrog]

OK folks !
time for some truly inaccurate hearsay evidence from a non-beekeeper
I heard that the bees just seem to leave and not come back, not "swarm" which is normal inconvenient bee behavior, just not come back, even with the queen still at home. I heard someone left a cellphone that was turned on near a hive, and the bees would not return. this could be easily tested, and if it is true, perhaps cell towers could be a concern. any bee keepers have hives near a cell tower!?
thanks for all the scientific info,interesting,incomprehensible,but interesting! N

I've been a beekeeper for over 20 years and I do live honeybee removal as a business. It would take me hours to respond in detail to every point that has been made in this thread....but I'd like to at least say that much of what you folks have written is erroneous/incorrect....disinformation.

It's tempting to repeat something that we've heard that is interesting although unreliable, and even sites on the internet that we read may be inaccurate, but if you really want to better understand what's going on with the honeybees....then do some thorough research.

....sorry to sound peeved and righteous, but it's frustrating to spend as much time as I do trying to educate people about bees.....and then to read a thread where people who have a shallow understanding of the topic make statements parading as fact that are so far from the truth.

I don't keep abreast to the latest CCD research developments....but here's a couple of websites that I've been reading lately that might be a start for further honeybee understanding.
https://www.celsias.com/2007/04/13/c...#comment-41264
https://www.beesource.com/news/index.htm

[Zeno Swijtink]

Still Seeking a Cause of Colony Collapse Disorder

___________________________________________

ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Kim Kaplan, (301) 504-1637, [email protected]
May 5, 2008
--View this report online, plus photos and related stories, at www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr
___________________________________________


The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the Apiary Inspectors of America have conducted a combined survey of beekeepers to get a snapshot of how well managed colonies made it through the winter of 2007-08.

Surveyed beekeepers reported a total loss of about 36.1 percent of their honey bee colonies, up about 13.5 percent from the previous winter. Losses attributed to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) appear to be about the same, with just over one-third (36 percent) of the operations reporting some lost colonies in which all adult bees disappeared, a primary symptom of CCD, according to Jeff Pettis, research leader of the ARS Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Md.

The combined survey, which was conducted by telephone interview, checked on nearly 19 percent of the country's 2.44 million colonies.

ARS is continuing to vigorously seek the cause or causes of CCD.

One issue complicating such research is that, so far, researchers only have samples taken after a CCD incident is reported. With just the one set of samples, especially since the adult bees have disappeared, researchers cannot look for specific changes in affected bee colonies preceding the collapse.

To deal with this, in February 2007, Pettis and cooperators from universities and states began taking samples about every six weeks from cooperating migratory beekeepers who move their colonies to provide pollination. Two of the apiaries being sampled had suffered outbreaks of CCD in 2006.

Some of these apiaries did have a CCD incident in late 2007 or early 2008. The stored samples will hopefully give researchers an opportunity to see what changed, and more direction to find the cause or causes.

Read more about CCD research by ARS in the May/June issue of Agricultural Research magazine, available online at: https://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archi...colony0508.htm.

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.

[Valley Oak]

I just heard beekeeper and artist, Robert Keller, speak at SSU last Tuesday for a Visiting Art Lecture Series class. Keller, as well as being a renowned artist, is part of a project to develop a strong genetic strain of bees that is resistant to the varroa mites, which are responsible for the collapse of most of the wild honeybee colonies.

Keller said that the Africanized honeybee that has arrived recently in Southwestern U.S., especially Arizona, is resistant to the varroa mite. Keller stressed that the Africanized bees are a problem because they are ferocious and attack people.

Keller stated that the recent enthusiasm among beekeepers to import Russian honeybees, because they can thrive in cold climates, will eventually lead to cross breeding with the Africanized strain. This new super breed of mite resistant bees, Keller said, will gradually cover the entire map of the United States.

In my humble opinion, in another 50 years, the old European honeybee here in the states will become extinct and replaced by the new, ferocious Russian-African bee. The problem of Colony Collapse Disorder will be solved and the new problem of deadly bee attacks will be created.

So there,

Edward

[Lenny]

I just heard beekeeper and artist, Robert Keller, speak at SSU last Tuesday for a Visiting Art Lecture Series class. Keller, as well as being a renowned artist, is part of a project to develop a strong genetic strain of bees that is resistant to the varroa mites, which are responsible for the collapse of most of the wild honeybee colonies.
Keller said that the Africanized honeybee that has arrived recently in Southwestern U.S., especially Arizona, is resistant to the varroa mite. Keller stressed that the Africanized bees are a problem because they are ferocious and attack people. Keller stated that the recent enthusiasm among beekeepers to import Russian honeybees, because they can thrive in cold climates, will eventually lead to cross breeding with the Africanized strain. This new super breed of mite resistant bees, Keller said, will gradually cover the entire map of the United States.
In my humble opinion, in another 50 years, the old European honeybee here in the states will become extinct and replaced by the new, ferocious Russian-African bee. The problem of Colony Collapse Disorder will be solved and the new problem of deadly bee attacks will be created. Edward

A lot of folks around here believe that proper hive management will overcome the varoa mite. We just need to "understand" and anticipate what these 160 million year old guys will do, and assist them before the stress sets into the hive. Importing foreign bees is probably the thing that is knocking our bees out of the box, so to speak. That's how we got the varoa mites. Now folks are bringing in (against the law) Australian bees. Also the Russians were not bred for Mediterranean climate, so I am sure they will bring more problems than worth.
The aggressive African/Brazilian bees beat out the mite situation as they have smaller cells. The mites get into the 5.4 mm cell of the bees around here, and do not do well with the 4.7mm cells of the African ladies'. Read recently that cross breeding in Mexico is producing a less agressive African bee that one may use for honey gathering. Wiki reports that the African bees are in Santa Barbara County, but then anybody can say anything there. If so, then about 3 to 5 years and we can expect them here.

[Valley Oak]

I think we should reintroduce the Asian bees, which were the ones that brought the mites in the first place, because they have evolved with the mite and are resistant to it. If we cross breed the Asians with the Russians and the Africans then we will have one mighty honeybee! A ferocious, mass-honey-producing leviathan, resistant to anything and anyone, which will cover the globe from pole to pole.

Edward

A lot of folks around here believe that proper hive management will overcome the varoa mite. We just need to "understand" and anticipate what these 160 million year old guys will do, and assist them before the stress sets into the hive. Importing foreign bees is probably the thing that is knocking our bees out of the box, so to speak. That's how we got the varoa mites. Now folks are bringing in (against the law) Australian bees. Also the Russians were not bred for Mediterranean climate, so I am sure they will bring more problems than worth.
The aggressive African/Brazilian bees beat out the mite situation as they have smaller cells. The mites get into the 5.4 mm cell of the bees around here, and do not do well with the 4.7mm cells of the African ladies'. Read recently that cross breeding in Mexico is producing a less agressive African bee that one may use for honey gathering. Wiki reports that the African bees are in Santa Barbara County, but then anybody can say anything there. If so, then about 3 to 5 years and we can expect them here.

[Zeno Swijtink]

Pesticides: Germany Bans Chemicals Linked To Honeybee Devastation

by Alison Benjamin

Germany has banned a family of pesticides that are blamed for the deaths of millions of honeybees. The German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) has suspended the registration for eight pesticide seed treatment products used in rapeseed oil and sweetcorn.



The move follows reports from German beekeepers in the Baden-Württemberg region that two thirds of their bees died earlier this month following the application of a pesticide called clothianidin.

“It’s a real bee emergency,” said Manfred Hederer, president of the German Professional Beekeepers’ Association. “50-60% of the bees have died on average and some beekeepers have lost all their hives.”

Tests on dead bees showed that 99% of those examined had a build-up of clothianidin. The chemical, produced by Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of the German chemical giant Bayer, is sold in Europe under the trade name Poncho. It was applied to the seeds of sweetcorn planted along the Rhine this spring. The seeds are treated in advance of being planted or are sprayed while in the field.

The company says an application error by the seed company which failed to use the glue-like substance that sticks the pesticide to the seed, led to the chemical getting into the air.

Bayer spokesman Dr Julian Little told the BBC’s Farming Today that misapplication is highly unusual. “It is an extremely rare event and has not been seen anywhere else in Europe,” he said.

Clothianidin, like the other neonicotinoid pesticides that have been temporarily suspended in Germany, is a systemic chemical that works its way through a plant and attacks the nervous system of any insect it comes into contact with. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency it is “highly toxic” to honeybees.

This is not the first time that Bayer, one of the world’s leading pesticide manufacturers with sales of €5.8bn (£4.6bn) in 2007, has been blamed for killing honeybees.

In the United States, a group of beekeepers from North Dakota is taking the company to court after losing thousands of honeybee colonies in 1995, during a period when oilseed rape in the area was treated with imidacloprid. A third of honeybees were killed by what has since been dubbed colony collapse disorder.

Bayer’s best selling pesticide, imidacloprid, sold under the name Gaucho in France, has been banned as a seed dressing for sunflowers in that country since 1999, after a third of French honeybees died following its widespread use. Five years later it was also banned as a sweetcorn treatment in France. A few months ago, the company’s application for clothianidin was rejected by French authorities.

Bayer has always maintained that imidacloprid is safe for bees if correctly applied. “Extensive internal and international scientific studies have confirmed that Gaucho does not present a hazard to bees,” said Utz Klages, a spokesman for Bayer CropScience.

Last year, Germany’s Green MEP, Hiltrud Breyer, tabled an emergency motion calling for this family of pesticides to be banned across Europe while their role in killing honeybees were thoroughly investigated. Her action follows calls for a ban from beekeeping associations and environmental organisations across Europe.

Philipp Mimkes, spokesman for the German-based Coalition Against Bayer Dangers, said: “We have been pointing out the risks of neonicotinoids for almost 10 years now. This proves without a doubt that the chemicals can come into contact with bees and kill them. These pesticides shouldn’t be on the market.”

© 2008 The Guardian

[amalia]

Makes me wonder if any of the chemicals sprayed on the vineyards are affecting our bee population in Sonoma Co?



by Alison Benjamin

Germany has banned a family of pesticides that are blamed for the deaths of millions of honeybees. The German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) has suspended the registration for eight pesticide seed treatment products used in rapeseed oil and sweetcorn.



The move follows reports from German beekeepers in the Baden-Württemberg region that two thirds of their bees died earlier this month following the application of a pesticide called clothianidin.

“It’s a real bee emergency,” said Manfred Hederer, president of the German Professional Beekeepers’ Association. “50-60% of the bees have died on average and some beekeepers have lost all their hives.”

Tests on dead bees showed that 99% of those examined had a build-up of clothianidin. The chemical, produced by Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of the German chemical giant Bayer, is sold in Europe under the trade name Poncho. It was applied to the seeds of sweetcorn planted along the Rhine this spring. The seeds are treated in advance of being planted or are sprayed while in the field.

The company says an application error by the seed company which failed to use the glue-like substance that sticks the pesticide to the seed, led to the chemical getting into the air.

Bayer spokesman Dr Julian Little told the BBC’s Farming Today that misapplication is highly unusual. “It is an extremely rare event and has not been seen anywhere else in Europe,” he said.

Clothianidin, like the other neonicotinoid pesticides that have been temporarily suspended in Germany, is a systemic chemical that works its way through a plant and attacks the nervous system of any insect it comes into contact with. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency it is “highly toxic” to honeybees.

This is not the first time that Bayer, one of the world’s leading pesticide manufacturers with sales of €5.8bn (£4.6bn) in 2007, has been blamed for killing honeybees.

In the United States, a group of beekeepers from North Dakota is taking the company to court after losing thousands of honeybee colonies in 1995, during a period when oilseed rape in the area was treated with imidacloprid. A third of honeybees were killed by what has since been dubbed colony collapse disorder.

Bayer’s best selling pesticide, imidacloprid, sold under the name Gaucho in France, has been banned as a seed dressing for sunflowers in that country since 1999, after a third of French honeybees died following its widespread use. Five years later it was also banned as a sweetcorn treatment in France. A few months ago, the company’s application for clothianidin was rejected by French authorities.

Bayer has always maintained that imidacloprid is safe for bees if correctly applied. “Extensive internal and international scientific studies have confirmed that Gaucho does not present a hazard to bees,” said Utz Klages, a spokesman for Bayer CropScience.

Last year, Germany’s Green MEP, Hiltrud Breyer, tabled an emergency motion calling for this family of pesticides to be banned across Europe while their role in killing honeybees were thoroughly investigated. Her action follows calls for a ban from beekeeping associations and environmental organisations across Europe.

Philipp Mimkes, spokesman for the German-based Coalition Against Bayer Dangers, said: “We have been pointing out the risks of neonicotinoids for almost 10 years now. This proves without a doubt that the chemicals can come into contact with bees and kill them. These pesticides shouldn’t be on the market.”

© 2008 The Guardian[/quote]

[Moon]

OK, so say i get my piece of land and want to keep bees on it, just to help keep up
the number of bees around. If i occasionally get some honey out of it, so much the better,
but planet-healing and my fondness for bees themselves are primary. I'm definitely
going to make sure i understand and practice good hive management. I'm definitely
not going to buy any bees that could kill someone--a frisky cat, f'rinstance. So what
kind of bees to i buy to establish the initial hive(s)? Or is it possible to know yet?

A lot of folks around here believe that proper hive management will overcome the varoa mite. We just need to "understand" and anticipate what these 160 million year old guys will do, and assist them before the stress sets into the hive. Importing foreign bees is probably the thing that is knocking our bees out of the box, so to speak. That's how we got the varoa mites. Now folks are bringing in (against the law) Australian bees. Also the Russians were not bred for Mediterranean climate, so I am sure they will bring more problems than worth.
The aggressive African/Brazilian bees beat out the mite situation as they have smaller cells. The mites get into the 5.4 mm cell of the bees around here, and do not do well with the 4.7mm cells of the African ladies'. Read recently that cross breeding in Mexico is producing a less aggressive African bee that one may use for honey gathering. Wiki reports that the African bees are in Santa Barbara County, but then anybody can say anything there. If so, then about 3 to 5 years and we can expect them here.

[Lenny]

Bee Kind, a store on the busy street in Sebastopol, across from Starbucks, has small classes as well as big help and merchandise.
https://bearfoothoney.com/
over on Guerneville Road is another very friendly store. They got a ton of bees. Now is the right time to get started. Before the blackberry bushes set, cause that is the real beginning of summer.

OK, so say i get my piece of land and want to keep bees on it, just to help keep up
the number of bees around. If i occasionally get some honey out of it, so much the better,
but planet-healing and my fondness for bees themselves are primary. I'm definitely
going to make sure i understand and practice good hive management. I'm definitely
not going to buy any bees that could kill someone--a frisky cat, f'rinstance. So what
kind of bees to i buy to establish the initial hive(s)? Or is it possible to know yet?

A lot of folks around here believe that proper hive management will overcome the varoa mite. We just need to "understand" and anticipate what these 160 million year old guys will do, and assist them before the stress sets into the hive. Importing foreign bees is probably the thing that is knocking our bees out of the box, so to speak. That's how we got the varoa mites. Now folks are bringing in (against the law) Australian bees. Also the Russians were not bred for Mediterranean climate, so I am sure they will bring more problems than worth.
The aggressive African/Brazilian bees beat out the mite situation as they have smaller cells. The mites get into the 5.4 mm cell of the bees around here, and do not do well with the 4.7mm cells of the African ladies'. Read recently that cross breeding in Mexico is producing a less aggressive African bee that one may use for honey gathering. Wiki reports that the African bees are in Santa Barbara County, but then anybody can say anything there. If so, then about 3 to 5 years and we can expect them here.