UK Bees going extinct in 10 years

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=DmFYm59udzo

Honeybee deaths reaching crisis point

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/12/conservation.wildlife1?gusrc=rss&feed=environment
snip...

Farming minister, Lord Rooker, has predicted the demise of the honeybee within a decade. Last November, he told parliament: "We do not deny that honeybee health is at risk. Frankly, if nothing is done about it, the honeybee population could be wiped out in 10 years."

Yet the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spends just £1.3m on bee health each year- less than one per cent of the bees' value to the economy - with an additional £200,000 for research.

The National Farmer's Union said it was essential for government to increase its funding of honeybee research. "Research is vital into varroa, bee breeding and the Nosema parasite," said Chris Hartfield, NFU horticultural adviser. "We are talking about food security and world food supplies being put at risk."
more...
They have lost over 30% of their honeybees and they are heading for extinction and there is no more Britain honey all out folks
not until 2009 if your lucky
HUGE LOSSES
Bad Bad News for the Bees and mankind

I was trying to weed and do some harvesting and we were dancing around each other all evening.

My farmer relatives say that this occurs in cycles (but then they don't grow anything commercially that requires bees to pollinate.)

Anywhere! Usually they are all over the Lemonade shake-ups, the trash cans, and following you as you eat cotton candy, etc. It is spooky!

Sounds more like yellow jacket behavior. :shrug:

Our bees wil cover Canteloupe and Watermelon rinds on the compost pile until they dry out.
They will also congregate on any Hummingbird feeder that is dripping.
The stuff in a trash can at a state fair (high sugar) would be a gold mine for hungry HoneyBees.
Cotton Candy might attract more bees than a field of Spring flowers.

maybe California bees are different. :shrug:

....like ALL honeybees in the US, they were imported from Europe.
Our bees are Italian (or of Italian descent).

Yellow Jackets are indigenous, as are all wasps.
They will also feed on dissolved sugar.

Whether it is wasps or bees in the trash depends on whose nest or hive is within foraging range, what other food sources are available, and possible seasonal factors. HoneyBees will stop foraging after dark, and if the temperature drops below a specific point. I'm not sure about wasps.


Our bees are joined by local wasps and some butterflies feeding on the watermelon and cantaloupe rinds in the compost, or at a dripping Hummingbird feeder. Our bees far outnumber the local wasps on our hilltop, and can crowd out a foraging wasp by sheer numbers.

Factory Farmed Commercial Bees may be part of the problem (in addition to pesticides, herbicides, GM Crops, and noise & air pollution.

Small scale, decentralized, Low Stress, Pesticide/Herbicide/Chemical Free Organic BeeKeeping may be the answer.



We started 2 colonies in the Spring of 2007, and both are healthy and expanding.
We live in a part of the country that is miles away from any Urban centers, Industry, or Factory Farms. There are several "Chemical Free" Organic BeeKeepers within a 10 mile radius, and they have had healthy bees.

This is only anecdotal testimony, but we can't help but believe that Factory Commercial Bees, trucked around the country, kept in extremely high population densities, fed prophylactic antibiotics, and treated with harsh chemicals for parasites can't be good for the Bees.



Our Veggie Garden is remarkably productive,
and the Honey is superb.

the whole story is pesticides and GMO the corporations were counting on big bucks but Bees being put on the endangered list would knock them on their butts

Keep up the great work

UK honey is gone you can't get anymore till 2009 and maybe not then

Your honey in the future maybe priceless

"...humans to follow soon after"

but the government is afraid to put them there when the American people see the poisoning that has been going on with these corporations unfreakingbelievable

:cry:

Honey bees have come back in a big way in my area this year -- according to my own observations and of the tree guy who came to cut some limbs for me and who really knows his stuff. I even have a wild hive on my property.

Honey bees are not native to the US, so it's not surprising there are wild fluctuations in their population -- but I don't think they're going to entirely disappear. Knock on wood.

then the species is endangered of extinction

its statistical analysis

right now Bees should be on the endangered species list but their not

I don't understand why this issue doesn't have more visiblity.

"Yet the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spends just £1.3m on bee health each year- less than one per cent of the bees' value to the economy"

Now that really would be universal healthcare.

Bees love lavender and herbs. Plant some in your garden and the bees will visit and thrive. Mint has an important protein important to bee health.