Fears for crops as shock figures from America show scale of bee catastrophe

from the Guardian UK:



Fears for crops as shock figures from America show scale of bee catastrophe
The world may be on the brink of biological disaster after news that a third of US bee colonies did not survive the winter

Alison Benjamin
The Observer, Sunday 2 May 2010


Disturbing evidence that honeybees are in terminal decline has emerged from the United States where, for the fourth year in a row, more than a third of colonies have failed to survive the winter.

The decline of the country's estimated 2.4 million beehives began in 2006, when a phenomenon dubbed colony collapse disorder (CCD) led to the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of colonies. Since then more than three million colonies in the US and billions of honeybees worldwide have died and scientists are no nearer to knowing what is causing the catastrophic fall in numbers.

The number of managed honeybee colonies in the US fell by 33.8% last winter, according to the annual survey by the Apiary Inspectors of America and the US government's Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

The collapse in the global honeybee population is a major threat to crops. It is estimated that a third of everything we eat depends upon honeybee pollination, which means that bees contribute some £26bn to the global economy.

Potential causes range from parasites, such as the bloodsucking varroa mite, to viral and bacterial infections, pesticides and poor nutrition stemming from intensive farming methods. The disappearance of so many colonies has also been dubbed "Mary Celeste syndrome" due to the absence of dead bees in many of the empty hives. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/02/food-fear-mystery-beehives-collapse

nt

our local, wild bumblebees on a variety of organic and heritage fare.

I grow numerous bee-feeders, including bee balm, bergamot, multiple mints, Joe Pye weed, calendula, berries, goldenrod, apples, lots of clover and various and sundry other wild plants on my weedy 2.5 acres. I have lots of bees, including a strain of bumblebee that appeared in my garden years ago with a citron-colored patch (my orange-butt bees).

Sooner or later BIG FOOD is going to eff up so royally the supermarket shelves will be empty.

Beekeepers could be paid by farmers to nurture them. Not sure it would work, but would it be worth a try?

"itinerant professional beekeepers."
Billions of stressed out Factory Bees being fed Corn Syrup, and trucked across the nation to spread parasites and diseases.

The solution is small scale, decentralized, organic BeeKeepers.



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=280x34941

right? Farmers actually rent hives from beekeepers and bees are taken around the country to fill the need. This has been normal agriculture practice for quite some time now. Orange blossom honey comes from the hives rented by citrus growers to pollinate their crops.

the poor bees live itenerant lives...the stressful lives of the migrant worker. Fed not great diets, and they live on the road all summer and fall traveling from farm to farm, and orchard to orchard,and sucking up a multitude of pesticides along the way.

The vast majority of colonies are kept by humans.

Bees were fed sugar water in the off season but a couple of years ago they switched to feeding the bees high fructose corn syrup. Since that stuff does bad things to humans, it must not be healthy for bees.

Doing tests of the effect GMOs and HFCS has on bees is frowned upon by our corporate food masters.

I refuse to eat it.
Wonder what it does to bees?

And there's good evidence it doesn't have anything to do with GMOs.

CCD is occurring in countries where GMOs aren't grown, for instance.

Oh, and HFCS? That's a laugh.

HFCS has the same fructose amount as honey.

Do you suppose that honey is bad for bees?

There are a number of events that could trigger a massive loss of human life. This is just one of them. It's only a matter of time when it happens. The Earth, when looked at as a living consciousness, will take care of it's self. We are either going to have to somehow come to terms what an optimum population would be and maintain it or face such catastrophes that do it for us. Of course, as it stands catastrophes are in order since the awareness of the masses falls way short of understanding this this concept.

So, maybe after a severe drop in population...we will begin to understand that we must learn to live more in tune with our host to avoid such events.

:toast:

and I heard something similar from a streetcorner preacher.

For me it's just a logical way of observing things. I am not judging anyone. I am just saying we are a long way from being advanced enough to deal with some of the disasters that will come our way... nor advanced enough to make the tough decisions that are necessary to avoid some of them.

A few years ago, we had what they termed a 500 year flood in the Great Basin of the U.S.... it was a catastrophe because permanent housing was built in areas that could possibly flood. Rarely..but no doubt it was a possibility.

500 years ago... the Native Americans could have suffered the same flood and there would be no catastrophe. They would just pick up stakes and move to higher ground.

Just saying... population control is the next step we need to take in order to start living more in tune with our planet and this won't happen anytime soon.

:toast:

corresponds to "living more in tune with our planet." Native Americans most certainly did not live in tune with their environment. They were largely nomadic because they raped the land of natural resourses (game, trees, etc.) and were forced to move into other areas. A widespread flood would have been far more devastating to native populations.

YMMV.

Even with fewer people on the planet, with people of the same mindset in control, there will be oil spills, pollution, industrial accidents, wars, economic depressions, excessive health care costs (at least in the U.S.), Frankenfoods, human exacerbated climate change problems, worker exploitation, and similar problems.

Just blaming "overpopulation" is simplistic reasoning that doesn't address the REAL issue. The real issue is the current economic and political order.

and leaders are those in charge of large corporations also. As it is now... you are correct that we will not see this happen. That is what I said... we are not evolved enough to make logical decisions regarding our over populated society. I think after this ecological disaster in the Gulf, even some of our capitalist leaders will begin to realize they are part of the problem and also part of the solution.

:toast:

The Census Bureau tells us there are almost 7 billion people on the planet. Compare that to 1.5 billion in 1900, only a century ago. Now I'm no mathematician, but those are the numbers and they do look startling.

Yes, human beings have sure made a mess of the place, and Mother Earth, infected and sick from our handiwork, may not be all that unhappy to see us go. And then, surely the universe at large (and it is infinite) could care less whether human beings exist down there on that swirling blue planet or not.

humming in my head (replace the word fish with flowers).

And the native pollinators are doing just fine.

What is now being called CCD is not the only time in history that has seen significant bee population declines.

in my area (Houston.) This time of year, I always have swarms of local bees on my lemon tree and flowering bushes. This year, I have seen only one bee. I was visiting with my father-in-law today and he hasn't seen any at all. This is very unusual.

I think that the cumulative effect of this exposure in addition to so much else that pollutes the environment could very well be weakening bees past the point of endurance.

In addition, bees have become just another monoculture for agribusiness, with a very, very narrowed genetic heritage -- rather like overbred dogs that get hip dysplasia or go blind or have skulls too small for their brains.

Based on the evidence, the human race is overdue for a population crash that will make the Bubonic Plague look tame. I mean, what beyond blind greed can possibly motivate Monsanto to make seeds that are sterile if you try to save them to plant a second year?

I say this with absolutely no joy whatsoever. It's my kids and my grandbabies that are going to have to endure what is to come.

Hekate

However, to answer your question, perhaps they also did it in regards to all the eco-hysteria that surrounds GMO. Making GMO crops sterile means they don't cross with other crops and native species. There may have been a profit motive also, but this is nothing new in the horticulture market. People have been producing patented sterile hybrids for decades.

and I caught a swarm of bees that are smaller and darker than mine in my azaleas this spring doubling my bee goodness.

I see you're in Florida, and they are present there. Have you noticed differences in hive behavior or honey production?

are a russian mix and those not near as vibrant as the swarm bees. Both are more aggressive than italian bees I have kept. I don't think they are africanized as they are not super aggressive and I think behaviour and dna testing is the only way to tell for sure. I plan to do a split this summer of the swarm bees as they are worth expanding.

nt

I don't even know what it is, but it has something like miniature cheeries. I eat 'em if I can beat the birds to 'em. However, they just bloomed a couple of weeks ago. I saw twice as many honey bees in the blossoms than that I have ever seen before.