Bee populations dropping.

[raymondim]

Saw this article today. Wonder how it is going to effect our honey prices in the future. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/05/winter-honeybee-losses/

 

[projectda]

i think it will unless it is reversed. they have been dropping in population for awhile. my friends dad, has his own hives. i havent heard any problems with his hives. so i dont know how big it really is.

 

[Yooper]

i think it will unless it is reversed. they have been dropping in population for awhile. my friends dad, has his own hives. i havent heard any problems with his hives. so i dont know how big it really is.

It's been going on for quite a long time, in Europe and in North American. I have had a friend who lost his hives due to colony collapse disorder.

It's been a downward spiral for a number of years- probably close to 10 years now.

There are lots of reasons (pesticides, the climate) etc.

 

[jhoneycutt]

Funny yall are discussing this and as of today we have decided to move out of an apartment that refuses to do anything at all about a be hive that's in the walls of our apartment. They are honey bees we think and I understand they are protected but come on move the hive and queen somewhere else. Our kids have never been stung by anything and we aren't trying to find out if they are allergic the hard ya know. This is of course the proverbial straw that broke the camels back as there are other maintenance and pest issues that haven't been dealt with as well.

 

[grathan]

I have a bunch of honey and it will keep forever, but the guy I bought it from said the bees flew away right after he took the honey and gave up the hobby saying bees are getting too expensive.

 

[Yankeepride15]

This is one theory: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/06/30/bee.decline.mobile.phones/index.html

 

[Pilgarlic]

Colony collapse disorder still defies explanation. The intricate web of connection between honeybees and crops is massive and fragile. Starting with the bees themselves, apis mellifera, exotics imported originally from Europe. Raised and maintained by huge beekeepers who make most of their money not from honey but from pollination services, these bees are literally trucked across the country like migrant laborers to pollinate successive crops. In addition to being transported back and forth, they are "fed" sugar water to substitute for naturally available nectar which often isn't (naturally available) and fed or exposed to chemicals to control the pests (often also exotics) that ravage their combs and their larvae. Finally, they're exposed to the massive quantities of chemicals that have been approved by the EPA for use in farming despite their proven deleterious effects on bee populations. Why are they declining? Why would they not?? As a side note, in Florida the majority of the plants that allow this exotic honeybee to produce a surplus of honey are also exotics including tupelo and brazilian pepper. Finally, bees are the tip of the iceberg. We happen to KNOW what's happening to their populations because of their economic importance and because we're their innkeepers. We know much, much less about population trends in other pollinating species. The implications for agriculture and even non agricultural plant propagation are potentially staggering.

 

[MmmmBeer]

They have also identified mites as a large part of the problem too.

 

[Bluespark]

There are herbal solutions to the mite problems, but they are labor intensive to produce and hard to market.

We are only paying attention to this issue because it effects us globally, yet species are wiped out by the hundreds daily, without us even knowing how useful they are or how the fit into their ecosystems. Pesticides, other artificial chemicals and various other unnatural processes are having a huge negative effect on our species, never mind the rest of the planet. Sad situation.

 

[fatbloke]

And it can be laid at the door of $/£/€/¥ a.k.a economic "growth".....

 

[oceanbrew]

Colony collapse syndrome does not defy scientists. 20 years ago in France they had the same problem. They traced it back to some sort of herbicide/insecticide. They then proceeded to ban the use of this herbicide/insecticide. They stopped having colony collapse syndrome.
This same herbicide/insecticide is used in the United States regularly. Our government said until you can prove that this herbicide/insecticide is the cause of colony collapse syndrome then we will allow it to continue to used in the United States.
In healthcare it was very similar for sudden infant death syndrome. mini first world countries and many third world countries had figured out that it was caused in most cases by allowing the baby to sleep on its stomach. America ignored the international literature until we ourselves discovered the same thing many, many years after so many third world countries had already know this. We may be the greatest nation in the world, but we are not the best at everything. And unfortunately we do not understand this.

 

[Pilgarlic]

O'brew, I believe you're referring to neonicotinoids. They along with a host of other causes have been suggested or even implicated, and there's good reason to believe they contribute, but CCD remains an enigma. One reason that an "answer" may have eluded us is that we're looking for AN answer, where, in fact, contributing causes are many and those many causes probably interact.

 

[oceanbrew]

I saw a documentary about this issue on PBS. Once the offending agent was removed the French no longer had issues with colony collapse syndrome. Obviously in America corporate profit trumps human rights and help. The documentary concentrated on the fact that the scientific evidence from France was rejected as being insufficient evidence enough to be considered by the American government as valid. The French have this problem and resolved it over 15 years ago. Yet, we still deal with it because of special interest groups. When organizations say a 'variety of factors' this means they do not want their product to be removed from the market. We have yet to remove from the market the offending agent that was found to be both used previously in France and currently in America.
I would love to continue to talk about this but I have to do other things. I do however look forward to your opinion.

 

[Pilgarlic]

The question persists among scientists. PBS may have answered CCD, but science hasn't.

Now, one may say that is only because special interests have corrupted all of science on this issue (you and I might disagree as to whether France is an exception), but that leads only to the well-worn argument as to whether science can be trusted, and I believe it can, at least as well as any other source, on scientific questions. Oh, sure, we need to look at who funds the studies, peer review, et cetera. But, ultimately, science depends upon consensus and, as yet, the scientific literature's consensus is that the causes of CCD remain a matter of some controversy.

As much as I may enjoy the show, FrontLine is ultimately a better source of a gripping story than it is of science.

It's really, really hard to take a stand on a scientific matter in opposition to the consensus of the world scientific community, whether it be on climate change, creationism or CCD, without ultimately having to say "they're all conspiring, corrupt liars". I'm not in the camp that views science this way.

 

[snuesen]

Nature, and ecology by the same token, is naturally chaotic. The more we try to modify it and bend it to our will, the more it will misbehave.

There are a LOT of variables at play here (not just insecticide), and there probably really is no turning back while profits and increasing human population are so central to our decision-making process