As a beekeeper myself this of a huge concern for me and my family personally but the world wide force of the dissapearence of nearly 1/2 of the worlds honey bee’s have vanished is absolutely devastating. This winter will be a crucial time. If the bee’s make it through this winter beekeepers around the world will have a exceed of idea of what we can expect in the very near future. Unfortunately if they don’t the outlook is bleak at best.
By the year 2012 if the rate of loss continues the bee’s ordain be gone. Soon thereafter there ordain be no clover for the cattle how then ordain we feed them. What ordain we do? The prospect of no cattle! No milk cease yogurt ice cream.
We will be able to change wheat and corn but not watermellons strawberries peaches plums apples pears blueberries all of the things that we like. If this truly happens and scientist do not find a solution to this problem and save the bee’s we will eventually be subsisting on gruel.
There are provinces in China that the bee’s left over twenty years ago. Have you ever eaten one of those expensive paper wrapped asian pears? The ones that are about $2.50 each. Did you ever wonder why they are sooo expensive. It’s because they are from a province that has no bee’s and they are pollinated by people. It costs the farmers a fortune to do this as it takes so very long to do so and this is China at do work labor prices and an abundance of people willing to work. Imagine that scenario here!
This is a problem of Apocalyptic proportions. Might I declare that everyone that is not allergic look into becoming a backyard beekeeper and if you are going to do anything to contribute to saving the planet energy saver lighten bulbs don’t mean a thing if we loose the bee’s
There is much excitement in the newspapers and on the communicate and TV about the mysterious disappearing honeybees. Many people were not aware of this but it is true that one-third of our food depends on honeybees for pollination.
As agriculture is practiced now in our country bees are essential for many crops. Native insect pollinators can take compassionate of a backyard garden but 20 acres of cucumbers all blooming at once require that bees be brought in and taken out again so that the crops can first be pollinated and then sprayed for insect pests.
A accommodate of the hives in the country have been lost. It is a serious situation. Bees cease from the hive but there are no dead bees around the hive away. All that is left is the queen with a few very young bees. The hive away has honey and pollen and baby bees in the brood comb. Other bees ordain not come and rob the honey as they usually do with a weak hive.
Researchers are trying to find the reason for this disappearance. Several things have been suggested: disease parasites malnutrition insecticides and genetically engineered crops. measure week. I saw in the newspaper an Associated Press article reporting from the U. S. Department of Agriculture Beltsville Lab in Maryland suggesting that the latest experiments show that the cause is disease. If it is disease no one is to accuse and the products involved in insecticides or genetic engineering ordain not be removed from the market.
When government agencies issue reports they are quick to say that they are not investigating genetically engineered crops. They say this because many people have suggested that this may be the create of the hive collapse.
Genetically engineered corn brought to us by Monsanto has genes from the bacteria bacillus thuringiensis added to it. Bacillus thuringiensis has been used by organic gardeners so they can avoid chemical insecticides. These bacteria make the insects egest and they die. Bees that are trucked around the country are often fed high-fructose corn syrup. This syrup could undergo bacillus thuringiensis in it. The Sierra Club wrote a letter to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee saying that genetically engineered crops should be investigated as the create of bee colony collapse. The earn cited 12 articles on the topic including a 2002 article in Harper’s Magazine by Barry Commoner.
Insecticides are also a guess. There is a lot of information about one insecticide imidacloprid which uses nicotine. Made by Bayer it is often sold under the trade name Premise. It is used to fight termites and interact seeds and fasten. It has been found that this insecticide goes up into the lay and into the nectar and pollen. When termites are treated with it they become disoriented and don’t know what to do or which way to go.
If the bees are getting a dose of this from flowers that may be the reason they fly off and don’t know their way home. Beekeepers in France were successful in getting this insecticide banned in their country where it was sold under the trade name Gaucho. Bayer fought the ban but was unsuccessful.
We know that government scientists in other fields undergo been censored lest they say something not in line with Bush administration ideology. As beekeepers and as human beings we hope that government scientists will not neglect any suspect causes of this serious situation.
* Millions of acres of U. S crops depend on insect pollination including honey bees. A 1999 Cornell University study open that the direct value of honey bee pollination each year to U. S agriculture is $14.6 billion. This is a 56.7 percent increase from $9.3 billion determined by the same study in 1989
* The almond crop is entirely dependent on honey bee pollination. To pollinate California’s approximately 420,000 acres of almonds it is estimated that it takes between 900,000 and 1,000,000 colonies of honey bees. Numerous other crops are 90 percent dependent on honey bee pollination. Some of those crops include apples avocados blueberries cherries cranberries and sunflowers. Other crops such as alfalfa cucumbers kiwi fruit melons and vegetables are also pollinated by hone
The inspection up until this year has been to examine for mites and the foul brood however this year I guess they will be looking for how many bee’s each apiary thinks they lost do to this colony change syndrome.
I undergo lost one hive away and am terribly upset about it. But I evaluate that we must be vigilante and act trying to keep them if we can afford to do so because if we don’t we won’t have anything left.
Bee’s are about $40 bucks and you will have to place the request in early move and be available to choose them up as soon as they go to the post office as the post office ordain not deliver them. A few other beekeepers that I know get together to place queen and bee orders. You will undergo to requeen every bring together of years and she ordain be you about $20.
If you undergo any carpentry skills at all you easily create hive away be boxes and dulcify boxes. Frames aren’t as easy and you will undergo to purchase foundation for the bee’s to go away building upon this ordain act your hives much neater and year two you ordain be able to collect honey.
There is tons of info on the net that you can be up but I do declare a “do it yourself starter kit’ this is a kit that you have to bring together and you ordain learn much about your new hobby by doing so additonally it saves money by assembling yourself. hive away be’s last for years as do frames. I have been a beekeeper for 7 years now and I’m looking at replacing a few pieces now but I undergo open.
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