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DanG
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Honey Bee Die-off Alarms Beekeepers
| Quote From Source: | What's being called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has now been seen in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and way out in California. Some bee keepers have lost up to 80 percent of their colonies to the mysterious disorder.
"Those are quite scary numbers," said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture's lead apiarist. Whatever kills the bees targets adult workers which die outside the colony — with few adults left inside, either alive or dead. The disorder decimates the worker bee population in a matter of weeks.
Aside from making honey, honey bees are essential for the pollination of tens of million of dollars worth of cash crops all over the United States. That's why almond growers of California, for instance, are taking notice and pledging funds to help identify and fight the honey bee disorder.
Among the possible culprits are a fungus, virus, or a variety of microbes and pesticides. No one knows just yet. On first inspection, the pattern of die-offs resembles something that has been seen in more isolated cases in Louisiana, Texas and Australia, vanEngelsdorp said.
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dsc.discovery.com |
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DanG
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Bee Emergency Stranger Than We Thought
| Quote From Source: | We're in the middle of a bee emergency. Albert Einstein said, "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years left to live." A mysterious ailment called Colony Collapse Disorder is causing agricultural honeybees nationwide to abandon their hives and disappear. It's a kind of mass suicide in the bee world.
Entomologist Jerry Bromenshenk says, "Individual beekeepers are really taking a beating. A guy down in Oklahoma lost 80% of his 13,000 colonies in the last month. In Florida, there are a whole lot of people facing 40, 60 and 80 percent losses. That's huge."
With CCD, most adult honeybees abandon a hive and disappear, abandoning the queen and a remnant of younger bees. This is unheard of, since normally a bee colony will do almost anything to protect its queen. Since the tasks done in the hive are very stratified, bees cannot survive on their own.
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www.unknowncountry.com
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Indy
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Wow now that is creepy.
"Well either way that sure is purdy. If it is global warming then at least the view will be nice before we die." - Fatalwishes |
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FatalWishes
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hrmm sounds like we have 4 years left to live...a little early because that only puts us at 2011....perhaps Albert meant 5 years?
They should take the warning labels off of everything and let stupidity sort itself out.
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DanG
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| Quote From Source: | The cost of almonds, blueberries, cucumbers, apples, peaches and a lot of other foods may soar in the coming months.
"One out of every three bites of food we eat is produced as the result of insect pollination, much of it by bees," said Bruce Broynton, a spokesman for the National Honey Board...
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www.kansas.com |
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Indy
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I guess you never really realize how important these guys are. We for years had yellow jacket problems. I don't recall seeing one around my house this past year.
"Well either way that sure is purdy. If it is global warming then at least the view will be nice before we die." - Fatalwishes |
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Indy
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Now they are talking the economic impact could be disastrous. Forget the economy. You lose your pollinators everything will die.
money.cnn.com
Imagine a mass extinction started by the death of something people would consider to be insignificant. If the bee disappears so do we.
Edit: Here is something to think about. These are tiny creatures. Do we really know how sensitive they are to pollution? I mean you smoke a nest to basically put them to sleep so you can move them. What if while increased CO2 levels are to blame. Perhaps while CO2 level increases don't bother anything else maybe the bees respiratory system can't handle anything over a certain level. Maybe we've crossed the level and the bees are starting to die of CO2 poisoning?
"Well either way that sure is purdy. If it is global warming then at least the view will be nice before we die." - Fatalwishes |
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DanG
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Maybe we've crossed the level and the bees are starting to die of CO2 poisoning?
I wonder if anyone has looked into this ... we know CO2 has
risen over the past years. |
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Indy
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It really makes sense. Humans have a tolerance level when it comes to CO2. If there is too much of it in the air we die. Who knows how sensitive bees are.
"Well either way that sure is purdy. If it is global warming then at least the view will be nice before we die." - Fatalwishes |
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DanG
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Where Are All the Bees?
| Quote From Source: | It is a mystery causing heated debate in the world of beekeeping: What's wrong with the bees? Why are they suddenly and without warning leaving their colonies — and disappearing almost overnight — by the millions in the United States, Canada and Europe?
Nationwide, there are 2.4 million bee colonies that are used in agriculture to pollinate everything from almonds to fruits to flowering plants. Beekeepers estimate that 600,000, about 25 percent of the colonies, have been affected by the mysterious disappearance.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that 27 states from New York to California are now affected by the bee mystery.
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abcnews.go.com
Albert Einstein, quoted in Germany's Der Spiegel, once said, "if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man." |
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DanG
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| Quote From Source: | This is a problem in the US that has been reported in around half the states and has now spread to Canada. The UK and eight other European countries also report the same problem: Spain, Poland, Greece, Croatia, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, and Germany. Jasper Copping reports in the British Telegraph newspaper that in London, over 4,000 hives in London alone, two-thirds of the bees are missing. Sometimes the dead bees are found, but often the bees seem to have simply disappeared.
One of the strangest parts of this whole mystery is that, in London at least, no "robber" bees have invaded the empty hives to make off with the stored honey, which is what usually happens when hives are left empty.
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www.unknowncountry.com |
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DanG
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| Quote From Source: |
The normal winter mortality rate is about 15 per cent. John Chapple, the chairman of the London Beekeepers' Association, who has lost the populations in 30 of his 40 hives, said:"It's frightening. The mortality rate is the highest in living memory and no one seems to know what's behind it."
In Worcestershire and Hereford, of the 20 hives checked, only one had survived. In West Sussex, more than 80 per cent of the colonies had been lost.
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www.telegraph.co.uk |
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Indy
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Oh I have a feeling I know what it is. Too much CO2 in their systems.
"Well either way that sure is purdy. If it is global warming then at least the view will be nice before we die." - Fatalwishes |
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causeiambetta
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might sound stupid but i'm not so sure its CO2 thats the problem.
to make the bees go to sleep they douse the colonies with smoke. the bees don't die if they got a a funnel full of blowing smoke on top of them. then when they wake up, they're back to being normal. it wouldn't make sense if background CO2 levels are making them act in the way thats causing the die offs. |
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DanG
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I think its strange that the abandoned nests aren't being invaded, like there is something wrong with the nest - or the honey.
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FatalWishes
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Mysterious disappearance of US bees creating a buzz
| Quote From Source: |
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US beekeepers have been stung in recent months by the mysterious disappearance of millions of bees threatening honey supplies as well as crops which depend on the insects for pollination.
ADVERTISEMENT
Bee numbers on parts of the east coast and in Texas have fallen by more than 70 percent, while California has seen colonies drop by 30 to 60 percent.
According to estimates from the US
Department of Agriculture, bees are vanishing across a total of 22 states, and for the time being no one really knows why.
"Approximately 40 percent of my 2,000 colonies are currently dead and this is the greatest winter colony mortality I have ever experienced in my 30 years of beekeeping," apiarist Gene Brandi, from the California State Beekeepers Association, told Congress recently.
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Source News. Yahoo
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news.yahoo.com
They should take the warning labels off of everything and let stupidity sort itself out.
Please check out our new website at www.globalwarmingisnotreal.com |
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FatalWishes
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2012
Well if we lose the rest of the bees by next year than that will be the year 2008. Einstein said we would have 4 years to live after that happens wich will put us in the year 2012!!
So of all the events that could happen to wipe us out, this is the one thing nobody would have ever expected. Getting killed by NO honey bees.....who woulda thunk that? 
They should take the warning labels off of everything and let stupidity sort itself out.
Please check out our new website at www.globalwarmingisnotreal.com |
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DanG
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its all about 2012 - I've know this my entire adult life.
just havn't figured out all the details yet... |
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Indy
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| Quoting causeiambetta - posted on 4/7/2007 at 03:08 |
might sound stupid but i'm not so sure its CO2 thats the problem.
to make the bees go to sleep they douse the colonies with smoke. the bees don't die if they got a a funnel full of blowing smoke on top of them. then when they wake up, they're back to being normal. it wouldn't make sense if background CO2 levels are making them act in the way thats causing the die offs.
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CO2 however can poison you and kill you. We all have different tolerance levels. I'd like to see them test this theory out on a few bees and see what happens.
"Well either way that sure is purdy. If it is global warming then at least the view will be nice before we die." - Fatalwishes |
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DanG
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| Quote From Source: | Beekeepers nationwide are opening their hives and finding them empty, a baffling phenomenon that has researchers scratching their heads and farmers worrying about their crops.
The bees are mysteriously vanishing and no one is sure why. Instead of thriving colonies, beekeepers say they're typically finding only a queen and a few attendants left--but no trace of the other bees, not even their bodies.
The cause of colony collapse disorder is unknown, although poor nutrition, mites, diseases and pesticides have all been suspect. There is also concern that some genetically modified crops may be producing pollen or nectar that is problematic for the bees, said Brandi.
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www.cfbf.com |
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causeiambetta
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genetically modified crops? ok, now we know they're grasping for anything at this point |
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DanG
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I think thats a possibility. |
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causeiambetta
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if it is, then the situation is already doomed. genetic modified crops are next to impossible to stop from spreading |
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FatalWishes
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| Quote From Source: | Here is an update to the brief bee story we did a few weeks ago. I've been keeping an eye on the Colony Collapse Disorder phenomenon that is causing a lot of furrowed brows in the U.S., as this may well become the biggest issue of 2007.
Things are getting dire on the U.S. agricultural front, and there are similar reports beginning to filter through from countries in Europe
The sad mystery surrounding the humble honeybee - which is a vital component in $14bn-worth of US agriculture - is beginning to worry even the highest strata of the political class in Washington.
“Hillary Clinton's got interested in this in the last week or so,” said David Hackenberg, the beekeeper leading the drive to publicise their plight.
“And she's not alone,” he said. “There's a lot of Congressmen have called…wanting to know what's going on. It's serious. - BBC
There's still no concrete evidence about what is killing the millions and billions of bees around the country, but there are a lot of guesses.
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Source Celsias
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www.celsias.com
They should take the warning labels off of everything and let stupidity sort itself out.
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Indy
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How do you even begin to combat something like this?
"Well either way that sure is purdy. If it is global warming then at least the view will be nice before we die." - Fatalwishes |
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posted on 2/6/2007 at 20:20
