Bees in more trouble than ever
Submitted by theone77 on Wed, 03/24/2010 - 21:12By GARANCE BURKE and SETH BORENSTEIN, Associated Press
MERCED, Calif. – The mysterious 4-year-old crisis of disappearing honeybees is deepening. A quick federal survey indicates a heavy bee die-off this winter, while a new study shows honeybees' pollen and hives laden with pesticides.
Two federal agencies along with regulators in California and Canada are scrambling to figure out what is behind this relatively recent threat, ordering new research on pesticides used in fields and orchards. Federal courts are even weighing in this month, ruling that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency overlooked a requirement when allowing a pesticide on the market.
And on Thursday, chemists at a scientific conference in San Francisco will tackle the issue of chemicals and dwindling bees in response to the new study.
Scientists are concerned because of the vital role bees play in our food supply. About one-third of the human diet is from plants that require pollination from honeybees, which means everything from apples to zucchini.
Link to rest of article below
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100324/ap_on_sc/us_food_and_far...
Also, a previous link on bees disappearing with more detailed information can be found here
My wife notes that colony
My wife notes that colony collapse syndrome showed up shortly after the Fed eliminated some border controls on bee importation from areas where bee diseases are prevalent. She speculates that it's a disease or parasite that was imported with the foreign bees, then spread by the practice of commercial beekeepers moving their colonies around over long distances.
There are LOTS of efficient pollinating insects besides honeybees - including other sorts of bees (many of which don't do colonies). Honeybees are a cheap way to pollinate crops but even if they went extinct it won't destroy agriculture. There are plenty of volunteers for their position.
For our own garden we obtained about three batches of Blue Orchard / Mason bees and suitable prefab hives to get them started. They're native to our area (but relatively rare) and do a great job on things that bloom around April. We're pretty sure that there's a wild/feral population now (if there hadn't been one before) - because we've seen a few showing up in our garden before we pull our own pupae out of the 'fridge for release in the spring.
We've also had some of our hive tubes colonized by the local leaf-cutter bees - which do the same kind of nests (except using leaves and flower petals instead of mud) and do a shift a couple months later. These are well-tuned both to the native plants and crops that bloom in that time period, so we're saving and releasing their pupae, too, and setting up enough nests on a suitable cycle to boost the populations of both in our neighborhood.
Both types are extremely easy to "beekeep". Suitably sized holes drilled in blocks of non-treated lumber (of a non-bug-killing wood) are a cheap way to do it if you don't feel like buying some more convenient prefab nesting structures.
We've also seen some large solitary bees of a third type and several types of pollinating flies hanging out in the garden. So we figure we're not hurting for crop support in our "depression garden".
(Speaking of which: Get started on one NOW if you can. It takes about three years to get the hang of it and be making enough food to put a dent in your "imports". So if things do collapse you want it working well BEFORE the crisis.)
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"Obama’s Economists: ‘Stimulus’ Has Cost $278,000 per Job."
That means: For each job "created or saved" about five were destroyed.
I started keeping bees
When I saw this starting 3 years ago I started keeping bees. I am up to 7 hives this spring on my way to 15 hopefully this summer and 25 next year. You want to help the bees quit putting weed and feed on your lawn. Start planting flowers that have good nectar sources for the bees durning the summer..here in Texas we are talking about Vitex, Anise Hyssop, Lantana, Buttonbush (swampy areas), etc.. Spread some dutch clover on your lawn in the early spring or late fall. Dutch clover will ADD 60lbs of nitrogen to your lawn per acre. HHmmm I wonder why scotts wants to kill that clover with their weed and feed, maybe because it hurts their business.
Some people think a
Some people think a pure-green, grass-only lawn is an ideal and consider clover to be a weed. (It IS hard to eradicate if it gets going.)
My take: Clover is nature's way of telling you to add nitrogen. When I was a tad my family moved into a new house on an area that was essentially sand. Dad spread some topsoil, planted it with a mix of grasses and clover, and mowed it with power mower that left the clippings in place. At first there was a lot of clover. But over the years the soil built up and the grasses squeezed out everything else.
Crabgrass? "It's green, isn't it?" I think the other grasses eventually did it in, too.
The nice thing about such a lawn is that, once a couple varieties of grass emerge as the winner, they tend to STAY the winner.
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"Obama’s Economists: ‘Stimulus’ Has Cost $278,000 per Job."
That means: For each job "created or saved" about five were destroyed.
Nice
Thanks for the info.
I have a dream to be a beekeeper one day, after I buy a house and have some property of my own.
'Always be yourself. Everyone else is taken.' - Oscar Wilde
This needs to be the single most important issue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nycZCoz7HJ4&feature=related
If you think i'm kidding your not playing with a full deck.
We could hang every member of this fraudulent government and most of its military for what is being allowed to happen above our heads. Everything else is a distraction.
How's the farming going Nancy? Got bees?
Or are they extinct in your area too. (notice no question mark, I already know the answer)
Nancy Pelosi and Baarockobumma are sociopathic sycophants whom believes science will solve any problem, especially when it fits the monopoly board plans.
DENIAL IS ON TRIAL.
Nancy Pelosi and Obama, you are part of the enablers of the super preditor blind rhino beast that we have made you well aware of since 1970's, if not earlier.
Believe it or not Nancy and Barrack, I believe you are severly detached from nature, and that is the definition of insanity.
As far as I'm concerned, crimes against living things and creatures are as crimes against humanity at this scale of extinction, especially in the company of the phenomenal and unprecidented extinction rate occcuring accross the spectrum over the past thirty years.
Denial is treason against living things and creatures.
And never forget, “Humans, despite our artistic pretensions, our sophistication and many accomplishments, owe the fact of our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”
The farming in Nancy's area
The farming in Nancy's area is in the tank because the federal government diverted the water from the central valley. This is working on turning the bulk of CA into a dust bowl.
Interestingly, one of the ways Obama bought two votes from central CA for "health care" was apparently by turning (some of) it back on. (How much and for how long is still to be determined.)
= = = =
"Obama’s Economists: ‘Stimulus’ Has Cost $278,000 per Job."
That means: For each job "created or saved" about five were destroyed.
Bees and Bats and Frogs
Oh my!
Seriously though, when visiting in "rural" areas there just seems to be much less wildlife of almost all sorts compared to 20 yrs ago, except for some invasive species.
Anybody else notice?
Funny how so much attention is focused on the distant theoretical threat of global warming, but when it comes to a problem that could cause serious famine in a short period of time, almost nothing.
Around 20 years ago I used to
Around 20 years ago I used to see butterflies in south jersey quite often. Now it is a rarity to see a butterfly around here. They are also pollinators like the bees.
...
along with an increase in predators...
coyote, wolves, turkey buzzards, crows. Predators that eat carrion.
You can connect the dots.
Don't forget about the bats
They're dying from some fungus by the thousands. I heard a professor at Bucknell talk on this and she made the remark that it could be tied to the bees and other insects contaminated with the pesticides. Also, she said that we're losing a large amount of amphibians, like frogs, and some species of fish because they eat insects contaminated with the pesticides.
probably
chem trails, if they kill off the bees they kill off a ton of food production and forget organics...
Well don't talk about it do
Well don't talk about it do something about it start raising bees in your back yard and not the commercial way the natural way. Thats how they will be preserved from complete destruction, by back yard growers and organic farmers etc.
http://www.backyardhive.com/
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End The Fat
70 pounds lost and counting! Get in shape for the revolution!
Get Prepared!
This has a much greater impact than most people realize.
!
We definitely have some major
We definitely have some major environmental issues in store for us.
- bees
- ug99 wheat fungus
- long-term water supply issues
- great barrier reef at risk
- etc, etc
There are so many ways that things can go badly...
...
I read about this last fall
I read about this last fall in either Discover or Scientific American. It seems that many scientists have come to the conclusion that inbreeding is causing hive collapse disorder--or whatever they call it. They keep bees in hives and keep inbreeding them and keeping the populations together. And also that bees are being transported around and being overworked and becoming disoriented by the constant changes of location.
@SPENTHOM
Working for the Remnant means working in impenetrable darkness; and this, I should say, is just the condition calculated most effectively to pique the interest of any prophet who is properly gifted with the imagination, insight and intellect
Check out this site
www.naturalnews.com
Too Many Chemicals .... good article - middle of page
There, there now. Not to worry.
As long as Bayer makes a fat, juicy profit, everything will be fine.
Economic Value Of Insect Pollination Worldwide Estimated At U.S.
This figure amounted to 9.5% of the total value of the world agricultural food production. The study also determined that pollinator disappearance would translate into a consumer surplus loss estimated between €190 to €310 billion. The results of this study on the economic valuation of the vulnerability of world agriculture confronted with pollinator decline are published in the journal Ecological Economics.
According to the study, the decline of pollinators would have main effects on three main crop categories (following FAO terminology); fruits and vegetable were especially affected with a loss estimated at €50 billion each, followed by edible oilseed crops with €39 billion.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080915122725.htm
'Always be yourself. Everyone else is taken.' - Oscar Wilde
My landlord is a retired
My landlord is a retired professor of entomology oat Ohio State University and he keeps bees. We were walking through his bee area and he was telling me that he estimated that he had a 75% die-off this year.
We live in an area that is a heavy into corn farming.
It's getting worse year after year
Chemtrails
have to be a major consideration.
GMO crops and herbicide as
GMO crops and herbicide as well, not just Chemtrails.
There is no Left or Right -- there is only freedom or tyranny. Everything else is an illusion, an obfuscation to keep you confused and silent as the world burns around you." - Philip Brennan
"Invest only in things that you can stand in front of and pr
I saw an incredible documentary on this last year
Called The Last Bee Keeper
http://www.cnn.com/2009/T...
What seemed pretty obvious is that they're working the bees too hard. They drive them all over the country, to pollinate crops, never let them rest.
They're living organisms, not machines.
'Always be yourself. Everyone else is taken.' - Oscar Wilde
Ever heard the expresion " busy as a bee" , the workers have a
short life span and nature commands them to work most efficiently.
How old is that video,looks like a 1949 chevy truck?
"Since 1789 the only government on Earth that has the power to crush the American people`s liberties across the board is the government of the United States"
Robert Higgs
Just went to Florida
and on the way was playing passer tag with an 18 wheeler that was transporting a full load of bees. They were covered with a fine mesh and many were outside their cages and swarming on the mesh. Never have seen them being transported before.
I remember
a year or two ago an 18 wheeler crashed with an incredible amount of bees on it. I think it was in Canada. Created quite the mess on the highway. Had to call a special crew to recover the bees I think.
Soon I imagine they wil be able to genetically modify bees so that they have a longer life span and are immune from all the poisons we are spamming them with. Monsanto did it with corn, why not bees? Perhaps they will be able to build tiny robot bees that run on solar energy and can do twice the work of a natural bee. I imagine the technology for doing such a thing is already available. However, we would rather use our cutting edge technology for war making and doing 3D play-by-play of the Superbowl.
You can worry about 2012, solar coronal mass ejections, or a giant comet hitting the planet. Fact is, none of that stuff is really in our control. Our country going bankrupt, our politicians enslaving us, and our corrupt monetary system IS in our control.
We should try to save the bees by planting insectiary gardens in our back yard. We should also vote every incumbent out of office on every level (except for the very few liberty minded individuals like Ron Paul). This would ensure that both the bees and the humans had an optimal environment for survival.
For all we know Monsanto may
For all we know Monsanto may be purposely causing this crisis with the bees so that they can rake in many billions of dollars with genetically modified bees.
...
This is real people
this coupled with the water supply and a report by generals and scientists that we will have wars over resources scares the hell out of me!
What water supply? Only water supply problems I`ve heard of are
created by the enviormentalists claiming the some snail darter or other insignificant creature is threatened.
Could someone tell me how to get rid of these honey bees that have built a nest in the access panel to my bathroom plumbing. I tried spraying them with soapy water but they keep coming back. None of the local bee keepers want them because they have plenty.
"Since 1789 the only government on Earth that has the power to crush the American people`s liberties across the board is the government of the United States"
Robert Higgs
getting rid of bugs
put some eucalyptus oil in the area. a drop will do