Bees now disappearing worldwide, UN report warns.!!!

Originally posted by blackmetalmist
I have a huge beehive in a tree outside my balcony. I was planning to have it remove but i feel sorry for the little guys. Especially after reading this, i definitely won't !

Although this story only refers to industrial bee colonies, that would be nice for you to spare the wild colony in your tree.

The bees are nice and don't pose a danger to anyone unless they are first disturbed or threatened. They are very peaceful creatures.

And they also keep all the flowering plants going. It's a win-win.

If you do decide to get rid of it, make sure you sell or donate the hive to a bee keeper, that way he can use them rather than killing them.

reply to post by muzzleflash


I am also a huge friend of the Bee's and observed them since 2-3 decades,
i was planning to get 2 Tribes this year but because of F'Shima i stopped that!

I can report that not only the Industrial Worker Bee Tribes,
used on and in the big Fruit-Tree Farms, are dieing,
all- incl. the Wild Ones have the so called CCD.!

Of course Pesticides are a part of this Story
but i guess we need to look also for Hormones!

reply to post by Nairda


This is the first year in about 5 that I have seen lots of bumblebees! Lots of big ones in the garden early March, then a cold spell and none for a while - but then they came back.

...I did start researching a bit on the African honeybees tho - and now I do wonder how much of what's going on has to do with a) efforts to kill the Africans and stop their spread in North America, and/or b) interbreeding and diminished ability to handle our climate shifts and extreme weather.

I allowed a patch of clover to grow in my yard and I have wildflower abundance with a creek, so this year I have abundance of bees, dragonfly's and my bats. Yesterday walking by the creek, every wildflower had bees buzzing upon it and I am extremely grateful.This is the first year of their return in 4 years for me.

Welcome to the south, yellow jackets are out of control, you want bees, take all of mine please.

If this is proven, how the hell can people sit back and continue to let this happen? What actually would happen if the bee community actually went extinct? What would the consequences be?

IMPORTANT NOTES: From the OP's Article

The report lists a number of factors which may be coming together to cause the decline and they include:

* Habitat degradation, including the loss of flowering plant species that provide food for bees;

* Some insecticides, including the so-called "systemic" insecticides which can migrate to the entire plant as it grows and be taken in by bees in nectar and pollen;

* Parasites and pests, such as the well-known Varroa mite;

* Air pollution, which may be interfering with the ability of bees to find flowering plants and thus food – scents that could travel more than 800 metres in the 1800s now reach less than 200 metres from a plant.

"The transformation of the countryside and rural areas in the past half-century or so has triggered a decline in wild-living bees and other pollinators," said one of the lead authors, Dr Peter Neumann of the Swiss Bee Research Centre.

"Society is increasingly investing in 'industrial-scale' hives and managed colonies to make up the shortfall and going so far as to truck bees around to farms and fields in order to maintain our food supplies.

"A variety of factors are making these man-made colonies vulnerable to decline and collapse. We need to get smarter about how we manage these hives, but perhaps more importantly, we need to better manage the landscape beyond, in order to recover wild bee populations."

IMPORTANT NOTES From the OP Article:

Without profound changes to the way human beings manage the planet, they say, declines in pollinators needed to feed a growing global population are likely to continue. The scientists warn that a number of factors may now be coming together to hit bee colonies around the world, ranging from declines in flowering plants and the use of damaging insecticides, to the worldwide spread of pests and air pollution. They call for farmers and landowners to be offered incentives to restore pollinator-friendly habitats, including key flowering plants near crop-producing fields and stress that more care needs to be taken in the choice, timing and application of insecticides and other chemicals. While managed hives can be moved out of harm's way, "wild populations (of pollinators) are completely vulnerable", says the report.

"The way humanity manages or mismanages its nature-based assets, including pollinators, will in part define our collective future in the 21st century," said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director.

"The fact is that of the 100 crop species that provide 90 per cent of the world's food, over 70 are pollinated by bees.

"Human beings have fabricated the illusion that in the 21st century they have the technological prowess to be independent of nature.

"Bees underline the reality that we are more, not less, dependent on nature's services in a world of close to seven billion people."

Declines in bee colonies date back to the mid 1960s in Europe, but have accelerated since 1998, while in North America, losses of colonies since 2004 have left the continent with fewer managed pollinators than at any time in the past 50 years, says the report.

Now Chinese beekeepers have recently "faced several inexplicable and complex symptoms of colony losses in both species", the report says. And it has been reported elsewhere that some Chinese farmers have had to resort to pollinating fruit trees by hand because of the lack of insects.

Furthermore, a quarter of beekeepers in Japan "have recently been confronted with sudden losses of their bee colonies", while in Africa, beekeepers along the Egyptian Nile have been reporting signs of "colony collapse disorder" – although to date there are no other confirmed reports from the rest of the continent.

All i know is, our honey bees have had their best years last year and this year.
Heres some pictures I took when one of our hives decided to swarm.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d2547893a960.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6e00c9efdf7f.png[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a3aba9c53bd9.jpg[/atsimg]

Last year was a very poor year concerning bees in my backyard. This year I decided to plant some old calendula seeds and allowed the Himalayan balsam to grow, and the amount of bees grew as soon as they started to bloom.
People prefer easy to maintain plants these days - with their hectic lifestyle etcetera - which is bad news for insects like bees.
I'm already planning to change my garden next year, with more bee-friendly plants. It probably doesn't help but at least I can help the ones hanging around in my area
Another note also because of my post concerning the Silence of the birds: I went to Germany in june and was stunned by the huge amounts of poppy, cornflower and other plants in crops and fields. I haven't seen a proper spot of these flowers in years over here! One field of corn seriously raised the question if the farmer grew corn or poppies!
It's a really good idea to use insectides and weedkillers in crops

Interesting, i haven't seen as many bees this year for the past several 5-6 years. They are flying around everywhere, especially around glas recycling containers. I even squashed 6 or 7 of them who flew into the house (i' allergic to bee stings so it's killed or be killed and i always hated those little suckers). The last time i killed as many was around 2003 i think, in the years between thankfully there weren't any around.