Beekeepers Expect "Worst Year For Bees, We’re Facing The Extinction Of A Species.”

In a word. GMO/ And for their poison crops they want you to buy their little envelopes of GMO bees they've made.

Now, you can hand pollinate things, but it takes more time.

And we need to somehow protect the last real bees.

And people need to only plant heritage and collect their seeds for next year.

now that i think about it, i really haven't seen a bee for ages...

we've got plenty of wasps here, but yeah, i actually havent seen a bee for ages...

there must be some left because we can still buy bush australian honey

but i think i remember that there used to be more bees here years ago...i live in a rural area in oz....

I've certainly noticed the declining bee population over the last few years,this year in particular.Especially bumblebees,it's an incredible shame,a crime even.

Apart from the obvious effect on pollination (did you know bats have an important role in pollination too,taking on the night shift when the bees go off duty !!) bees are a part of the sound and sight of summer.It would be a sorrier world without them.

The wasp population is certainly unaffected,if anything they're thriving and I don't mind saying I'd mourn the demise of the bee but not the wasp.They've always been much more aggressive perhaps due to the fact they can sting numerous times whereas our native bees can only sting once which kills them !!!

Also we have the 'wood wasp' over here,a big bright red and black creature with a long stinger that can be half an inch which it uses to lay it's eggs under the bark of a tree.Urban legend has it they can lay them under your skin if they sting you with obvious nasty results.Not sure if it's true,never hang around if I see one.lol.

Between disease,pesticides and frankenstien crops it's no wonder the bees are in decline.I'm sure the messed up weather we get nowadays doesn't help.Our summers are dull and increasingly wet these days with little definition between the seasons.Winters either mild and wet or extremely cold,below freezing for long spells.

I'm no expert but I can imagine when they're struggling to survive the climate can't be helping.There were bees and heaps of wasps still active in late October/November just past which is mad !!!

Originally posted by mountaingirl1111
Well, this is not good... and not surprising, either. I think I only saw a few bees all last summer here in CO, but boy, did I see wasps. I saw a kind of wasp I had never seen before, either, a very large shimmery blue kind, almost looked like metal. They got into our garage all summer and were very, very aggressive.

In other enviro news, we have buds--big buds and some even showing green leaf growth--on our neighborhood trees. This is odd to me because last winter, we had them in February, which I thought was strange enough. Now, mid-late January? We haven't had real rain where we are since September and snow has been a joke. We had arctic fronts and cold fronts from out west so many times in a row, just the past couple days is the weather nice. BUT, in the town I'm in, we've already had 3 separate brush fires in the past few weeks/month. So with the cold, dry weather, surprised the buds/leaves ARE EVEN EARLIER this year. I CANNOT remember such early springs and I'm 35 years old. We had leaves falling off of our aspen trees in late July and early August. It's like the seasons are off by a couple months. Now this, we'll have fall in June if that's the pattern again this year. How is this normal?

edit on 22-1-2013 by mountaingirl1111 because: (no reason given)

Yeah in oz we seem to be getting a lot of big aggressive wasps lately.

also i haven't seen a NORMAL sized house fly around our place for ages... all we get now are these gigantic scary looking horseflies or something similar that bite and they follow me when i walk anywhere on our property even 100s of metres away, and they bite...and constantly buzz around me...

they aren't normal looking flies
and i remember a time when we had plenty of normal houseflies out here and you only rarely saw the horseflies...
now its totally changed...

I am an amature Apiest, ie. Beekeeper. I have had two hives now for around five years. It has been a struggle here in North Carolina with the local crops of corn, cotton and soy by and large, with a sprinkling of various other crops. But these are primarily what is grown here. There are small and large scale spraying operations of pesticides going on seasonally. We have tried to educate the farming community of the dangers to bees, and accordingly, form timetables to coincide with spraying events. Thus we are able to close our hives and protect our colonies. As always there are those who under advisement, still selfishly spray with no regard. There are a couple types of sprays, one for soft bodied such as caterpillar and one for 'exoskeleton' insects for which the Bees and Wasps fall into. Each pesticide works on a specific type insect, many with collateral overlapping insect damage.
There was recently, as recent as three years ago, a pesticide with an active ingredient from tobacco which was found to be highly toxic to exoskeletal insects which was wreaking havoc on bee populations, it has since been outlawed. Never the less, there are those who still have stockpiles of this toxin and readily use it knowingly without regard to Apiests.
It is this way all over the world though, disregard to the environmental impact they are having, only the crop $$$ amount bottom line important to them. They are effectively killing the Golden Goose.

Another less known fact many people are unaware of, many cannabis guerilla growers have found it popular to use banned rat poisons and insecticides from Mexico without abandon. This has proved highly destructive over long term, both to wildlife and water tables. So much so, that some of the possible penalties are up to one million dollar fines, and from ten years imprisonment to life sentences. It's Bad Stuff. These are just some of the difficulties Beekeepers face.
All I can say is, Keep it up...... and you will effectively be putting an end to agriculture as we know it, and everyone can guess the outcome of that. Crop pollination will cease to exist, and over half of our current crop species will fail. No one will be immune.

Originally posted by Plotus
I am an amature Apiest, ie. Beekeeper. I have had two hives now for around five years. It has been a struggle here in North Carolina with the local crops of corn, cotton and soy by and large, with a sprinkling of various other crops. But these are primarily what is grown here. There are small and large scale spraying operations of pesticides going on seasonally. We have tried to educate the farming community of the dangers to bees, and accordingly, form timetables to coincide with spraying events. Thus we are able to close our hives and protect our colonies. As always there are those who under advisement, still selfishly spray with no regard. There are a couple types of sprays, one for soft bodied such as caterpillar and one for 'exoskeleton' insects for which the Bees and Wasps fall into. Each pesticide works on a specific type insect, many with collateral overlapping insect damage.
There was recently, as recent as three years ago, a pesticide with an active ingredient from tobacco which was found to be highly toxic to exoskeletal insects which was wreaking havoc on bee populations, it has since been outlawed. Never the less, there are those who still have stockpiles of this toxin and readily use it knowingly without regard to Apiests.
It is this way all over the world though, disregard to the environmental impact they are having, only the crop $$$ amount bottom line important to them. They are effectively killing the Golden Goose.

Another less known fact many people are unaware of, many cannabis guerilla growers have found it popular to use banned rat poisons and insecticides from Mexico without abandon. This has proved highly destructive over long term, both to wildlife and water tables. So much so, that some of the possible penalties are up to one million dollar fines, and from ten years imprisonment to life sentences. It's Bad Stuff. These are just some of the difficulties Beekeepers face.
All I can say is, Keep it up...... and you will effectively be putting an end to agriculture as we know it, and everyone can guess the outcome of that. Crop pollination will cease to exist, and over half of our current crop species will fail. No one will be immune.

Interesting stuff, glad to have you here! Do you know anything on how to make foundation wax the "old" way? I am trying to figure this out by spending as little money as possible.

Have you had any colonies swarm, and if so did you find them?

And a couple more.. I hope you don't mind =D

Do you see many native bees around with your bees?

What bees do you think are most effected, the domesticated honeybee?

Originally posted by newcovenant
reply to post by Philippines

 

Yes but with all due respect I think there are more knowledgeable people who have a better grasp of the bigger picture and they should be listened to - before it is too late. I know you are pretty relaxed about the whole thing but biodiversity is essential to life here and bees are part of it. Once part of your pyramid goes the rest will come toppling down. We do not understand the close relationship of everything in the ecosystem and bees are crucial to life on Earth. Believe it or not.

I don't think you quite understand that there are more than 1 kind of bee species on the Earth and these articles of colony collapse disorder are affecting the domesticated honey bee used for human consumption.

Nottelling has some good reading comprehension, check out that post, he/she seems to get it. He/she obviously spends some time observing nature.

Sorry if my first hand experiences and messages from apiarists who do this for money are not enough for ya. I even provided pics just in case, thinking that may help lend some credibility. Maybe I need some fancy PhD title, or some Fox/CNN prime time slot on tv. A lot of people seem to respect that stuff more than those seeing this stuff every day.

I wonder why interests of George W. Bush, Jr would want to buy up all of the interests in the Purvis Bee enterprise (known for their genetically superior strain of bees, especially the queens).......this took place in the spring of 2009 when a black limo rolled in and tried to coerce the Purvis family into selling their interests to them. I wonder why would a retired oilman/politician have an interest in bees anyway.

reply to post by CosmicCitizen


It's interesting thath if you go to the Purvis site they are liquidating all their equipment and ceasing all their production efforts. They plan on continuing only educational services (lectures, etc.) and the production of breeder queens.

Originally posted by CosmicCitizen
I wonder why interests of George W. Bush, Jr would want to buy up all of the interests in the Purvis Bee enterprise (known for their genetically superior strain of bees, especially the queens).......this took place in the spring of 2009 when a black limo rolled in and tried to coerce the Purvis family into selling their interests to them. I wonder why would a retired oilman/politician have an interest in bees anyway.

edit on 23-1-2013 by CosmicCitizen because: (no reason given)

That is some interesting information. Is there a link to this, so I don't have to google it? =D

I would think he has some information knowing that honey will go up in value, and is investing in the golden liquids future returns.

Think I saw a total of 2 honey bees all last summer (In the Midwest).
But saw a LOAD of Cicada Killers.
crazy.

Electromagnetic pollution. Bees navigate by aligning themselves wiht the Earths normal magnetic field. They "see" magnetic lines of force and use them like a GPS to get to food and back home. All the EM radiation polluting the planet has rendered their navigation systems inoperative, and it has damaged many other species as well. If you use a cell phone, radio, TV, GPS, whatever - you are contributing to the bee death scenario. Sorry, but this is simple truth. None of us are innocent here. So, as we slowly starve and food prices ratchet up due to (among a zillion other reasons) bee death, take comfort that you can text your kids in college about their latest date night and call up your wife to see if you need milk and eggs on the way home from work. Of course, you could turn off the cell phone and TV and do your part to save the bees, but we all know you won't. See y'all on the other side.

reply to post by magneticelectric


This is exactly what my intuition has lead me to believe. Very cool to see someone else with the same ideas. But it's also so very unfortunate because we all know there is no turning back.

reply to post by mountaingirl1111

Thanks for the Pbase link. I book marked it. Good photo resource link.
Judging by the comments below the picture, that Blue Steel Cricket Wasp sounds nasty.


Excellent work on this thread. People have brought a lot of good stuff.

This happened this year in Tasmania. I am happy to say the bee population down in Tassie is thriving.

There is a abundance of them in my garden doing their day to day important business.

HREE horses were killed after being attacked by a swarm of thousands of killer bees at a Mount Hicks property on Friday afternoon. The rodeo horses - named Solomon, Anita and Bella - had been overwhelmed by the sheer number of bees and sustained a huge number of stings, from which they couldn't recover.

source
www.theadvocate.com.au...


I must also add that not only bee's pollinate stuff. some birds pollinate.

Also there is such thing as hand pollination, I done it with my pumpkins the year before as a experiment.

Heres a tidbit in WIKI about the insecticides affecting bee navigation back to their nest...

Animal Navigation

Effects of human activity:

Neonicotinoid pesticides may impair the ability of bees to navigate. Bees exposed to low levels of thiamethoxam were less likely to return to their colony, to an extent sufficient to compromise a colony's survival.[37]

There it is...

reply to post by MarsSentinel

I think bees navigate by the sun. Even on cloudy days...

linky

Blessed bee...

Good read 'bout bees

Few animals are more amazing than honeybees. They live in an intricate society, with queens, guards, builders, cleaners, nurses, heating and cooling technicians, scouts, honey makers, pollen stampers, and collectors of nectar, pollen, water, and resin (each worker bee goes through many different "jobs" during her lifetime). They build complex hives with beautiful honeycombs of perfect hexagons. They make flowering plants and honey-lovers thrive. They accomplish great feats of navigation. They see more colors and smell more scents than we do. They see the polarization pattern in the sky. And they communicate information in a symbolic language without match in the animal kingdom: the bee dance.

In our stupidity we use insect -icide on the very bugs that the crop depends on to produce the fruit. When I think about that, (and I get angrier) it makes me want to require those that use it to also feed it to their families for breakfast. Sprinkle it in their coffee or put it on their cereal. Then head off to work.

Originally posted by region331

The rapid disappearance of bees, that pollinate 70% of ALL our crops, is the most immediate, most real and potentially the most devastating threat to every person on the planet.

I really hope people think about this fact, without bee pollination there is not going
to be enough food produced....and the domino effect.

And..its not just the bees that are dying, its also the frogs, and the bats too.

Originally posted by intrptr
reply to post by MarsSentinel

 

I think bees navigate by the sun. Even on cloudy days...

linky

One would think we could buy them all navmans. imagine a bee zipping past, it wouldn't be buzzing anymore, it would be "turn left turn right at next intersection, take exit 1 on the next round about, you have reached your flower destination"