I worry about this, especially after going all Heirloom the last few years in the gardens [ so I can collect my own seed]. Replaced most of the centipede with clover and mustard. Have some wild hives, hope to have enough blooms to keep them on the property. Cannot imagine hand-pollinating my cukes for the next 30 years.

Does anybody know much about the business of beekeeping? Such as, are there any larger businesses AND OR corporations in the US that are involved in beekeeping? If so, and I know this may sound ridiculous, could this have been a strategy to kill off smaller beekeeping businesses for said corporations to acquire a larger market share?

Well... its the 21st century... theres no excuse for something to "go extinct" (apart from a real world scale ele ofc) - just clone the buggers. And bring back the other species also, ppl here are dying to meet all those 90% of all species that ever lived...

They are disapeerinng because IMHO Large corporations that thatt want to keep the prices high for astronomical profits insert what corporate farming name you want the less food the more they can charge...how bad is it affecting the florida orange juice outlook or what other major crops are in the area

Here's "why" it happened.

Man has eaten the fruit of the tree of Knowledge and declared that he is the master of the planet. He has proceeded to conquer the planet and bend it to his will. Thus he has disrupted the balance of life on a global scale. Either man will master the planet and create a utopia, or destroy himself trying.

Originally posted by fluff007
For those interested in keeping the bee population as high and as healthy as possible, heres a wee bit of into on the type of plants you can plant in your garden to keep them happy...

I am in no way trying to undermine the gravity of the situation.

But remember this bee is not the only pollinator for those plants.

I realized how true this is when I had a massive chili pepper garden last summer. Your image says 'peppers', but it's not the honey bee those plants attract in my area. It's this one They weren't around until I planted the chills, and then BAM lotsof them.


And lots of these guys showed up as well. Ggrrrrrrr! They eat the plants. Little bastards.


However they also turn into these!! They also help pollinate my peppers


Now before those Hornworms turn into Hawk Moths, some look like this!


Guess what those 'white worms' are Give up? Wasps. Nature is cool

OK well the OP is about honey bees but honey bees are monitored in a rather concise way. How do you monitor the loss of other insects on a large scale? Other pollinating creatures are not typically living in boxes and easily monitored. Look there have been multiple posts the past years about massive die offs of a variety of living creatures. Birds - fish - bees - bats. Any large die off - well I'm interested in discovering the reason behind that.

When I think of my life on this planet, well pesticides have been around for a long time and there have been repercussions of say for example the use of DDT - many who were children in the 70s in the US might remember the near extinction of many birds of prey. The DDT caused their eggs to be too soft to sit upon, so changes were made. Corrections.

So yes a percentage of situations are most likely related to pesticide use it doesn't take a science degree to figure that out. What is next for change - well this GMO stuff is new so that could play a pretty big role.

But in my humble opinion the thing that has most changed in the last 20 years is our walking, talking and living in this electromagnetic world of a wired society. Have you been around a public school lately? My son's is in a class of 18 students, 3 of whom have Autism spectrum severe enough its not just a change in diagnosis criteria making these numbers happen.

Something is behind these "changes" in our world, perhaps multiple causes creating a perfect storm?
We are all interconnected - so the bees well they matter and I want more then a brush off from some authority figure who says move along now, nothing to see here..

One thing I can tell you as a Floridian that has moved back after years away is this.
When I lived here in the 80s my god, the bugs!! Ok - Florida is famous for its bugs.
Fire ants, roaches, mosquitoes.
Since I've moved back down here in 09 - I have barely experienced a mosquito bite.
I've seen a total of 2 wood roaches. And pretty much no fire ants.
Pretty big change from my experience of living here in the past. I came back for the climate and figured I'd deal with the bugs as a consequence and pretty much there have been no bugs to speak of.
When I can sit outside enjoying a campfire in the evening with nary a mosquito - well????
Its more then the bees . . .