Are the Bees Dying off Because They're Too Busy?

All across America, a mysterious disease is wiping out bee colonies. This malady causes all the bees in a hive to seemingly vanish overnight, abandoning their brood in the nursery, as well as their stores of honey and pollen. Other bees and pests, which normally plunder deserted honey, shun these hives. This baffling die-off dealt a financial blow to commercial beekeepers this season and raised fears of environmental and economic disaster. For farmers, no bees means no pollination.

But pollination is happening like mad in Leah Fortin's tiny yard in North Oakland, Calif. Busy little bee bodies cover the clumps of lavender, salvia and roses that line her driveway. More bees work the malaleucas on the parking strip, those trees with shaggy bark that look like giant Q-tips when they're in bloom.

www.alternet.org...

An interesting article, and one that perhaps brings a new perspective.

Any thoughts?

I'm thinking that the media saturates news with African killer bees,which make people panic at mere sight of bees,resulting in poisioning of them

Good thought, but I doubt it IMO.
The disappearing bees thing has been around for a while.

Something I learned recently that I thought is faciniating is that the honey bee is not native to the Americas. Native crops here do not rely on them to pollinate but many of our imported ones do. I watch my garden carefully and it is pollinated by many different insects but I get a lot of honeybees though because I plant plants like pineapple sage which is a huge attractor for them.

Originally posted by grover
Something I learned recently that I thought is faciniating is that the honey bee is not native to the Americas. Native crops here do not rely on them to pollinate but many of our imported ones do. I watch my garden carefully and it is pollinated by many different insects but I get a lot of honeybees though because I plant plants like pineapple sage which is a huge attractor for them.

Hey Grover! I didn't know that about pineapple sage. We've been planting things that bees like, hoping to increase the bee population.

But the GOOD NEWS is that they have discovered the cause of it. It's a virus IIRC, and is easily treated for $2.77 per year. I read about it in Science News. Will try to find the article and report back as to its exact name.

Pineapple sage which actually smells and tastes like pineapple sends off shoots of bright red flowers and bees love them. They flower late in the season but I have gone out before and found a bee on every flower. A farmer first told me about them and I have to say I am impressed. Actually bees love all sages that I have seen (and basil) but especially the pineapple sage.

I agree that I have seen more bees this year, and seemingly more types, than in previous years.
I think most of the problem was cultivated bees, not the wild bees we see in our yards, but that is my opinion.
But, as reported above, the problem was not being too busy, but a disease.

I also try to plant things they like, such as gaura, salvia, sunflower, cranesbill and pincushion flower.
I might have to try that pineapple sage next year

[edit on 15-8-2007 by DontTreadOnMe]

It could very well be a disease, but it's not a problem up here. There are few bee trucks in the area, although we are big on orchards in the Okanagan. Most of the orchards have resident bee hives operated by local apiaries. Everywhere you look there seems to be hives tucked away in a corner.
The bee keepers up here don't transit their hives very often, and the orchards don't call for rental hives from other areas. This would keep both the stress level and disease transmission level to a minimum. I think that the biggest problem that the mobile bee keepers have is greed. You can't force any animal to function outside of its normal limits for long without it losing production and dying off. Forcing out of season pollination on bees from more northern latitudes only weakens a hive and allows disease to finish it off. You just can't automate everything, especially livestock, and expect the same quality that you get from a more organic style of farming.

great info! thanks for posting this. i've been watching the bee news as much as i can and it's good to hear of some thriving happening.

just 2 weeks ago when i was in colorado on a dirt bike ride, when we pulled into our ride spot and dress-up, i noticed a bee flew in and sat on my friend's truck's door step.

we go for our ride, and when we returned about 2 hours later, the bee was dead, still there but in a ball now. it was depressing. it was like it was trying to tell us something.

It isn't anyone reason, but a combination of factors.

1. global warming, it messed up their hibrination cycle this past winter because it was too warm, so they didn't breed

2. all the insecticides

3. all the herbicides. People are removing any wildflower(or weeds as they call htem) such as dandelions, clover, and other little wildflowers so that bees are actually starving.

4. and maybe a virus. since the bees are starving, they are more prone to disease.

The "cides" are becoming such a problem that keepers are even finding residue buildups in hives. Many keepers that loan their bees out to farmers are doing it under the stipulations that they no longer use chemicals.

[edit on 4-9-2007 by nixie_nox]