why are all the bees disappearing?

Fortunately for humanity most bees are solitary bees, and not the social insects we commonly associate with the typical honeybees. this great diversity and individual isolation should protect the species from a general attack from a wide variety of fungal, parasitic, or disease vectors.




Hotwater

 

Einstein never made the quote about bees. It's another one of those myths that float around from time to time.

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/einstein/bees.asp

 

I read that - was going to post it - but i asked where WWKCD729 had read it and when einstein had said it - i'm wicked like that . Who is to know maybe he did say it or something like it ?.

 

so i heard the bees are disappearing because of cell phone frequencies.....but I dont know about that, because cell phones operate at the same frequency as radio waves.......and radio waves have been generated from tower to tower for about 70 years.....so WTF??

 

I believe bats pollinate more than bees.

 

Bees are just one part of the pollentation process. There are still other ways to pollenate flowers/plants. The wind is one way. Bats pollenate flowers, too. So, even if we were to live without bees, the pollenation process is not quite in doomsday. There are still options. This is not opinion. This is fact.

 

I find it strange that the first mention of the quote being attributed to Einstein occurred 44 years after his death in a beekkeeper's journal. And no other direct reference has ever been found.

 

Right now I seem to have a very healthy population of them on my lavender plants, so much so that I can't even get close to the plants.

 

Killer Bee's SNL

Let's hope they aren't the deadly africanized Killer Bee's

Hotwater

 

Honeybees don't just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of the flowering crops we have. Among them: apples, nuts, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash, cucumbers, citrus fruit, peaches, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, cantaloupe, other melons and more. In fact, about one-third of the human diet comes from insect- pollinated plants, and the honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that pollination. Even cattle, which feed on alfalfa, depend on bees. And as has been stated, there other animals that polinate, plus the wind, but because of the numbers of them, their size, their activity, etc., nothing comes close to honeybees as pollinators of food crops.

The early estimates are that the loss of bee polination could be 15 billion dollars this year (I'm guessing it'll be more). And before some of you go ranting about good, stick it to big corporate agri-business, let me tell you my story. I farm alone on my little 5 acre farm (living out the whole back to nature, back to the land, self sustaining thing -it's great). Anyhow, several years ago the local bees (wild & my 3 hives) were wiped out by mites. I had been growing lemon cucumbers, other cucumbers, zucchini, yellow crook neck squash and some various melons. Now, without bees, I CAN'T GROW ANY OF THEM.

Anyway, as an organic farmer, I've been working against GM crops for many years. I almost hate to admit it, but there has not been a link found between CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) and GM crops. Possible effects from genetically modified (GM) crops that produce Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxin have been investigated. Corn, the major such crop, is not a preferred plant for honey bees. Cotton, the second important Bt crop, is highly subject to bee visitation for nectar, but there is no credible evidence of toxicity of GM cotton (but there is evidence of harm from other insecticides used during bloom, but that's not new). Plus the primary effects of Bt on insects is in the larval stage. As the CCD phenomenon involves the disappearance of the adult bees, some think there could be a direct connection despite the absence of symptoms in the larvae, and despite any evidence that in most cases the bees experiencing CCD have ever been exposed to GM crops. With CCD adult bees seem to stop returning to the hive. If it was Bt, there would be lots of dead adults in the hive, but that's not what is happening.

For more information, here's a good FAQ: http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/FAQ/FAQCCD.pdf

On March 29, 2007, the House Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic
Agriculture held a hearing to review the recent honey bee colony declines
reported throughout the United States. Here's the CRS preliminary report:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33938.pdf

Here's the prepared testimony of Diana Cox-Foster, Professor Department of Entomology,
The Pennsylvania State University before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture on Colony Collapse Disorder in Honey Bee Colonies in the United States, March 29, 2007:
http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/CCDPpt/CoxFosterTestimonyFinal.pdf

Peace,
poor_old_dad

 

hm.. now that i think about it dont think iv seen a damn bee in like a year.. wtf? i never even noticed that.. haha

 

I heard on a program on the radio "Coast to Coast AM" a gentleman was saying that he thinks the bees decline is due to factory farmed honeybees and the comb size. They use a super with a large honeycell size and that the larger cells resonate certain sound vibrations that are making the honeybees go loco. They resonate the sound different and its the sound that the bees are trying to escape and that normal bees make cells of differing sizes and they move to different parts of the hive during solar flares and other electromagnetic occurences and during certain parts of the year. They said that it is just the factory farmed bees that are in danger. They make the cells bigger so the worker bees that hatch are bigger and therefore can make more honey and pollinate more crops. Natural bees get rid of the mites in question on their own. And are supposedly not in dissapearing. That is both wild bees and bees that are raised in natural type hives. At least this is what the gentleman was saying. It was a few nights ago that it was on. If you check out the archives you can read up on it yourself and form your own opinion. I don't know. His ideas have merit but so do a lot of other folks ideas. But the fact is the bee pop is not normal. Even the wood bees and hornets around here that have nests around here are fewer in number this year. Of course two got in my house and as I was trying to get the one I saw out side or swat it I accidentally stepped on one that had injured itself and was on the carpet. Ouch!!!
Had a nasty reaction too even with Benedryl and baking soda. I guess it was trying to teach me to wear shoes like a "normal" human bean. Yes, nature in her infinite wisdom would move other creatures into the slot if bees went extinct. But I do not think that will happen. I think they will adapt. I at least hope so. As bees are wonders of nature and well worth keeping around. If it is due to something humanity is doing I hope they can prove it soon and stop the insanity.

Peace and Love, Cricket

 

There weirdest part is that they are not finding lots of dead bees around. if was pesticides or cell towers wouldn't you still be able to find the bees somewhere?


this reminds me of when all those birds were dying over the summer and no one could figure out why...

 

This is the bees way of protesting American Idol for kicking off Sanjaya!