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Title: Honey Bee Die-off Alarms Beekeepers
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URL Source: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/ ... ry=animals&guid=20070205144500
Published: Feb 15, 2007
Author: Larry O'Hanlon
Post Date: 2007-02-15 20:57:42 by Jethro Tull
Keywords: None
Views: 466
Comments: 55
Honey Bee Die-off Alarms Beekeepers Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery News Feb. 5, 2007 — Something is wiping out honey bees across North America and a team of researchers is rushing to find out what it is. What’s being called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has now been seen in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and way out in California. Some bee keepers have lost up to 80 percent of their colonies to the mysterious disorder. "Those are quite scary numbers," said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s lead apiarist. Whatever kills the bees targets adult workers which die outside the colony — with few adults left inside, either alive or dead. The disorder decimates the worker bee population in a matter of weeks. Aside from making honey, honey bees are essential for the pollination of tens of million of dollars worth of cash crops all over the United States. That’s why almond growers of California, for instance, are taking notice and pledging funds to help identify and fight the honey bee disorder. Among the possible culprits are a fungus, virus, or a variety of microbes and pesticides. No one knows just yet. On first inspection, the pattern of die-offs resembles something that has been seen in more isolated cases in Louisiana, Texas and Australia, vanEngelsdorp said. "Right now our efforts are on collecting as many samples as possible," said vanEngelsdorp. Bees that are collected are carefully dissected and analyzed to see what might have killed them. Other researchers are keeping track of the problem using Google Earth, as well as cutting edge hive-sniffing and eavesdropping technology to investigate the problem.
Poster Comment: Bees are like the salt in bread; you never really notice them until they’re missing. Albert Einstein put it bluntly, “No bees, no food for mankind. The bee is the basis for life on this earth.” Ninety percent of flowering plants and 40 percent of the foods we eat depend on pollinators — mostly honeybees. They pollinate $15 billion worth of agriculture annually in our country.
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#15. To: who knows what evil (#11)
are you suspicious? ;)
Just a tad.
Try explaining corporate "pollution credits" to this pack of brain dead knuckleheads. Whiz…..right past their heads.
Me too. Plus I also am a beekeeper who was going to start a couple new hives this spring after a 20 year hiatus.
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke
We used to have that happen to our hives once in awhile--drunken rednecks would kick them over or whatnot. Not sure just exactly how much pollination has to do with agriculture anymore--fruit crops, yeah, but alfalfa farmers try to cut the crop before it flowers (hence no use to bees), and bees are worth dick-all to corn and soybeans. If you were going to be producing seeds that would need to reproduce, that's one thing, but most commercial crops nowadays are sterile. The only time I ever got paid to pollinate was in fruit orchards up here in MN--aside from that, the farmer/landlords were just in it for a gallon or so of free honey per year and the bees picked up what they could.
The national nightmare has ended... Now begins two years of watching the Congress play "Kick the Gimp".
What? did he make a complaint and at least try to get fingerprints off the cans? If I found out who did that to my bees, I would force feed them a can of that poison.
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke
Wild bees were all over my sweet corn last summer. They were so loud you could hear them buzzing 100 feet away. And the local health food store even had soybean honey. When I saw that I said, "Eeeeeeewwwwww." I have no idea if soybean honey is safe considering the ill caused by the Daidzein and other phytochemicals in soy.
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke
And the local health food store even had soybean honey. When I saw that I said, "Eeeeeeewwwwww." I have no idea if soybean honey is safe considering the ill caused by the Daidzein and other phytochemicals in soy. Oh, well bees will take advantage of any nearby flower, but their pollination work is not needed for a corn or bean crop to be "successful". I wouldn't worry about soy honey--it's not going to make you grow boobs! I don't think it's that great as honey goes, though. Yellow sweet clover honey is the BEST.
The national nightmare has ended... Now begins two years of watching the Congress play "Kick the Gimp".
Oh, yes. I will watch for the sweet clover to bloom and try to get a small amount of it this year. Not sure since the hives may not be strong enough just starting out. And I may be a tad late since it will be late March until I have a prayer of getting them started. That is the trouble with new hives.
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke
Thanks chris. Ignorance really rattles me. I also have a few friends who run for the shovels and bravely kill every black rat snake they see, and nothing I say can overcome their lifetime of superstitious dread that they learned from their equally superstitious parents about the benefits of leaving the snakes alone and letting them keep house.
If you were going to be producing seeds that would need to reproduce, that's one thing, but most commercial crops nowadays are sterile. The only time I ever got paid to pollinate was in fruit orchards up here in MN--aside from that, the farmer/landlords were just in it for a gallon or so of free honey per year and the bees picked up what they could. Interesting. In fact I heard that Monsanto has a patent on a line of products that walk around the fields and pollinate after drinks and dancing....
Because he doesn't live on the property but mostly comes down on the weekends, he's at the mercy of his neighbors...and he can take a hint. He gave me permission to hunt deer there but he has also give prior consent to some locals and I don't want to meet them on opening day and have to explain who I am, and once they realize that I'm from the northern county too, well, they won't want to share even though it isn't their property. I'm not about to set up my tree stand and leave it. A Yankee redneck is alot like A Southern one, but without the friendly charm.
Funny... Here's something that was on the news today. They were talking about a pathogen or fish killing disease that is making its way into the great lakes. They're talking about how it could spread all over Minnesota. I think we're seeing the beginning of a major trend. It's going to be unsafe for people to go hunt or fish, and those self reliant souls will find themselves unable to gather their own food that they choose. The idea of honeybees being wiped out, tells me that the agenda is playing out right in front of us. Food will only be available to those who can afford it. Monetary natural selection will take place.
#16. To: christine (#15)
Remember...G-d saved more animals than people on the ark. www.siameserescue.org
#17. To: HOUNDDAWG (#12)
#18. To: who knows what evil (#5)
For those of us who garden; this is frightening news.
#19. To: HOUNDDAWG, christine (#10)
My friend is building a farm for aquaculture (maybe for Tilapia) down state and he had several bee colonies on his property, and someone, presumably a nearby farmer sprayed them with Raid and left the empty cans strewn around the now dead colonies.
#20. To: HOUNDDAWG (#10)
presumably a nearby farmer sprayed them with Raid and left the empty cans strewn around the now dead colonies.
#21. To: Indrid Cold (#19)
bees are worth dick-all to corn and soybeans.
#22. To: BTP Holdings (#21)
Wild bees were all over my sweet corn last summer. They were so loud you could hear them buzzing 100 feet away.
#23. To: Indrid Cold (#22)
Yellow sweet clover honey is the BEST.
#24. To: christine, Zipporah, PeetieWheatstraw, Jethro Tull, lodwick, Diana (#13)
#25. To: Indrid Cold, Zipporah, christine, robin, rowdee, Diana, Ferret Mike, Jethro Tull (#19)
(Edited)
Not sure just exactly how much pollination has to do with agriculture anymore--fruit crops, yeah, but alfalfa farmers try to cut the crop before it flowers (hence no use to bees), and bees are worth dick-all to corn and soybeans.
#26. To: BTP Holdings (#20)
What? did he make a complaint and at least try to get fingerprints off the cans? If I found out who did that to my bees, I would force feed them a can of that poison.
#27. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
 | This country's priorities are all fucked up. |
#28. To: Indrid Cold (#19)
That explains so much.
If you were going to be producing seeds that would need to reproduce, that's one thing, but most commercial crops nowadays are sterile.
We have lately had introduced a plant of the Melon species which, from it's external resemblance to the pumpkin, we have called a pumpkin, distinguishing it specifically as the potatoe-pumpkin, on account of the extreme resemblance of it's taste to that of the sweet-potatoe. It is as yet but little known, is well esteemed at our table, and particularly valued by our negroe's.
#29. To: HOUNDDAWG (#10)
That's a killin' offense!
My friend is building a farm for aquaculture (maybe for Tilapia) down state and he had several bee colonies on his property, and someone, presumably a nearby farmer sprayed them with Raid and left the empty cans strewn around the now dead colonies.
"pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels – bring home for Emma"
#30. To: Axenolith (#29)
He was very calm about it. I'd have been raving and taking the Lord's name in vain and stuff....
#31. To: HOUNDDAWG (#10)
what are these 'pollination fees'? Please explain inasmuch as we raised alfalfa on our ranch in Montana and as I bookkeeper I would know about pollination fees if we had to pay them.
pollination fees were established in the 1950's....
#32. To: HOUNDDAWG (#10)
sad story and a sad state of ignorance and affairs
In Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's book about the Iraqi war, Plan of Attack, Lt. Gen. Tommy Franks, who was in charge of the operation, famously called Feith the "dumbest f****** guy on the planet."
#33. To: christine (#13)
It infuriates me, too..........as the bees are good for us, and for the sonofabitch trespassin on private property. At the ranch, we had a beekeeper that put out a good number of hives. And he'd come by during the year and collect honey. We were always given jars of honey--half gallon size--6 of them. Alfalfa honey is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. Sadly, one year we had the '100 year flood' and the river overflowed its banks and got into the area where the hives were==at the edge of the woods, and wiped out most all the lowest hives before the brothers could get them all collected and to safety. There were some very unhappy bees;; I was glad it was them working with them and not us.
#34. To: Indrid Cold (#19)
When did the farmers cut their alfalfa? Did they get more than one cutting? We were always told the ideal time to cut was when you had 10% bloom. Told by Ag agents as well as other producers.
#35. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire
Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.
This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
We have lately had introduced a plant of the Melon species which, from it's external resemblance to the pumpkin, we have called a pumpkin, distinguishing it specifically as the potatoe-pumpkin, on account of the extreme resemblance of it's taste to that of the sweet-potatoe. It is as yet but little known, is well esteemed at our table, and particularly valued by our negroe's.
#36. To: Tauzero (#35)
SWEET Auburn! loveliest village of the plain, Where health and plenty cheered the laboring swain, Where smiling spring its earliest visit paid, And parting summer's lingering blooms delay'd: Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease, Seats of my youth, when every sport could please, How often have I loiter'd o'er thy green, Where humble happiness endear'd each scene! How often have I paused on every charm, The shelter'd cot, the cultivated farm, The never-failing brook, the busy mill, The decent church that topt the neighboring hill,
#37. To: rowdee (#31) (Edited)
When you see a news story about a tractor trailer filled with bee hives overturned on a highway, those bees were being moved to an area to pollinate, such as almonds, watermelons, faba beans and citrus crops. Bee keepers get paid for that. "The use of managed honey bee colonies for commercial crop pollination remains the most important function of the PNW beekeeping industry. The vast and diverse agriculture of the PNW relies on a healthy and strong beekeeping industry to maintain optimum production. An enhanced knowledge of pollination economics is critical to every beekeeper that enters into the world of commercial crop pollination. It is also important for those growers who rent colonies to understand current economic conditions of the beekeeping industry." http://members.aol.com/beetools/99polin.htm "More than a million hives will pour in to the almond orchards. The almond industry is booming, and growers expect they'll need closer to 2 million hives to pollinate all the new trees that will start bearing nuts by 2010. That means 80 percent of the approximately 2.3 million commercial bee colonies that exist now in the United States will have to travel to the California orchards just to meet demand." http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6299480 During the off season bee keepers take their bees to places like your state where land is cheaper to let them make honey from clover. So, if a bee keeper is nearby he is benefiting from you and vice versa and no fees apply. from the link above: "Then, many head back home with their bees to places like the Dakotas or Montana -- where land is cheaper -- for an intense summer of honey-making during clover season."
what are these 'pollination fees'? Please explain inasmuch as we raised alfalfa on our ranch in Montana and as I bookkeeper I would know about pollination fees if we had to pay them.
#38. To: TommyTheMadArtist (#27)
Natural selection by (fill in your favorite rifle) is also a possibility. ;0)
Food will only be available to those who can afford it. Monetary natural selection will take place.
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke
#39. To: rowdee (#34)
Around here they get 2, maybe 3 cuttings, but over in Western SD they'd only get one. And yes, they try to cut juuuuuust before it blooms.
When did the farmers cut their alfalfa? Did they get more than one cutting?
The national nightmare has ended... Now begins two years of watching the Congress play "Kick the Gimp".
#40. To: HOUNDDAWG (#37)
LOL...........for some reason I was trying to wrap my mind around some fee for each of these little buggers! Sort of a tax! The fellas who had their hives at our place were there for a zillion years--certainly with the ranch owners before us. I hated to see them pull out, but then we didn't have any other place to put them without being a problem. For instance, we used 3 and 4 inch handlines to irrigate. Couldn't have the hives in the line of fire, er water, nor have them where a lot of human activity occured out of concern for being stung. So, right at the edge of the wooded area was perfect--easy access for them to the hives, and we could irrigate, and our cattle steered clear of the hives, and we never got stung. The only sting I ever received at the ranch was when the damnmed hogs got out and were rootin around in a pile of straw and stirred up some hornets....them bastards blamed me. I wound up with about 20 stingson my head and shoulders before I could get in the barn. Never realized I could run that fast! My husband was at the very north end of our north field, with a tractor running, and he heard my screams.
#41. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
Too bad it's not yellow jackets.
I've already said too much.
#42. To: MUDDOG, all bee lovers (#41)
Mystery killer silencing honeybeesIf the die-off continues, it would be disastrous for U.S. crop yields. By Sandy Bauers Inquirer Staff Writer Something is killing the nation's honeybees. Dave Hackenberg of central Pennsylvania had 3,000 hives and figures he has lost all but about 800 of them. In labs at Pennsylvania State University, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, and elsewhere in the nation, researchers have been stunned by the number of calls about the mysterious losses. "Every day, you hear of another operator," said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, acting state apiarist with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. "It's just causing so much death so quickly that it's startling." At stake is the work the honeybees do, pollinating more than $15 billion worth of U.S. crops, including Pennsylvania's apple harvest, the fourth-largest in the nation, worth $45 million, and New Jersey's cranberries and blueberries. While a few crops, such as corn and wheat, are pollinated by the wind, most need bees. Without these insects, crop yields would fall dramatically. Agronomists estimate Americans owe one in three bites of food to bees. The problem caps 20 years of honeybee woes, including two mites that killed the valuable insect and a predatory beetle that attacked the honeycombs of weak or dead colonies. "This is by far the most alarming," said Maryann Frazier, an apiculture - or beekeeping - expert at Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. One of the first to notice the latest die-off was Hackenberg, who lives in Lewisburg, north of Harrisburg in Union County. He and his son truck about 3,000 hives up and down the East Coast every year as part of a large but little-known cross-continental migratory bee industry. Hackenberg's bees pollinate oranges in Florida, apples, cherries and pumpkins in Pennsylvania, and blueberries in Maine. Come summer, they are buzzing along the Canadian border, making honey. This season, Hackenberg hauled his hives to Florida by Oct. 10, just as he has done for 40 years. By November, some hives were empty; others had just sickly remains. He made some calls and found out a beekeeper in Georgia had seen the same thing. Since then, with concern mounting, experts have been investigating. A few months ago, they were referring to the die-off as "fall dwindle disease." Now, they have ratcheted up to "colony collapse disorder." Last weekend, apiarist vanEngelsdorp and other researchers headed to central California, where hundreds of acres of almond trees - the source of 80 percent of the world's almond harvest - are about to blossom. Last fall, workers transported managed hives - about 450 per tractor-trailer - to California from colder areas such as the Great Lakes and the Dakotas. Now, hives are coming from Texas, Florida, Maryland and Pennsylvania. In all, about half the country's managed hives are needed for the mass pollination. As workers openthe hives to check them, "the picture's not so good," said Jeffrey S. Pettis, a leader in bee research at a U.S. Department of Agriculture lab in Beltsville, Md. Pettis said bees often had some winter loss, but this level of death was unprecedented. As dead or dying insects are collected, dissected and tested, several possibilities are emerging. The most recent mite problem - the varroa mite - compromises a bee's immune system, so a virus might be the new culprit, Frazier said. Or it could be a new fungal pathogen. Frazier said researchers also were looking at a new group of pesticides that might impair the bees' ability to orient to their hives. So maybe they are dying only because they cannot find their way back home. Honeybees are not natives. The country already had about 3,500 species of pollinating bees before Europeans brought honeybees in the 1600s. But because honeybees produce honey and can be managed so easily, they have become a mainstay of U.S. agriculture. "Part of the problem is that today we develop these big monocultures of corn or peas or cabbage," Frazier said. "They wipe out the diversity of nectar sources and reduce nesting sites for wild bees. And we use, unfortunately, a lot of pesticides to keep the insects we don't want from eating these crops, which also works to eliminate the pollinators." So a Pennsylvania orchard manager, say, will bring in bees for the two weeks the apple trees bloom, then take them out so he can apply substances to control other insects. Neither entomologists nor growers can say what will happen when the 2007 growing season for most of the country's crops starts. "We're coming up onto the season where people are really going to be worried," Frazier said. Although research suggests the stress of moving bees long distances might be a factor in the die-offs, smaller beekeepers with stationary hives worry the problem will extend to their colonies as well. Already, Janet Katz, a beekeeper in Chester, N.J., thinks three of her 21 hives are failing. And the bees are stressed already, she said. "The weather last season was not cooperative," she said. "Over the course of the season it was too wet, too dry, too hot and too cold, all at the wrong times." Bees store honey every autumn - a hive needs 60 pounds to survive the winter - but with this year's warm weather, they ate a lot, and beekeepers had to supplement with sugar syrup. Now, the bees have sealed themselves inside the hives to stay warm, and the keepers can't open the structures until spring. "Are we going to see this same thing, this collapsing disorder, in these bees? We don't know," Frazier said. "It's very possible this may extend to our nonmigratory population. We just won't know until spring."
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/16623837.htm
#43. To: Jethro Tull (#42)
The bees seemed the same in my backyard last summer. I'll watch more closely this summer.
I've already said too much.
#44. To: rowdee (#40) (Edited)
UGH! When I was no more than five I sustained multiple wasp stings and went to the hospital because I was delirious. All I remember is my dear mother and the doctor making a little joke at how pitiful I looked, and I vaguely remember being in real trouble and not even feeling the needle the doctor used for the injection(s). I remember the swarm and the stings, though. I tried to lean on an Azalea bush like a wall or something (hey, I was a kid and clowning I guess) and recalling that now is high trauma all over again.
"Not too skinny and not too fat....
She's a real hum dinger and I like it like that"__Mitch Ryder
#45. To: rowdee, Peetie Wheatstraw, christine, Zipporah, bluegrass, Ferret Mike, Diana, Jethro Tull, lodwick (#33)
Once again around the age of five I sneaked through a boarded up door of a vacant house and the whole kitchen, all of the walls were completely covered with bees and honey. I'd estimate a million bees now from memory, and the droning noise is still with me. They sensed I was there, staring in awe too, but they flew past me in and out secure in the knowledge that they were in control, and I was not a threat. (In their little Soviet style society everything is either compulsory and they must do it or forbidden and they better not. So, Their nature was to keeping he'in and she'in and bee'in unless I attracted unwanted attention, and I wasn't about to do that.) I was alone but not afraid. I sensed their nature and perhaps they, mine. I wouldn't get that close now, and not because of the possibility of Africanized bees (gimme your wallet, honky, or I'll cut you!") It scares me now when I remember that I squeezed through a small opening to get inside and no hasty egress would have been possible had the critters suddenly alerted or jerked the welcome mat. If the ceiling or wall had collapsed from the weight they may have assumed that I was somehow connected to their misfortune. I wouldn't play the million to one long shot now when the potential danger is so great.
"Not too skinny and not too fat....
She's a real hum dinger and I like it like that"__Mitch Ryder
#46. To: HOUNDDAWG (#44)
I can really feel for little kids that get zapped by these stingers. They're nasty little bastards, for sure. And many people have very bad allergic reactions to the stings. Where a bee loses its stinger when it nails you, hornets/wasps don't, so they can nail ya more than once. In my experience, I had long hair at the time, and the danged things got tangled up in my hair as I was trying to swat them away! Never would be too soon to have it happen again.
#47. To: HOUNDDAWG (#45)
Thank heavens, you were like a very wise old bee-keepin man in a little kid's body.
#48. To: rowdee (#47)
I sensed that they would not harm me, but I was also very aware that they didn't crave human affection and I didn't distract any workers lest I draw the attention of a production supervisor....
Thank heavens, you were like a very wise old bee-keepin man in a little kid's body.
"Not too skinny and not too fat....
She's a real hum dinger and I like it like that"__Mitch Ryder
#49. To: HOUNDDAWG (#45)
About 5 years ago, I had a bee swarm in my attic. It was not fun. They kept coming out and flying around the kitchen ceiling light, often crawling up into the panels below the fluorescent bulbs and dying there. One time, I was sitting in my living room watching the boob tube when one flew straight at me. It lost. They're gone now---thank God.
#50. To: Peetie Wheatstraw, Zipporah, christine, rowdee, Minerva, Diana, ruthie, robin, Jethro Tull (#49)
A few years back a swarming itinerant hive landed on a tree in our back yard. My wife happened to be speaking with our friendly, retired multi-millionaire acquaintance on the phone and he jumped in his frayed bib jeans, loaded up an empty bee keeper's hive and hopped in his '48 Dodge pickup and headed down from PA to DE to get those bees. A man is never too rich to pass up the chance to grab wealth right out of the air! He loved his horse, fruit and veggie farm and he had just the empty place in a field to accessorize with another beehive... The swarm left before he arrived so, he explained what he didn't demonstrate-that he intended to pick the swarm up with his hands and offer them shelter in a language that bees understand. He was a "good Republican" who spread so much cash around that he dined with the Clintons at The White House. (they were apolitical when rewarding public philanthrophy and such.) But when I met him he was in his farmer clothes I wanted to ask him if I could spare him a few quid until his luck changed!
"1928, Wilhelm Ackermann observed that A(x,y,z), the z-fold iterated exponentiation of x with y, is an example of a recursive function which is not primitive recursive."
#51. To: HOUNDDAWG (#50)
I remain amazed at the many ways people make their bucks. Speaking of missed opportunities. When my kids were small, we looked at a new condo on Rehoboth beach. IIRC, it was $250,000. No doubt over a million now.
retired multi-millionaire acquaintance on the phone and he jumped in his frayed bib jeans, loaded up an empty bee keeper's hive and hopped in his '48 Dodge pickup and headed down from PA to DE to get those bees.
#52. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
NOW I get it...the chemtrails aren't for us; they are for the bees.
Remember...G-d saved more animals than people on the ark. www.siameserescue.org
#53. To: who knows what evil (#52)
That's the C2C take, and it makes some sense.
the chemtrails aren't for us; they are for the bees.
#54. To: Itisa1mosttoolate (#1)
The die-off is caused by pesticides, not non-existent chemtrails.
I included it in the Chemtrail thd
"We become what we behold. We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." -- Marshall McLuhan, after Alexander Pope and William Blake.
#55. To: YertleTurtle (#54)
do a search using brucella common cause
"You can not save the Constitution by destroying it."
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