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National News See other National News Articles Title: Pesticides killing bees One of those large American beekeepers is David Hackenberg, owner of Hackenberg Apiaries in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Mr. Hackenberg has been raising honey bees for both commercial honey sales and for pollination in Florida and California crops over the past 45 years. He trucks his pollinating honey bees to farmers who hire his pollination services. Hives of honey bees are loaded on to truck for transport up and down, and between, American coasts as pollinators for hire. But in October 2006, something hit his honey bees hard and by the beginning of 2007, he has lost at least 60% of his colonies. Dave Hackenberg suspects that the culprit in this unprecedented honey bee disappearance is systemic pesticides – poisons designed to stay inside plants and kill off insects that damage crops. Systemic pesticides are not supposed to kill off honey bees, but David Hackenberg explains why he thinks that’s the problem. David Hackenberg, Owner, Hackenberg Apiaries, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania: “We move bees up and down the East Coast. We moved the last of our bees in October 2006. And a month later, in early November, we went out to look at some bees and the first location we found had disappeared. It had 400 hives of bees in it and in less than four weeks, they had just disappeared. Empty boxes. No dead bees on the ground. No dead bees anywhere. SO IT IS REALLY A DISAPPEARANCE MORE THAN A DIE-OFF BECAUSE YOU DON’T HAVE BODIES? That’s absolutely right! The bees have died – I mean they’ve died some place, but nobody knows where they are – whether they flew off a mile or two miles or what to die. I mean, we just don’t know how far out they are going. IN THAT FIRST DISAPPEARANCE OF ALL THOSE BEES FROM YOUR HIVES, HOW MANY BEES DID YOU LOSE? Those beehives would have had somewhere around 20,000 or 30,000 bees per hive and if you take that times roughly 400, you’re talking about millions of bees disappearing. WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN DISAPPEARING SINCE THE FALL? We had 2900 hives of bees here in October 2006, and we’re down to less than 1,000 now. So, we’ve lost some 60% of them. HAVE YOU EVER HAD THIS HAPPEN BEFORE? No, this is the worst thing that’s ever happened to us. I’ve seen a lot of things come down the pike. I’ve been through mites. I’ve been through fires. I’ve been through floods. I’ve had warehouses burn to the ground. I’ve had 10 feet of water in my warehouse. And I know what caused that! And I know what caused the fire. And I know what caused the problem we had with mites. But the problem here (now) is that we don’t know – I just shudder to think what things might look like next year. In this case, the thing that is really amazing is that (normally) other bees will come in and rob out the honey that’s left and there are a few predators. Here in the south, we have a hive beetle that moves in and we have a wax moth that moves in and starts eating up comb and stuff. The interesting thing about this whole thing is that none of these (normal) things happen. The bees do not bother these (deserted) combs. They (honey combs) literally sit there for weeks and they (other bees and insects) don’t come to take the honey out of the boxes; the beetles don’t bother them; the wax moths don’t bother them. So, it’s just like there is something in there that’s repelling everything else. AS IF THE HONEY ITSELF THAT WAS MADE BY ALL OF THE BEES THAT HAVE DISAPPEARED IS GIVING OFF SOMETHING THAT OTHER NORMAL PREDATORS AND BEES ARE STAYING AWAY FROM? Honey bee comb filling up with honey processed from pollen the bees have gathered from flowers. Normally, if honey bees disappear from a hive, beetle and wax moth predators will move in to eat. But in the Colony Collapse Disorder syndrome, beekeepers say even predators are staying away from the empty hives. There’s something in the hive. We’re pretty sure the honey is not the problem because once you air out this hive for a day or so, they (other bees) will take the honey. And if you air the hive out, the beetles, wax moths and everything else will take over. So, there’s some toxic odor, some other – fortunately some of these colonies are still living and we found this here in Florida and we beat if back to Penn State with it - and thinking basically we had a new virus problems, but found out the bees are full of a fungus. And we think this fungus is giving off some toxins. Personally I think the fungus is probably secondary from something else – poisonous pollen or something that was gathered by the bees. DAVE, WHAT WOULD IT MEAN IF THERE WAS SOME KIND OF CONTAMINATED POLLEN IN 22 STATES? It actually means that there is probably a big problem out here. It’s probably a lot wider than most of us want to think about. There’s a possibility that there’s some new insecticide or some new something that is being applied to the crops or being used, but is being transferred into this pollen that bees are gathering and bringing back to the hive – that it’s coming up through the plant, remains to be seen. But it sure appears that way. There are new products out there that are systemic, which means they stay in the plant. So, not only staying in the plant, but it’s probably going in the food that we’re eating and the animals are eating and everybody else is eating with really serious ramifications to this thing. THAT WE COULD BE JUST AT THE TIP OF AN ICEBERG HERE? Personally, I think that’s the case. I’ve had several people in Washington, D. C., in the last several months telling me that honey bees are a canary for the human race. The canary is what was used in mines to see whether there was oxygen, or not enough oxygen, for the miners. If the canary fell over, why it was time to get out. And Penn State has already found it looks like the immune system has been broken down on these honey bees. So, if the immune system is broken down and this stuff is going into our food supply, how much does it take to take out humans?
Poster Comment: Pesticides are killing bees. Not non-existent chemtrails, not a conspiracy, not the Masons, not Jews, not the Illuminati, not the aliens that did 9-11...just stupidity, greed and ignorance.
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#1. To: YertleTurtle (#0)
The prevailing opinion is that it is genetically modified pollen - from genetically modified crops, such as alfalfa, which has been recently introduced. And yes, it's a canary for the human race.
Monsanto strikes again Markets at Risk
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