THE Bees Thread (merged)

[Lore]

I know this won't help entire fields of crops, but perhaps for a small backyard garden this may help if your areas are being affected in this way. Like I said, this won't solve the problem, but it may mean the difference between a couple of tomatoes and a regular crop. I notice in my kitchen garden evry year many hummingbirds who appear to be pollinating my tomatoes and other flowering edibles. Does anyone know about hummingbirds and pollination? I plan on adding extra hummingbird feeders if they help in the gardeing process.

I think there is a case for some pollination to occur with hummingbirds, but overall I believe they are rather poor at the job. They have a taste for certain flowering plants while others they will leave alone if given a choice. They also tend to be rather territorial, and you'll only find just so many in any given location. You would need many thousands to compete with the honey bee.

[MD]

Peak bees. Gimme a God-damned break. This really is getting to be like the biblical plagues of Egypt. We're so screwed.

More like the wraths of revelations.

[Jellric]

Not only are bee populations being seriously threated, frogs are facing extinction as well: "'It's a rare thing to witness the extinction of an entire class of animal. We weren't around to see the dinosaurs disappear, and the dodo was just one species of bird -- it's not like all birds slowly disappeared. But according to many conservation scientists, that's exactly what amphibians are facing: Frogs and others in the amphibia class are on their way out unless the conservation community takes immediate action.

The amphibia class in general -- frogs are just the most populous group of the class, which also includes salamanders and caecilians -- has actually been on the decline for some time. Pollution, global warming and habitat destruction from human development have already taken a serious toll. Frogs, in particular, have suffered, having lost an estimated 170 species in the last 10 years alone, with another 1,900 in a threatened state, which is one step below the endangered designation (meaning extinction is imminent)." link

[undertaker]

I saw a honeybee today as I unloaded horse manure from Henrietta. I thought about this. I made sure not to throw a shovelful on the precious bee.

[Lore]

As far back as 2005, Haefeker ended an article he contributed to the journal Der Kritischer Agrarbericht (Critical Agricultural Report) with an Albert Einstein quote: "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."

Wouldn't that be ironic, all our worry about PO & GW comes to naught. Often it's what you don't know that can hurt you.

[gg3]

On the other hand, yellowjacket populations are not only thriving, they're exploding. Yellowjackets are not bees, they are primarily carrion-eaters and opportunistic feeders. They have the yellow and black striped abdomen of bees, the same body shape, and they can give you a nasty sting. They are attracted to sweets and to other food, for example at picnics and other outdoor eating.

In the past few years there has been a substantial increase in reports of enormous yellowjacket nests, notably in Alabama: colonies with multiple queens, that grow to a size of a few cubic yards. In one case, the interior of a 1950s automobile was filled with an enormous yellowjacket nest, another nest was the size of a Volkswagen Beetle.

Here's a local newspaper link with a story that came off the AP wire, and a picture of the 1955 Chevy with the enormous nest: These Are Not Bees

[Jellric]

Yes, there are other bees such as bumble bees which can help fill in the gap but the news should be a major red flag to any thinking person.

[TheDude]

A yellow jacket nest overtakes the inside of a 1955 Chevrolet on the property of Harry Coker in Tallassee on Thursday.

This image is so messed up I saved it to a personal folder of mine - can't link to the original. Perhaps one of you might want to resize it and use it as an avatar.

What's so important about bees? This, from the (Der) Spiegel article:

As far back as 2005, Haefeker ended an article he contributed to the journal Der Kritischer Agrarbericht (Critical Agricultural Report) with an Albert Einstein quote: "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."

[manu]

We can probably all thank Mansanto for this. Their GE crops will kill us all.

[Fiddlerdave]

Yes, there are other bees such as bumble bees which can help fill in the gap but the news should be a major red flag to any thinking person.

Since we do not cultivate bees like bumble bees, it is not a given that they are not having troubles too. They could be disappearing as well. Who knows? And who cares (yet!)?

[gg3]

A friend of mine who keeps bees (hmm, the right to keep & bear bees...) told me tonight that: Yellow Jackets are definitely The Enemy. They kill & eat honey bees, they invade bees' nests, etc.
The way to deal with yellow jackets is, at this time of year keep an eye out for newly-forming nests, look for the queen, and kill the queen (squish!). Obviously this only works when a nest is so brand-new that it has maybe a queen and a couple of workers hanging out, and you need to know what you're doing. Otherwise, I would say that spot application of insecticide is acceptable, spraying it right on them and their nest and then quickly getting the hell out of the way.

Skunks are your friend, or more to the point, your bees' friend. Skunks have a very keen sense of smell for tracking down yellow jackets' nests in the ground, and they eat the damn things but somehow don't get hurt by them in the process. Skunks are relatively harmless to gardens and small farming operations. Skunks can be encouraged by sprinkling a little solid cat food around, since they seem to like that quite a bit also. Needless to say, humans and domestic animals should stay away from skunks and just let them do their job eating the damn yellow jackets.
--
As for bumble bees, someone needs to start doing population inventories in whatever way can be done. Even a simple expedient such as counting the bumble bees on test plots of flowers might be useful over a period of years. There are undoubtedly better ways to go about this that need to be looked into.

[Tuike]

This phenomena has hit the news in Finland. (YLE) The news in the link says half of the USAs bees have died last winter. The reason for that is not known, but some suspect insecticides.

edit: Here's where they got the news: R News: Bee Killer Threatens Local Crops

Hamlin bee keeper Ed Doan says nearly half the bees in the United States have been lost just this past winter. The cause of Colony Collapse Disorder is somewhat of a mystery, but many believe it could be related to pesticides.

edit2: Here's Wikipedia article about this: link

[dohboi]

Wild bees have been in dramatic decline for a few years, as have other major pollinators like butterflies. And now domestic bees too. No pollinators, no food. Add this to your converging catastrophes: peak food, peak oil, GW, peak water, massive extintion.... What is really amazing now is that these are starting to get MSM coverage and Congressional attention (ok, not the last two much yet).

It seems to me that it might not be long before a lot of "regular people" might start connecting the dots and start getting seriously concerned about the prospects for survival. What will their reaction be? What is your reaction?

[Iaato]

Wouldn't that be ironic, all our worry about PO & GW comes to naught. Often it's what you don't know that can hurt you.

Yes, hugely ironic. Here we are planting gene-modified and pestifided cornfields by the bazillion so that we can blow heat and topsoil out of our joyriding SUV exhausts. Which then definitely makes the food too expensive to buy and perhaps kills the bees that create the food.

The moral to the story? It's all connected, and thus there are unintended consequences for all shifts in complex systems. Sometimes it's the little things that you don't see coming that will trip you up.
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Or maybe just that there is no free lunch.

[BlisteredWhippet]

We can probably all thank Mansanto for this. Their GE crops will kill us all.

Yes, Monsanto created a GE variety of cotton a while ago with the DNA of Bacillus Thuringenisis. They figured the fact that it would kill honeybees was acceptable if it also killed the other bugs. Who knows what has happened since they released this shit. Motherfuckers.

[SoothSayer]

We can probably all thank Mansanto for this. Their GE crops will kill us all.

Yes, Monsanto created a GE variety of cotton a while ago with the DNA of Bacillus Thuringenisis. They figured the fact that it would kill honeybees was acceptable if it also killed the other bugs. Who knows what has happened since they released this shit. Motherfuckers.

I have just looked at various research papers on this; honey bees were found NOT to be affected by this protein. If this crop is responsible, the effect must be very subtle, but nevertheless lethal.

[Fiddlerdave]

Look at the German article early in the thread. A possibility is shown that the modified crops make the intestines of the hooneybees susceptible to otherwise harmless parasites.

Who's gonna research this? Bush? Intelligent design aint' in his Bible. Monsanto? Ha! There are probably hundreds of interactions like this. In my opinion, any Monsanto or government employee who reported the possibility of a negative interaction with a hot new product will probably find themselves with a "Will modify food genes for food" sign on a street corner real quick! And for that disregard for humanity, we will ALL pay a huge price (except the direcors of Monsanto).

[dohboi]

Now I'm forgetting where I heard or read this, but I thought one recently popular pesticide acts by disorienting the bugs. Some bee keepers have pointed out that this is exactly what is happening to bees--they can't find their way back to the hive. They just go away and never come back. Generally no dead bees are found around the hive because their just wandering around till they die off alone somewhere.

But probably we'll never know all the causes for this disaster.

[killJOY]

Now I'm forgetting where I heard or read this, but I thought one recently popular pesticide acts by disorienting the bugs.

I second that. I heard it on NPR. I can't for the life of me remember the OBNOXIOUS name of the pesticide that's causing it. I still bought two nuc colonies to raise. We have to do all we can to keep them alive.

[jdumars]

they're just wandering around till they die off alone somewhere.

This is a potent metaphor for the whole of our society. I am planting bee attractor mixes, bee balm and borage in the the garden. I'm also not using any chemicals or fertilizers other than human pee from humans that don't eat any chemicals or drugs. God save us... because we are hardly capable or worthy of doing so ouselves. My wife: link