When The Bees Die, We Die

[Nbadan]

On collapsing bee colonies...


http://www.10emtudo.com.br/artigos/2002/setembro/albert_einstein/einstein_1.jpg
"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."

Are GM Crops Killing Bees?
By Gunther Latsch

A mysterious decimation of bee populations has German beekeepers worried, while a similar phenomenon in the United States is gradually assuming catastrophic proportions. The consequences for agriculture and the economy could be enormous.

Is the mysterous decimation of bee populations in the US and Germany a result of GM crops?


Walter Haefeker is a man who is used to painting grim scenarios. He sits on the board of directors of the German Beekeepers Association (DBIB) and is vice president of the European Professional Beekeepers Association. And because griping is part of a lobbyist's trade, it is practically his professional duty to warn that "the very existence of beekeeping is at stake."

The problem, says Haefeker, has a number of causes, one being the varroa mite, introduced from Asia, and another is the widespread practice in agriculture of spraying wildflowers with herbicides and practicing monoculture. Another possible cause, according to Haefeker, is the controversial and growing use of genetic engineering in agriculture.

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."

Mysterious events in recent months have suddenly made Einstein's apocalyptic vision seem all the more topical. For unknown reasons, bee populations throughout Germany are disappearing -- something that is so far only harming beekeepers. But the situation is different in the United States, where bees are dying in such dramatic numbers that the economic consequences could soon be dire. No one knows what is causing the bees to perish, but some experts believe that the large-scale use of genetically modified plants in the US could be a factor.

FROM THE MAGAZINE

Find out how you can reprint this DER SPIEGEL article in your publication.
Felix Kriechbaum, an official with a regional beekeepers' association in Bavaria, recently reported a decline of almost 12 percent in local bee populations. When "bee populations disappear without a trace," says Kriechbaum, it is difficult to investigate the causes, because "most bees don't die in the beehive." There are many diseases that can cause bees to lose their sense of orientation so they can no longer find their way back to their hives.

Manfred Hederer, the president of the German Beekeepers Association, almost simultaneously reported a 25 percent drop in bee populations throughout Germany. In isolated cases, says Hederer, declines of up to 80 percent have been reported. He speculates that "a particular toxin, some agent with which we are not familiar," is killing the bees.

Politicians, until now, have shown little concern for such warnings or the woes of beekeepers. Although apiarists have been given a chance to make their case -- for example in the run-up to the German cabinet's approval of a genetic engineering policy document by Minister of Agriculture Horst Seehofer in February -- their complaints are still largely ignored.

Even when beekeepers actually go to court, as they recently did in a joint effort with the German chapter of the organic farming organization Demeter International and other groups to oppose the use of genetically modified corn plants, they can only dream of the sort of media attention environmental organizations like Greenpeace attract with their protests at test sites.

But that could soon change. Since last November, the US has seen a decline in bee populations so dramatic that it eclipses all previous incidences of mass mortality. Beekeepers on the east coast of the United States complain that they have lost more than 70 percent of their stock since late last year, while the west coast has seen a decline of up to 60 percent.

In an article in its business section in late February, the New York Times calculated the damage US agriculture would suffer if bees died out. Experts at Cornell University in upstate New York have estimated the value bees generate -- by pollinating fruit and vegetable plants, almond trees and animal feed like clover -- at more than $14 billion.

Scientists call the mysterious phenomenon "Colony Collapse Disorder" (CCD), and it is fast turning into a national catastrophe of sorts. A number of universities and government agencies have formed a "CCD Working Group" to search for the causes of the calamity, but have so far come up empty-handed. But, like Dennis vanEngelsdorp, an apiarist with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, they are already referring to the problem as a potential "AIDS for the bee industry."

One thing is certain: Millions of bees have simply vanished. In most cases, all that's left in the hives are the doomed offspring. But dead bees are nowhere to be found -- neither in nor anywhere close to the hives. Diana Cox-Foster, a member of the CCD Working Group, told The Independent that researchers were "extremely alarmed," adding that the crisis "has the potential to devastate the US beekeeping industry."

It is particularly worrisome, she said, that the bees' death is accompanied by a set of symptoms "which does not seem to match anything in the literature."

In many cases, scientists have found evidence of almost all known bee viruses in the few surviving bees found in the hives after most have disappeared. Some had five or six infections at the same time and were infested with fungi -- a sign, experts say, that the insects' immune system may have collapsed.

The scientists are also surprised that bees and other insects usually leave the abandoned hives untouched. Nearby bee populations or parasites would normally raid the honey and pollen stores of colonies that have died for other reasons, such as excessive winter cold. "This suggests that there is something toxic in the colony itself which is repelling them," says Cox-Foster.

Walter Haefeker, the German beekeeping official, speculates that "besides a number of other factors," the fact that genetically modified, insect-resistant plants are now used in 40 percent of cornfields in the United States could be playing a role. The figure is much lower in Germany -- only 0.06 percent -- and most of that occurs in the eastern states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Brandenburg. Haefeker recently sent a researcher at the CCD Working Group some data from a bee study that he has long felt shows a possible connection between genetic engineering and diseases in bees.

The study in question is a small research project conducted at the University of Jena from 2001 to 2004. The researchers examined the effects of pollen from a genetically modified maize variant called "Bt corn" on bees. A gene from a soil bacterium had been inserted into the corn that enabled the plant to produce an agent that is toxic to insect pests. The study concluded that there was no evidence of a "toxic effect of Bt corn on healthy honeybee populations." But when, by sheer chance, the bees used in the experiments were infested with a parasite, something eerie happened. According to the Jena study, a "significantly stronger decline in the number of bees" occurred among the insects that had been fed a highly concentrated Bt poison feed.

According to Hans-Hinrich Kaatz, a professor at the University of Halle in eastern Germany and the director of the study, the bacterial toxin in the genetically modified corn may have "altered the surface of the bee's intestines, sufficiently weakening the bees to allow the parasites to gain entry -- or perhaps it was the other way around. We don't know."

Of course, the concentration of the toxin was ten times higher in the experiments than in normal Bt corn pollen. In addition, the bee feed was administered over a relatively lengthy six-week period.

Kaatz would have preferred to continue studying the phenomenon but lacked the necessary funding. "Those who have the money are not interested in this sort of research," says the professor, "and those who are interested don't have the money."

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
Spiegal (http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,473166,00.html)

[boutons_]

right-wing nutters: All the bees moved to Syria.

[whottt]

*grabbing can of raid* Which bees need to die to get rid of boutons?

[Bob Lanier]

Albert Einstein was funnelling national secrets to the terrorists.

[TDMVPDPOY]

Fuck The Bees

[velik_m]

Not all plants need bees.

[Sec24Row7]

Typical alarmism.

Typical Dan.

[boutons_]

February 27, 2007


Honeybees Vanish, Leaving Crops and Keepers in Peril

By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO

VISALIA, Calif., Feb. 23 * David Bradshaw has endured countless stings during his life as a beekeeper, but he got the shock of his career when he opened his boxes last month and found half of his 100 million bees missing.

In 24 states throughout the country, beekeepers have gone through similar shocks as their bees have been disappearing inexplicably at an alarming rate, threatening not only their livelihoods but also the production of numerous crops, including California almonds, one of the nation's most profitable.

"I have never seen anything like it," Mr. Bradshaw, 50, said from an almond orchard here beginning to bloom. "Box after box after box are just empty. There's nobody home."

The sudden mysterious losses are highlighting the critical link that honeybees play in the long chain that gets fruit and vegetables to supermarkets and dinner tables across the country.

Beekeepers have fought regional bee crises before, but this is the first national affliction.

Now, in a mystery worthy of Agatha Christie, bees are flying off in search of pollen and nectar and simply never returning to their colonies. And nobody knows why. Researchers say the bees are presumably dying in the fields, perhaps becoming exhausted or simply disoriented and eventually falling victim to the cold.

As researchers scramble to find answers to the syndrome they have decided to call "colony collapse disorder," growers are becoming openly nervous about the capability of the commercial bee industry to meet the growing demand for bees to pollinate dozens of crops, from almonds to avocados to kiwis.

Along with recent stresses on the bees themselves, as well as on an industry increasingly under consolidation, some fear this disorder may force a breaking point for even large beekeepers.

A Cornell University study has estimated that honeybees annually pollinate more than $14 billion worth of seeds and crops in the United States, mostly fruits, vegetables and nuts. "Every third bite we consume in our diet is dependent on a honeybee to pollinate that food," said Zac Browning, vice president of the American Beekeeping Federation.

The bee losses are ranging from 30 to 60 percent on the West Coast, with some beekeepers on the East Coast and in Texas reporting losses of more than 70 percent; beekeepers consider a loss of up to 20 percent in the offseason to be normal.

Beekeepers are the nomads of the agriculture world, working in obscurity in their white protective suits and frequently trekking around the country with their insects packed into 18-wheelers, looking for pollination work.

Once the domain of hobbyists with a handful of backyard hives, beekeeping has become increasingly commercial and consolidated. Over the last two decades, the number of beehives, now estimated by the Agriculture Department to be 2.4 million, has dropped by a quarter and the number of beekeepers by half.

Pressure has been building on the bee industry. The costs to maintain hives, also known as colonies, are rising along with the strain on bees of being bred to pollinate rather than just make honey. And beekeepers are losing out to suburban sprawl in their quest for spots where bees can forage for nectar to stay healthy and strong during the pollination season.

"There are less beekeepers, less bees, yet more crops to pollinate," Mr. Browning said. "While this sounds sweet for the bee business, with so much added loss and expense due to disease, pests and higher equipment costs, profitability is actually falling."

Some 15 worried beekeepers convened in Florida this month to brainstorm with researchers how to cope with the extensive bee losses. Investigators are exploring a range of theories, including viruses, a fungus and poor bee nutrition.

They are also studying a group of pesticides that were banned in some European countries to see if they are somehow affecting bees' innate ability to find their way back home.

It could just be that the bees are stressed out. Bees are being raised to survive a shorter offseason, to be ready to pollinate once the almond bloom begins in February. That has most likely lowered their immunity to viruses.

Mites have also damaged bee colonies, and the insecticides used to try to kill mites are harming the ability of queen bees to spawn as many worker bees. The queens are living half as long as they did just a few years ago.

Researchers are also concerned that the willingness of beekeepers to truck their colonies from coast to coast could be adding to bees' stress, helping to spread viruses and mites and otherwise accelerating whatever is afflicting them.

Dennis van Engelsdorp, a bee specialist with the state of Pennsylvania who is part of the team studying the bee colony collapses, said the "strong immune suppression" investigators have observed "could be the AIDS of the bee industry," making bees more susceptible to other diseases that eventually kill them off.

Growers have tried before to do without bees. In past decades, they have used everything from giant blowers to helicopters to mortar shells to try to spread pollen across the plants. More recently researchers have been trying to develop "self-compatible" almond trees that will require fewer bees. One company is even trying to commercialize the blue orchard bee, which is virtually stingless and works at colder temperatures than the honeybee.

Beekeepers have endured two major mite infestations since the 1980s, which felled many hobbyist beekeepers, and three cases of unexplained disappearing disorders as far back as 1894. But those episodes were confined to small areas, Mr. van Engelsdorp said.

Today the industry is in a weaker position to deal with new stresses. A flood of imported honey from China and Argentina has depressed honey prices and put more pressure on beekeepers to take to the road in search of pollination contracts. Beekeepers are trucking tens of billions of bees around the country every year.

California's almond crop, by far the biggest in the world, now draws more than half of the country's bee colonies in February. The crop has been both a boon to commercial beekeeping and a burden, as pressure mounts for the industry to fill growing demand. Now spread over 580,000 acres stretched across 300 miles of California's Central Valley, the crop is expected to grow to 680,000 acres by 2010.

Beekeepers now earn many times more renting their bees out to pollinate crops than in producing honey. Two years ago a lack of bees for the California almond crop caused bee rental prices to jump, drawing beekeepers from the East Coast.

This year the price for a bee colony is about $135, up from $55 in 2004, said Joe Traynor, a bee broker in Bakersfield, Calif.

A typical bee colony ranges from 15,000 to 30,000 bees. But beekeepers' costs are also on the rise. In the past decade, fuel, equipment and even bee boxes have doubled and tripled in price.

The cost to control mites has also risen, along with the price of queen bees, which cost about $15 each, up from $10 three years ago.

To give bees energy while they are pollinating, beekeepers now feed them protein supplements and a liquid mix of sucrose and corn syrup carried in tanker-sized trucks costing $12,000 per load. Over all, Mr. Bradshaw figures, in recent years he has spent $145 a hive annually to keep his bees alive, for a profit of about $11 a hive, not including labor expenses. The last three years his net income has averaged $30,000 a year from his 4,200 bee colonies, he said.

"A couple of farmers have asked me, 'Why are you doing this?' " Mr. Bradshaw said. "I ask myself the same thing. But it is a job I like. It is a lifestyle. I work with my dad every day. And now my son is starting to work with us."

Almonds fetch the highest prices for bees, but if there aren't enough bees to go around, some growers may be forced to seek alternatives to bees or change their variety of trees.

"It would be nice to know that we have a dependable source of honey bees," said Martin Hein, an almond grower based in Visalia. "But at this point I don't know that we have that for the amount of acres we have got."

To cope with the losses, beekeepers have been scouring elsewhere for bees to fulfill their contracts with growers. Lance Sundberg, a beekeeper from Columbus, Mont., said he spent $150,000 in the last two weeks buying 1,000 packages of bees * amounting to 14 million bees * from Australia.

He is hoping the Aussie bees will help offset the loss of one-third of the 7,600 hives he manages in six states. "The fear is that when we mix the bees the die-offs will continue to occur," Mr. Sundberg said.

Migratory beekeeping is a lonely life that many compare to truck driving. Mr. Sundberg spends more than half the year driving 20 truckloads of bees around the country. In Terra Bella, an hour south of Visalia, Jack Brumley grimaced from inside his equipment shed as he watched Rosa Patiño use a flat tool to scrape dried honey from dozens of beehive frames that once held bees. Some 2,000 empty boxes * which once held one-third of his total hives * were stacked to the roof.

Beekeepers must often plead with landowners to allow bees to be placed on their land to forage for nectar. One large citrus grower has pushed for California to institute a "no-fly zone" for bees of at least two miles to prevent them from pollinating a seedless form of Mandarin orange.

But the quality of forage might make a difference. Last week Mr. Bradshaw used a forklift to remove some of his bee colonies from a spot across a riverbed from orange groves. Only three of the 64 colonies there have died or disappeared.

"It will probably take me two to three more years to get back up," he said. "Unless I spend gobs of money I don't have."

[Phenomanul]

^^ great read :tu

[smeagol]

Strange indeed.

[whottt]

Guess this solves that killerbee problem...kinda like global warming is solving the impending iceage of the 70's problem.

There's always a solution around the corner........

[Sec24Row7]

Yep, I'd heard about the Mite issue and the Bee Die off...

They have been having a problem with it for like 6 years now they think...


It will work itself out.

[101A]

Half die.

Half live.

Natural Selection; if ALL start dying, time to increase the concern level.

It's not like the gestation cycle of bees is elephantine, after all.

[Sec24Row7]

Elephants actually increase their birth rate when they have pressure put on them... Rhinos actually reduce it.

[Nbadan]

Not all plants need bees.

It's the circle of life baby. Animals need plants, man needs animal and plants. Sure some plants can self polinate, but man is tied into the great equation of life, change one of the variable of that great equation, like the gross amount of food available on this earth, and you change the destiny of man.

[Sec24Row7]

Dan, I understand why you are so concerned with the status quo. If humans were forced to face ANY sort of diversity you personally wouldn't be able to cut it.

If the grocery store was shut down for good, you couldn't copy/paste a steak on the table.

[LaMarcus Bryant]

So I guess the africanized Killer Bee invasion has come to a halt? Back in the early 90's they were predicting bee chode bloading on the reg, in the near future. hmm.

[Hook Dem]

Hmmmmmmmmm.........to bee or not to bee! http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/3743/floridasquirrellv2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[AFE7FATMAN]

http://a.abcnews.com/images/Technology/ap_bee_070416_sp.jpg


Studies conducted by German researchers indicate that the growing use of cell phones could in some way be responsible for the sudden disappearance of bees across America and parts of Europe. A limited study conducted at Germany's Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Lead researcher Dr. Jochen Kuhn said this could provide a "hint" to a possible cause of what has been termed Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

This phenomenom has seen entire bee colonies disappear from their hives, leaving only the queen, eggs, and a few immature workers. Kuhn cautioned that his research was on how cell phone signals might affect learning, and not on CCD.

Dr. George Carlo, who headed an extensive study by the US Government and mobile phone industry on the hazards of mobile phone use during the 1990s, told Britain's Independent newspaper the "possibility is real" that the use of cell phones could be contributing to CCD.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=3044926&page=1

It would be nice to have some legitimate excuse to get rid of cell phones. Yeah, they're convenient, but I also view then as nothing more than an electronic leash, and maybe folks would pay attention when the drive.

[ALVAREZ6]

Fuck bees

[E20]

Cows eat grass/hay and chickens eat seeds. Man eats cows and chickens. Bees don't have anything to do with grass or seeds.

[AFE7FATMAN]

Cows eat grass/hay and chickens eat seeds. Man eats cows and chickens. Bees don't have anything to do with grass or seeds.
:nope

More than 90 crops in North America rely on honeybees to transport pollen from flower to flower, effecting fertilization and allowing production of fruit and seed. The amazing versatility of the species is worth an estimated $14 billion a year to the United States economy.

Approximately one-third of the typical American’s diet (primarily the healthiest part) is directly or indirectly the result of honey bee pollination.



Production of almonds in California, a $2 billion enterprise, is almost entirely dependent on honey bees. Every year beekeepers transport millions of bees around the country to meet the ever-growing need for pollination services for almonds, apples, blueberries, peaches and other crops. This year it is possible that there won’t be enough bees to meet the demand for pollinators.

[E20]

Who needs fruits and vegetables to live when you can take a vitamin supplements? That doesn't need bees. I dont' know any way that a honey bee can pollinate grass or hay. We can eat beef, milk, protien powder and centrum for the rest of our lives.

[leemajors]

Not all plants need bees.

pretty much every fruit bearing plant does. this has been a problem for a while, though. dan is on a half to full decade lag, i guess. what is of equal or greater concern is all the cloned trees that produce bananas and such, which can be wiped out by parasites and disease. there's no genetic diversity. the cavendish banana everyone loves could be gone soon.

[leemajors]

Who needs fruits and vegetables to live when you can take a vitamin supplements? That doesn't need bees. I dont' know any way that a honey bee can pollinate grass or hay. We can eat beef, milk, protien powder and centrum for the rest of our lives.

half of those supplements and pills hibernate in your colon, unable to be absorbed by your body.

[E20]

We can always have some Soylent Green. I heard it goes good with margarine.

[sabar]

You can't live off vitamin supplements and eating steak and eggs three times a day will just give you scurvy and heart disease by age 14.




We can always have some Soylent Green. I heard it goes good with margarine.

Soylent Green is people, good eats.

[Nbadan]

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's bee farmers are feeling the sting of lost business and possible crop danger after millions of the honey-making, plant-pollinating insects vanished during volatile weather, media and experts said on Thursday.

Over the past two months, farmers in three parts of Taiwan have reported most of their bees gone, the Chinese-language United Daily News reported. Taiwan's TVBS television station said about 10 million bees had vanished in Taiwan.

A beekeeper on Taiwan's northeastern coast reported 6 million insects missing "for no reason," and one in the south said 80 of his 200 bee boxes had been emptied, the paper said.

Yahoo (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/taiwan_bees_dc ;_ylt=AgentO.io6WWrPZJWiNJ_d_MWM0F)

[Nbadan]

Mark Brady, president of the American Honey Producers Association Inc., told the committee that "honey bees pollinate more than 90 food, fiber and seed crops. In particular, the fruits, vegetables and nuts that are cornerstones of a balanced and healthy diet are especially dependent on continued access to honey bee pollination."

Brady went on: "The importance of this pollination to contemporary agriculture cannot be understated. The value of pollinated crops is vastly greater than the total value of honey and wax produced by honey bees. The scale of commercial pollination is also vast. Each year more than 140 billion honey bees representing 2 million colonies are employed by U.S. beekeepers across and around the country to pollinate a wide range of important crops."

He asked Congress to "work closely with beekeepers, agricultural producers, researchers and others on an urgent basis to find the causes of CCD and to develop effective measures to address this new and serious threat."

The strange malady became apparent when beekeepers realized that worker bees were vanishing from their hives. The queen bees and the younger bees were all in place, but the ones that do the work for the highly structured society had disappeared and their bodies were nowhere to be found. "This is what makes the phenomenon so hard. There are no actual dead bees to study," said May Berenbaum, head of the entomology department at the University of Illinois.

Linky (http://www.journaltimes.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=12512)

[rascal]

Soylent Green is people, good eats.

Why is it green?

[BIG IRISH]

Why is it green?

Because they ran out of red and yellow dye, and besides that the
green ones are owned by Hailburton.

[boutons_]

"you can take a vitamin supplements?"

Please show any scientific research that vitamins have any positive effect.

Please show any scientific research that vitamins from industrial products are better or even equal to vitamins from natural food.

[E20]

Can Bees pollinate wheat? I dont' know, so I'm asking.

[efrem1]

Voices Green and Purple.

[rascal]

Voices Green and Purple.
Isn't that some 1960's pyschedelic song?

[Nbadan]

This growing crisis is sailing past the M$M...


BELTSVILLE, Md. - Unless someone or something stops it soon, the mysterious killer that is wiping out many of the nation's honeybees could have a devastating effect on America's dinner plate, perhaps even reducing us to a glorified bread-and-water diet.

Honeybees don't just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of the tastiest flowering crops we have. Among them: apples, nuts, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash and cucumbers. And lots of the really sweet and tart stuff, too, including citrus fruit, peaches, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, cantaloupe and other melons.

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, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Even cattle, which feed on alfalfa, depend on bees. So if the collapse worsens, we could end up being "stuck with grains and water," said Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for USDA's bee and pollination program.

Yahoo News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070502/ap_on_sc/honeybee_die_off)

[BacktoBasics]

We'll be cloning them in no time.

[Nbadan]

Colony Collapse and Honeycomb Size
Tue, 24 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0700
By Sharon Labchuk


"Natural" beehives appear less affected by the strange new plague dubbed colony collapse disorder. Colony Collapse Disorder in domestic honey bees is all the buzz lately, mostly because honey bees pollinate food crops for humans.

However, we would not be so dependent on commercial non-native factory farmed honey bees if we were not killing off native pollinators. Organic agriculture does not use chemicals or crops toxic to bees and, done properly, preserves wildlife habitat in the vicinity, recognizing the intimate relationship between cultivated fields and natural areas.

While no one is certain why honey bee colonies are collapsing, factory farmed honey bees are more susceptible to stress from environmental sources than organic or feral honey bees. Most people think beekeeping is all natural but in commercial operations the bees are treated much like livestock on factory farms.

I’m on an organic beekeeping email list of about 1,000 people, mostly Americans, and no one in the organic beekeeping world, including commercial beekeepers, is reporting colony collapse on this list. The problem with commercial operations is pesticides used in hives to fumigate for varroa mites and antibiotics are fed to the bees to prevent disease. Hives are hauled long distances by truck, often several times during the growing season, to provide pollination services to industrial agriculture crops, which further stresses the colonies and exposes them to agricultural pesticides and GMOs.
Bees have been bred for the past 100 years to be much larger than they would be if left to their own devices. If you find a feral honeybee colony in a tree, for example, the cells bees use for egg-laying will be about 4.9 mm wide. This is the size they want to build – the natural size.

Linky (http://www.guerrillanews.com/articles/3044/Colony_Collapse_and_Honeycomb_Size)

Natural pollinators like Bumble bees don't seem to be as effected by colony collapse as the agri-grown bees naturally cloned to pollinate and produce honey, leading some to believe that the problem may lie in some type of naturally occuring disorder rather than a genetically-induced plague.

[Spurminator]

http://zappalo.com/images/36068742_m-750539.jpg

If bee dies, bee dies.

[Spurminator]

^^^^ Rowflmaoflao!!!!!

[Nbadan]

Jim Hightower has this all figured out...


http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Third_Party_Graphic/2006/06/20/1150776500_3142.gif


Another little-known fact is that bee pollination is increasingly a highly concentrated industry. Rather than a dispersed system of local hives, a few commercial operators now haul tens of billions of bees from coast to coast, trucking their hives in 18-wheelers.

Colony Collapse Disorder, as it's now called, could be the result of this industrialized model of pollination. First, the bees themselves have been bred into single-purpose superpollinators, rather than bees with multiple functions (make honey, feed the queen, maintain the hives, and extend the species). The industrial bees have lost the diversity and natural traits of wild bees.

Second, constant trucking puts stress on the bees, suppressing their immune systems and making them vulnerable to viruses, mites, and diseases. Also as part of their forced migration, the bees are fed a limited diet of high fructose corn syrup – about as healthy as humans trying to live on Cokes. Other research is indicating certain pesticides and genetically altered organisms that have been artificially spliced into many field crops.

Once again, we have the heavy hand of mankind messing with Mother Nature in ways that come back to mess with us – big time. It's not just bees these food industrialists are messing with – it's our food supply.

The Hightower Report (http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/column?oid=oid%3A469161)

[Wild Cobra]

Well, the Einstein quote might be an Urban Legend. I tried to find it, but couldn't find an actual source.

Still....

It is a serious concern. I am one to believe it is the digital cell phone systems in the 1.8 GHZ to 1.9 GHZ range. Just the right wavelength to screw with a bees navagation system if magnetic based. It seems the bee numbers have been falling with increased building of cell towers, in line with the locations.

Let's assume the Einstein quote is correct. The Myan (or is it Inca?) calender ends 12/21/2012!

[boutons_]

From: "HSI - Jenny Thompson" <[email protected]>

http://www.hsibaltimore.com

"Dear Reader,

The mystery of the missing honeybees may have a simple solution. But will anyone pay attention?

--------------------------------------------
Antibiotic bees
--------------------------------------------

Over the past few months I've been following a stream of daily updates about colony collapse disorder (CCD), the phenomenon in which bees abandon their hives and disappear. CCD continues to be reported throughout the U.S. and Canada - a potential disaster for food crops that require pollination.

Most of the updates I've seen come from newspapers that detail local incidences of CCD. And most of them read the same: a description of the overall problem followed by interviews with local beekeepers. Each of these accounts notes the various theories about what causes CCD (all speculation at this point): fungi, bacteria, pesticides, parasitic mites, weakened immune systems, and even interference from cell phone towers.

But this week I came across an entirely different CCD article. The title: "No ORGANIC Bee Losses."

This article is described as a "widely circulated email" from Sharon Labchuk, an environmental activist and part-time beekeeper. Ms. Labchuk states that she's on an organic beekeeping list of about 1,000 beekeepers - mostly American - and "no one in the organic beekeeping world, including commercial beekeepers, is reporting colony collapse on this list.

"The problem with the big commercial guys is that they put pesticides in their hives to fumigate for varroa mites, and they feed antibiotics to the bees. They also haul the hives by truck all over the place to make more money with pollination services, which stresses the colonies."

--------------------------------------------
Forget me not
--------------------------------------------

Ms. Labchuk goes on to quote a message from a web site maintained by beekeeper Michael Bush. Mr. Bush explains that he has no problems with varroa mites because he uses natural sized cells. Larger commercial beekeepers tend to use larger hive foundations, which result in larger cells and larger bees than those in natural hives.

Mr. Bush: "By letting the bees build natural sized cells, I have virtually eliminated my Varroa and Tracheal mite problems."

Ms. Labchuk's response: "Who should be surprised that the major media reports forget to tell us that the dying bees are actually hyper-bred varieties that we coax into a larger than normal body size? It sounds just like the beef industry."

And who should be surprised that media reports also tend to gloss over any potential connection between genetically modified (GM) crops and CCD? We're told there's no evidence of such a link and the subject is dropped, as if evidence would be impossible to produce. Okay - no evidence - then how about the next best thing?

In October 2000, Joe Rowland (a beekeeper and the secretary/treasurer of the Empire State Honey Producers Association) testified before the New York Assembly regarding the way GM organisms might affect honeybees. He drew his testimony from available research and his own knowledge of honeybee biology.

After noting that pollen is the honeybee's protein source and that the gene structure of pollen is modified in GM crops, he offered this comment: "Findings indicate that none of the tested pollens kill adult bees outright, but that they may shorten their lifespan and cause some behavioral changes, particularly in a loss of their ability to learn and to smell. This may cause foraging bees to 'forget' where flowers or even their own hive is located."

Note that this comment was made a full seven years before the phrase "colony collapse disorder" was coined. Those seven years may have taken a heavy toll."

[snapper]

On collapsing bee colonies...


http://www.10emtudo.com.br/artigos/2002/setembro/albert_einstein/einstein_1.jpg
"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."

Are GM Crops Killing Bees?
By Gunther Latsch

A mysterious decimation of bee populations has German beekeepers worried, while a similar phenomenon in the United States is gradually assuming catastrophic proportions. The consequences for agriculture and the economy could be enormous.

Is the mysterous decimation of bee populations in the US and Germany a result of GM crops?



Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
Spiegal (http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,473166,00.html)

I think bee's should be respected.

[byrontx]

It is interesting that it is the industrialized bee=keeping industry that is having the problem; I wasn't aware of that angle, nor am I surprised. The problem could be self-correcting when that industry collapses.

[TDMVPDPOY]

The problem could be self-correcting when that industry collapses.

well they still have t hem boxes, put it too good use, meth lab biatches

[Rockhound]

I definitely think this is an important issue, however Earth is much more resilient to overcome this obstacle

and

Mankind has already come up with ways to pollinate gardens w/o insect life. A pretty shitty Plan B, but not all humans would die.

[sabar]

No big deal. No bees means there is food sitting there. Where there is food, something else will move in to feed on it. All the wasps in Texas that pollinate these nasty sour orange trees are a good example.

Nature wont let everything collapse from one thing going away.

[SnakeBoy]

Nature wont let everything collapse from one thing going away.

Your missing the point. The bees aren't going away. "Domesticated" bees are vanishing, natural bees aren't. And the domesticated ones aren't dieing, they're just dissapearing. No dead bodies.

Probably the domesticated ones are hooking up with africanized honey bees when they are out cruisin for pollen. You know the old saying, once you go african you never go back.

[SnakeBoy]

"Every third bite we consume in our diet is dependent on a honeybee to pollinate that food," said Zac Browning, vice president of the American Beekeeping Federation.

Most americans would do well to pass up every third bite.

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_dan/mcdonalds.jpg

[boutons_deux]

Corporate chemicals killing us slowly, via captured/corrupt regulators approving corporate-conducted rigged "studies" that always support corporate profits (at least for the studies that aren't suppressed).

Same holds true for BigPharma, bogus studies, captured regulatory agencies. Ask Coyote how Vioxx worked for him.


Leaked Memo Sheds Light on Mysterious Bee Die-Offs and Who's to Blame

The leaked EPA memo, dated November 2, 2010, focuses on Bayer CropScience's request to register (i.e. legalize) its pesticide clothianidin for use on mustard seed and cotton. Clothianidin was first registered in May 2003, but its registration was conditional on safety testing that the EPA said should be completed by December 2004. Only, as the latest memo points out, the study, when it was done (long after 2004), was inadequate in demonstrating that clothianidin does not pose a threat to honeybees. Unfortunately, with the EPA's failure to ensure clothianidin's safety before allowing its use on corn and canola, it fell to beekeepers to discover why their bees were dying, and how the EPA allowed clothianidin on the market.

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/149150

As always, corporations in Europe and Canada have not (yet) totally corrupted/captured regulators, so chemicals and drugs get banned there earlier, while they are never banned or banned MUCH later in USA.

"Come on, Boutons, why you always victimizing those corporations?"

[Nbadan]

fascinating...



Monsanto Co. announced Wednesday that it had bought Beeologics, a company that is developing a product that promises to help bees survive an illness that has been wiping out colonies across the world.

Creve Couer-based Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, did not disclose the terms of the sale.

Beeologics, a research company founded in 2007 with headquarters in Florida and Israel, has developed a product called Remembee, which is an anti-viral agent that the company's researchers believe could stem the impact of colony collapse disorder. The mysterious disorder has decimated honeybee populations around the globe, with far-reaching implications for agriculture.

Link (http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/article_19f6f7b2-1c8a-50f8-b84f-47c351ec044d.html)

[boutons_deux]

EPA knowingly approved bee-killing pesticide

http://www.naturalnews.com/z030921_EPA_pesticides.html

[mouse]

Why is it green?

So the people would think they was eating Soylent Green, a small green wafer advertised as made of "high-energy plankton when in fact it was made from ground up human remains.

SVpN312hYgU

[Winehole23]

http://news.yahoo.com/study-parasitic-fly-could-explain-bee-die-off-184352975.html

[vy65]

So zombie bees are causing the bee-apocalypse?

foreboding/poetic imho

[vy65]

http://www.boiseweekly.com/boise/where-have-all-the-bees-gone/Content?oid=2313928

soundtrack by stars of the lid

[Blake]

.

[Nbadan]

Scientists discover what’s killing the bees and it’s worse than you thought


As we’ve written before, the mysterious mass die-off of honey bees that pollinate $30 billion worth of crops in the US has so decimated America’s apis mellifera population that one bad winter could leave fields fallow. Now, a new study has pinpointed some of the probable causes of bee deaths and the rather scary results show that averting beemageddon will be much more difficult than previously thought.

Scientists had struggled to find the trigger for so-called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) that has wiped out an estimated 10 million beehives, worth $2 billion, over the past six years. Suspects have included pesticides, disease-bearing parasites and poor nutrition. But in a first-of-its-kind study published today in the journal PLOS ONE, scientists at the University of Maryland and the US Department of Agriculture have identified a witch’s brew of pesticides and fungicides contaminating pollen that bees collect to feed their hives. The findings break new ground on why large numbers of bees are dying though they do not identify the specific cause of CCD, where an entire beehive dies at once.

When researchers collected pollen from hives on the east coast pollinating cranberry, watermelon and other crops and fed it to healthy bees, those bees showed a significant decline in their ability to resist infection by a parasite called Nosema ceranae. The parasite has been implicated in Colony Collapse Disorder though scientists took pains to point out that their findings do not directly link the pesticides to CCD. The pollen was contaminated on average with nine different pesticides and fungicides though scientists discovered 21 agricultural chemicals in one sample. Scientists identified eight ag chemicals associated with increased risk of infection by the parasite.

Most disturbing, bees that ate pollen contaminated with fungicides were three times as likely to be infected by the parasite. Widely used, fungicides had been thought to be harmless for bees as they’re designed to kill fungus, not insects, on crops like apples.
<snip>

http://qz.com/107970/scientists-discover-whats-killing-the-bees-and-its-worse-than-you-thought

[boutons_deux]

BigAg/BigChem have been destroying, sterilizing, denaturing and will unstoppably continue for profit.

[mouse]

Monsanto Wins!

d7DqaJ3QgHU

[Nbadan]

What the bees can teach us


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P7Q1ncgcoY