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30 Oct 10 - 09:20 PM (#3019644) Subject: BS: Possible cause of CCD From: josepp "In 2010 Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), again devastated honey bee colonies in the USA, indicating that the problem is neither diminishing nor has it been resolved. Many CCD investigations, using sensitive genome-based methods, have found small RNA bee viruses and the microsporidia, Nosema apis and N. ceranae in healthy and collapsing colonies alike with no single pathogen firmly linked to honey bee losses." Iridovirus and Microsporidian Linked to Honey Bee Colony Decline |
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30 Oct 10 - 09:38 PM (#3019660) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD From: josepp The shame is that the loss of the honeybee is incredibly tragic news and yet if Obama tried to allot any priority to finding a solution, he'd get killed politically for frittering away millions on a bunch of stupid insects while ignoring the plights of millions of unemployed Americans. The truth is, if we lose the honeybee, employed and unemployed Americans are in the same boat and that boat is sinking fast. We will be up shit's crick with no paddle, no life preserver, no nothing. You wonder how this escapes the average American--the fact that we cannot live without honeybees and that we are losing them to the tune of 50% of the total honeybee population disappearing in the last 60 years. I've seen 60 minutes do segments on it but they don't really touch on the major point--we are losing our bees with no hope at this time of stopping it and that we cannot live without them. During the nut season in California, it used to be only a small portion of the total honeybee population in the US would be sent there to pollinate. Now they say due to the decline, half the total honeybee population in the US is in California during nut season. I remember one segment 60 Minutes interviewing a beekeeper who was saying that his business would go under if he had another year like the one before (I have no idea what happened to him since) and this guy was one of the major suppliers of bees. He almost burst into tears talking about the severity of the situation. The interviewer asked him, "Bees are important, aren't they?" His eyes widened and he said, "Well, YEAH they're important!!" But the interviewer didn't dwell on that aspect of it which pissed me off. Tell the public what we are on the verge of and maybe the proper amount of the money and research will be provided! We are on the precipice of a catastrophe that everything else pretty much takes a backseat to and yet no one wants to talk about it. If we lose our bees, unemployment will be the least of our problems. |
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30 Oct 10 - 09:38 PM (#3019661) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD From: gnu Sad news. VERY sad and frightening. Global warming pales in comparison. |
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30 Oct 10 - 09:45 PM (#3019663) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: Joe Offer Well, if we lose bees, maybe we'll learn to like mosquitoes, another variety of pollen-spreading insect... |
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30 Oct 10 - 09:47 PM (#3019664) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD From: josepp Pollinators' Decline Called Threat to Crops Birds, bees, bats and other species that pollinate North American plant life are losing population, according to a study released yesterday by the National Research Council. This "demonstrably downward" trend could damage dozens of commercially important crops, scientists warned, since three-quarters of all flowering plants depend on pollinators for fertilization. American honeybees, which pollinate more than 90 commercial crops in the United States, have declined by 30 percent in the last 20 years. This poses a challenge to agricultural interests such as California almond farmers, who need about 1.4 million colonies of honeybees to pollinate 550,000 acres of their trees. By 2012, the state's almond farmers are expected to need bees to pollinate 800,000 acres. Gene E. Robinson, an entomologist at the University of Illinois and one of the 15 researchers who produced the report, said U.S. farmers had to import honeybees last year for the first time since 1922, underscoring the extent of the problem. |
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30 Oct 10 - 09:49 PM (#3019665) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: pdq These are your first posts, josepp. Are you the same one who has been posting as GUEST, josep? |
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30 Oct 10 - 09:51 PM (#3019666) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: josepp From the above article: "Despite its apparent lack of marquee appeal, a decline in pollinator populations is one form of global change that actually has credible potential to alter the shape and structure of terrestrial ecosystems," Berenbaum said. Animals carry pollen -- which they pick up inadvertently while feeding on a plant's nectar -- and transfer it from one flowering plant to another, sometimes over significant distances. The process not only boosts plant production but increases species' genetic diversity. Animal pollinators fertilize more than 187,500 flowering plants worldwide; scientists believe these plants, called angiosperms, gained ecological dominance more than 70 million years ago in part because animals help them disperse their pollen so broadly. Other pollinators include hummingbirds and butterflies, as well as wild bees. In many ways, pollination works as a chain in which even the largest animals depend on small insects, said committee member Peter Kevan, a professor at the University of Guelph, Ontario. "Canadian black bears need blueberries, and the blueberries need bees" for pollination, Kevan said. "Without the bees you don't have blueberries, and without the blueberries you don't have black bears." Despite this crucial link, Robinson said, many ordinary citizens fail to grasp how important pollinators are to food production. |
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30 Oct 10 - 09:52 PM (#3019667) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: josepp ////These are your first posts, josepp. Are you the same one who has been posting as GUEST, josep?//// Yes. It won't let me register as josep because the name is already taken...by me. |
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30 Oct 10 - 09:56 PM (#3019672) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: pdq If no one beats me to it, I will be the first to welcome you to Mudcat. Your previous posts suggest that you are a great addition. |
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30 Oct 10 - 09:57 PM (#3019673) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: josepp Mysterious, Massive Disappearance/Death of US Honey Bees – Colony Collapse Disor Albert Einstein made the statement " If honey bees become extinct, human society will follow in four years." He was speaking in regard to the symbiotic relationship of all life on the planet. All part of a huge interconnected ecosystem, each element playing a role dependant on many other elements all working in concert creating the symphony of life. Should any part of the global body suffer, so does the whole body. Many people would be surprised to know that 90% of the feral (wild) bee population in the United States has died out. Recent studies in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have shown that bee diversity is down 80 percent in the sites researched, and that "bee species are declining or have become extinct in Britain." The studies also revealed that the numbers of wildflowers that depend on pollination have dropped by 70 percent. Which came first, the decline in wildflowers or the decline in pollinators, has yet to be determined. If bees continue to die off so would the crops they support and with that would ensue major economic disruption and possibly famine. In the US, bee keepers are experiencing unprecedented die offs of bees some losing as much as 80% of their colonies.... |
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30 Oct 10 - 09:58 PM (#3019674) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: maeve Our wild honeybees are present and busy in healthy numbers on our farm from early March through October. At the same time we place high value on our native Mason bees for the reasons described on the following links: http://www.gizmag.com/mason-bees/14100/ http://morrisarboretum.blogspot.com/2010/04/mason-bees-at-morris-arboretum.html |
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30 Oct 10 - 09:59 PM (#3019675) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: josepp I have heard that the British honey industry has all but collapsed this year. Not sure if that's true but it is not likely far off the mark. |
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30 Oct 10 - 10:03 PM (#3019679) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: josepp ////Sad news. VERY sad and frightening. Global warming pales in comparison.//// Global warming will be a blessing. |
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30 Oct 10 - 10:10 PM (#3019682) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: pdq "Global warming will be a blessing." You tell 'em, dood! Also, an increase in atmospheric C02 to about 900 ppm will give us a huge increase in crop production, perhaps 20%. We will need all of that to feed the planet's ever-increasing population. |
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30 Oct 10 - 10:14 PM (#3019686) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: maeve Some good news here: http://www.britishbee.org.uk/news/current_news/bbka-honey-survey-results-announced.shtml "HONEY – IT'S GOOD NEWS AT LAST! *3.5 million pounds of honey harvested this summer for the nation's tea tables by amateur beekeepers *50 per cent increase in the number of bee colonies in the last six months *four times the value of BBKA members' honey harvests goes to the economy through pollination *5,000 members of the public sign up to lend their support as 'armchair' beekeepers The British Beekeepers' Association (BBKA) estimates that each of the beehives kept by its members contributes four times more to the agricultural economy through pollination than the value of the honey received by the beekeeper. The findings come from the charity's first countrywide survey of its members' honey harvests released today, 28th October 2010." |
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30 Oct 10 - 10:16 PM (#3019687) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: josepp ///Our wild honeybees are present and busy in healthy numbers on our farm from early March through October. At the same time we place high value on our native Mason bees//// Yes, I know that they are searching for a replacement of the honeybee I don't know if Mason bees exist in enough numbers plus they don't make honey. Other wild bees are unaffected by Varroa mites which have nearly destroyed wild honeybees. Where I live, we used to have wild hives in wooded areas but not now. I haven't seen honeybees in this area for years. Mason bees can be a great supplement but we need to save the honeybee and that means making the public aware of just how important they are and how much we depend on them. |
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30 Oct 10 - 10:18 PM (#3019689) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: Bobert Yeah, being a gardener/farmer I been on this one going back a ways... I heard a couple weeks ago that CCD had been unraveled... That's the biggest part of the deal... Now it's a matter of figuring out cure... We need our bees 'er we'll all be out shakin' polin from plant to plant in order to eat... Einstein was right... B~ |
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30 Oct 10 - 10:18 PM (#3019690) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: josepp ////Also, an increase in atmospheric C02 to about 900 ppm will give us a huge increase in crop production, perhaps 20%./// But that requires bees and lots of them. |
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30 Oct 10 - 10:26 PM (#3019696) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: josepp ////"HONEY – IT'S GOOD NEWS AT LAST! *3.5 million pounds of honey harvested this summer for the nation's tea tables by amateur beekeepers *50 per cent increase in the number of bee colonies in the last six months *four times the value of BBKA members' honey harvests goes to the economy through pollination *5,000 members of the public sign up to lend their support as 'armchair' beekeepers //// Well, that IS good news. But a 50% increase in 6 months doesn't mean a lot. It will have to be sustained over a much longer period of time--several years. But it looks like Britain has raised a lot more awareness of the problem than the US. It looks like many people in Britain are giving beekeeping a try whereas it doesn't seem as enthusiastic in America. But then the British have probably always been more keen on beekeeping--after all, what did Sherlock Holmes do after he retired from investigating? But anyway I'm glad to hear Britain may be rebounding because the forecast was that their honey industry might bite the dust in 2010. If that happened, it would be an unprecedented tragedy too scary to think about. |
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30 Oct 10 - 10:35 PM (#3019701) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: josepp ////Yeah, being a gardener/farmer I been on this one going back a ways... I heard a couple weeks ago that CCD had been unraveled... That's the biggest part of the deal... Now it's a matter of figuring out cure...//// I haven't heard that. I hear they think they've got something. Even if they find something to destroy the virus or bacteria or whatever, they've got to be careful with it and not overuse it or the CCD vectors will become resistant. I know that with American foul brood, you have to use terramycin in the early stages but you are not allowed by law to use it if the hive is completely infested. You have to destroy the hive and burn or bury all the equipment that ever touched that hive. The AFB spores can sit dormant for 30 years and they want to make sure it can't spread. If it becomes resistant to terramycin, there won't be much to stop it and the bees have gone through enough without that to contend with. ////We need our bees 'er we'll all be out shakin' polin from plant to plant in order to eat... Einstein was right...//// Since he died in '55, we would probably not last even four years because the human population is much larger now. |
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30 Oct 10 - 10:42 PM (#3019706) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: josepp A 2008 article on the dire state of the Britain's honey Home-produced honey could run out by Christmas because of a fall in the UK bee population, experts have warned. Nearly one in three of Britain's honeybee hives failed to survive last winter and spring, according to the British Beekeeper's Association. And that will have an effect on the country's honey industry. Stuart Bailey, chairman of the UK's biggest producer, Rowse Honey, said: 'Supplies continue to dribble through and we might have enough for another six weeks or so but I expect it to be gone before Christmas.' ... |
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30 Oct 10 - 10:43 PM (#3019707) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: maeve josepp: "But it looks like Britain has raised a lot more awareness of the problem than the US. It looks like many people in Britain are giving beekeeping a try whereas it doesn't seem as enthusiastic in America." Hmmm...I wonder how one could find current figures to compare? It has been my experience that beekeeping is increasingly popular in the US; so much so that classes are widely available from state Cooperative Extension programs to Continuing Education to beekeepers offering workshops to customers in town and rural areas. Even a preliminary consultation with Mister Google brings many opportunities to light. Has your experience in the US been different? |
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30 Oct 10 - 10:44 PM (#3019708) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: bobad Wikipedia has a list of diseases affecting bees here: HERE - there are many. From the above article regarding CCD: Colony Collapse Disorder (or CCD) is a little-understood phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive or Western honey bee colony abruptly disappear. CCD was originally found in Western honey bee colonies in North America in late 2006.[25] European beekeepers observed a similar phenomenon in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain,[26] and initial reports have also come in from Switzerland and Germany, albeit to a lesser degree.[27] Possible cases of CCD have also been reported in Taiwan since April 2007.[28] The cause (or causes) of the syndrome is not yet well understood. Hypotheses include environmental change-related stresses,[29] malnutrition, pathogens (i.e., disease[30] including Israel acute paralysis virus[5][31]), mites, pesticides such as neonicotinoids or imidacloprid, radiation from cellular phones or other man-made devices,[32] and genetically modified (GM) crops with pest control characteristics such as transgenic maize.[33] Some claim that the disappearances have not been reported from organic beekeepers, suggesting to some that beekeeping practices can be a primary factor. My local beekeeper has been managing to keep most problems in check - this year, for the first time ever, he had some problems with beetles getting into the hives. |
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30 Oct 10 - 10:48 PM (#3019710) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: maeve josepp, you've posted excerpts and links to some interesting reading. I'd be even more interested in your experience with honeybees, beekeeping, etc. Clearly, the topic is important to you, as it has been to many of us here for a number of years. Welcome to Mudcat. |
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30 Oct 10 - 10:51 PM (#3019712) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: josepp Jan 2010 article on food shortages in Britain An excerpt: There is a similar predicament in the honey industry. There is huge demand for British honey, boosted partly by awareness of the worrying collapse in honeybee colonies. Yet in many shops, all native honey is gone by halfway through the year. Of the 400g of honey per person we consume every year, only 80g is British. The reason? We currently have a mere 300 professional beekeepers in this country, many of them nearing retirement age. It will only get worse unless something is done. When I attended a forum on the future of honeybees at No 10 Downing Street last September, many well-intentioned words were spoken about saving British bees and honey. Yet when I suggested to a Government advisor that they might think of subsidising honey farmers, he laughed nervously. |
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30 Oct 10 - 10:52 PM (#3019713) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: Bobert Well, NPR had a piece on this within the last couple of weeks so if ya' Google up NPR and CCD you oughtta be able to get the latest... I can't remember, because I only heard about 2 minutes of the show, but it is no longer viris v. bateria... That, as I understand it, has been put in the past... Just wish I'd heard the entire piece but it was like in the truck between farm jobs... Heck, I figured that either way there is a way of eating these things... Of course, when ya' go about finding stuff that eats ________ then ya gotta hope the guy doesn't do stupid things like also eat alot of the good stuff, good bugs included... But, really, josepp, Google that stuff up and see if you can find that NPR show in the last couple weeks... B~ |
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30 Oct 10 - 11:01 PM (#3019715) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: josepp ////Some claim that the disappearances have not been reported from organic beekeepers, suggesting to some that beekeeping practices can be a primary factor.///// Rudolf Steiner, who founded the Anthroposophic Society, lectured back in 1923 that our methods animal husbandry with bees will start to destroy them and that in 60 years or so, we would notice the effects quite dramatically. He was dead on yet beekeepers back then said he was crazy. ////My local beekeeper has been managing to keep most problems in check - this year, for the first time ever, he had some problems with beetles getting into the hives.//// Yes, beetles get in, moths, mice, wasps, other bees. What's eerie odd to me though is that hive that falls victim to CCD is deserted overnight--most of the bees gone and no one knows where. Like they fly off the face of the earth. They leave the queen behind which is unheard of but no dead bees litter the hive. Oddest of all, no other animal will touch the honey in a CCD hive despite its looking perfectly fine and robust. Other animals and insects will avoid the hive. In any other case that honey would be raided in no time flat. Somehow, they know something is wrong with that hive. Weird. |
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31 Oct 10 - 03:47 PM (#3020205) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: josepp I've been reading these Steiner lectures and he has a rather novel take on requeening hives--which beekeepers do to prevent swarming and the queens are artificially raised. He says that a worker bee lives in a kind of twilight world. They don't see well and don't need to (which is true, they ID each other by smell rather than sight). They have three individual eyes between their compound eyes. These eyes are called ocelli. Actually, all members of the order of hymenoptera (bees, ants and wasps) have three ocelli. These sense light and dark. What Steiner says though is that bees have a kind of psychic sight with these eyes. When their queens are in the sac, the workers can see them with their ocelli as a bright light. They are actually brightest in the pre-hatch phase. The reason why the queens appear this way to the other bees is that she is their sun, so to speak. That's why they follow her. The inside of a hive is pitch black but the bees can "see" because the queen illuminates their way. And they can find her in heartbeat because she is the bright and shining one. When a new queen is born, the old queen prepares to exile herself. Oddly, she could kill the new queen but somehow her evolutionary programming will not permit this because the new queen is needed to carry on governing the hive. Entomologists have always been puzzled as to how each bee knows whether or not to will leave with the old queen or stay and serve the new one. Steiner says that older workers are most adjusted to the light of the old queen and so will leave with her. The younger bees are less adjusted and can as easily adjust to the light of a new queen and so stay behind to serve her. The new queen gives a brighter light than the old queen and so her light hurts the older bees. Her light enters their ocelli and upsets them--like someone waking you up in a dark room and shining a bright flashlight in your eyes. So the older bees cannot stay and serve the new queen because she "blinds" them--disrupts the twilight they live in and are comfortable with. Hence they leave with the old queen and swarm out to form a new hive. Even though CCD didn't exist to any real degree in Steiner's day, what he predicted would happen with requeening was that it would produce "blind" bees. That is, they never have time to adjust to a queen's light because she is killed and replaced every year by a new artificially produced queen. The result is that they are in a constant state of blinding by new queens or the new queens being artificial give off no light at all. Either way, the worker bees do not know her and cannot live with her and so will leave the hive and her behind. This is precisely what happens in CCD. Steiner in the early 20s stated that workers and queens are aligned to the sun while drones are aligned to the earth. Queens fly towards the sun during mating season and drones pursue her. It is true that the mating must take place under fair skies. Moreover, it is true that bees use the sun to navigate and also use it for the waggle dance to direct other bees towards the source of nectar or honey. Could he be right about why colonies collapse? |
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31 Oct 10 - 04:31 PM (#3020232) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: josepp Neonics--the cause of CCD? |
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07 Nov 10 - 10:25 PM (#3026339) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: bobad What a scientist didn't tell the New York Times about his study on bee deaths |
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07 Nov 10 - 10:48 PM (#3026348) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: open mike the calif. beekeepers (and bees) have been hit hard for several decades -- first by tracheal mites which can be slowed if not controlled by menthol.--which made it difficult for the queen bee industry, who supply queens and starter hives for places (esp. Canada) where bees cannot live thru the winter and hives need to be re-started each year. |
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08 Nov 10 - 05:50 AM (#3026487) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Diso From: The Fooles Troupe "due to the decline, half the total honeybee population in the US is in California during nut season." ... and, due to the decline, half the nut population now seem to have invaded Mudcat... Joe, can you turn off the beacon? Please? |
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08 Nov 10 - 11:13 AM (#3026717) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: Richard Bridge Funny, I was going to say that this was the only sensible stuff I'd seen from this poster. |
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08 Nov 10 - 10:02 PM (#3027257) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: GUEST,Jim Martin According to an article in "The Countryman" (Nov issue), ("Helping honey bees fight back. Help for the battling bee with Louis Rummer-Downing.") - looks like breeding native bees may be the answer to the bees' problems: http://www.countrymanmagazine.co.uk/magazine.html |
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09 Nov 10 - 07:54 AM (#3027496) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: JohnInKansas The concern for bees is appropriate, but it should not be ignored that bats, also effective polinators, are also under threat from what appears to be an undiagnosed fungal infection that has caused large reductions in populations. And aside from the possible loss of polinating species, the sheer size of the increasing population (based on current growth forecasts) may outstrip our ability to feed them all even with current production capacities. Predictions that our population will soon outstrip our ability to feed everyone go back at least to Malthus, but a recent report on agricultural production capacities doesn't paint a very rosy picture, even though it assumes that current production will continue to grow at what likely are "optimistic" rates. John |
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14 Dec 10 - 08:16 PM (#3053686) Subject: BS: Colony Collapse Disorder man caused From: EBarnacle It would seem that the evidence has been around for over a decade that neonicatinoids are causing the destruction of bee colonies. http://www.alternet.org/food/149150/leaked_memo_sheds_light_on_mysterious_bee_die-offs_and_who%27s_to_blame?page=entire |
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14 Dec 10 - 09:44 PM (#3053717) Subject: RE: BS: Possible cause of CCD-Colony Collapse Disorder From: maeve http://www.alternet.org/food/149150/leaked_memo_sheds_light_on_mysterious_bee_die-offs_and_who%27s_to_blame?page=entire |