Just got this link in an email....
Have ya'll seen any news on our honeybees?

Cure For Honey Bee Colony Collapse?

ScienceDaily.com

For the first time, scientists have isolated the parasite Nosema ceranae (Microsporidia) from professional apiaries suffering from honey bee colony depopulation syndrome. They then went on to treat the infection with complete success.

In a study published in the new journal from the Society for Applied Microbiology: Environmental Microbiology Reports, scientists from Spain analysed two apiaries and found evidence of honey bee colony depopulation syndrome (also known as colony collapse disorder in the USA). They found no evidence of any other cause of the disease (such as the Varroa destructor, IAPV or pesticides), other than infection with Nosema ceranae. The researchers then treated the infected surviving under-populated colonies with the antibiotic drug, flumagillin and demonstrated complete recovery of all infected colonies.

The loss of honey bees could have an enormous horticultural and economic impact worldwide. Honeybees are important pollinators of crops, fruit and wild flowers and are indispensable for a sustainable and profitable agriculture as well as for the maintenance of the non-agricultural ecosystem. Honeybees are attacked by numerous pathogens including viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites.

. . .

This finding could help prevent the continual decline in honey bee population which has recently been seen in Europe and the USA.

link:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/re.../04/090414084627.htm
-----
Again this spring, I'm seeing below normal
honey bee activity.
Hope ya'll have lots of honey bees.


Robin

I think more research needs to be done to determine why this once-rare microbe (Nosema ceranae) that previously affected only Asian bees is now spreading. Has the use of antibiotics caused this more virulent microbe? Are bees immune systems being affected and making them more likely to succumb to various outside sources?

Perhaps our western medical approach is not the ultimate answer. Paul Turner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHSUC_VrHt8

I have to wonder if the problem in part comes from the recent practice of trucking hives from one orchard to another. After all, think of all the car exhaust the bees would be exposed to (before someone points out that catalytic converters convert most exhaust into less harmful gases, let me point out that what is less harmful to us may be just as toxic to the poor bees), not to mention the fact that just the act of moving the hive has to be stressful for the colony.

quote:

I have to wonder if the problem in part comes from the recent practice of trucking hives from one orchard to another.

This is a good point and something to consider as well. I had read before that the "rental" hives were having more of a die-off. But also the rental hives could be coming into contact with more of the GMO crops.

Genetically Modified Crops Implicated in Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder
"Tens of millions of acres of genetically modified crops are allowing the Bt genes to move off crop fields and contaminate other flowers from which bees gather flowers."
http://www.naturalnews.com/025287.html

Whether any single factor is responsible, or a combination of factors, maybe a pharmaceutical company will come up with a vaccine for it...

Has there been any updates?

I can't tell you how happy it would make me to know the Honey Bee is safe!

We love you honey bee!

I was also under the understanding that part of the cause is the proverbial "everyone" using pesticides (round up etc) on their weeds and whatnot.

I'm not too sure about this news. First, there was a paper in Environmental Microbiology a year earlier than this article making the same claim, that Nosema Ceranae causes colony collapse.

Researchers in Spain in 2007 found N. ceranae present in virtually every commercial colony tested though beekeepers that year were not experiencing the terrible losses they suffered the previous year. (This was discussed an episode of the PBS program Nature called The Silence of the Bees.) Beekeepers treat for both types of Nosema and still colonies of bee simply disappear.

Bees are trucked thousands of miles every year to pollinate almonds in California, then oranges in Florida, apples in Pennsylvania and blueberries here in Maine just as they've been doing for decades. While probably not the healthiest lifestyle for a bee, they are only now experiencing this sudden and dramatic disappearance.

In France, neonicotinoids, systemic compounds sprayed as pesticides, were banned from use as their introduction coincided the the beginning of CCD, but subsequent years showed continuing declines in the bee population though the chemical was no longer used.

Not trying to poop on anyone's parade, but beekeepers are still waiting for science to actually come up with a reason for the sudden collapse of our colonies. The Science Daily article doesn't seem to offer anything new. To me, it's as if the early Aids researchers announced that Pneumonia caused AIDS because they detected it in AIDS patients and they were able to completely cure the pneumonia, completely unaware of the horrible HIV still waiting to be discovered.

I think researchers someday will uncover an HIV type of smoking gun that weakens the immune system of Apis Mellifera, making them more susceptible to the various diseases our bees are at risk for.

That day can't come too soon.

Wayne

I saw an interesting recent piece about the gardener-in-chief's beehive: http://www.nytimes.com/interac..._BEES_SS1/index.html

Besides raising awareness about the plight of bees, I think we'll see more funding go into studying CCD and perhaps new regulation on migratory beekeeping. I suppose it might also set off a wave of gardeners crossing over into small time beekeeping. Are people seeing this starting to happen, or do you think the media has overblown "backyard beekeeping"?