Don't want to get to wordy, so short answer: Colony Collapse Disorder. Possible theories have been: pesticide-related, foreign-bee introduction-related, or mite-related. Latest Information Here. No one knows how bees fare this year till more reports are in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "To Live Is Not Just To Survive, But To Thrive With Passion, Compassion, Humor & Style." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My Blogs: GardenzOwn OurGardenEarth
Posts: 2516 | Location: Linda in N.J./Zones 7 & "Twilight" | Registered: February 11, 2002
i also read something about cell phone towresand radio waves bothering bees
Never enough time to do things right but theres allways time to do it over... If it aint broke dont fix it !!! We dont plan to fail, instead, we fail to plan. You can either wait in the sittin room, or sit in the waitin room. There is no blood in my viens, its, its, its, its chlorophyl. My thumb aint allways green !!!!!!!!!!!!!. My thumb, my thumb, its turning green.
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Posts: 1631 | Location: North Central Illinois , zone 5, Morrel mushroom country, The land of Corn and Soybeans | Registered: January 19, 2008
60 Minutes did a segment on the problem of Colony Collapse. No hard answers yet, unfortunately and the promise of serious crop problems loom if the causes aren't found soon.
Originally posted by jenniferch.: Don't know why but there have been plenty of bees in my neighborhood all this time.
Mine too. In fact, they turned the next-door neighbors' shed (the back of it faces our yard) into their own personal hive. They weren't too pleased with Stepdad and neighbor taking out the too-big pepper tree and dropping a limb on their house.
--J--
You should always have a plant B.
Posts: 2483 | Location: Zone 9b, the OC, California | Registered: March 20, 2004
Originally posted by adirondackgardener: Important to not confuse honey bees with yellow jackets and other wasps....
I'll second that. Too many people call any flying, stinging insect a "bee", but the truth is that bees do their best to go about their business without stinging or attacking anyone.
Hollywood has a lot to answer for on this. Even the "Africanized" bees are pretty gentle, and have to be pretty seriously disturbed before they will attack in anything comparable to movie fashion.
Remember that when a bee stings, she is committing suicide in defense of her colony, and she doesn't do this unless she thinks her queen and colony are in danger of being destroyed.
Wasps on the otherhand are able to sting repeatedly, and feed off of the flesh of fruits and dead animals. Your picnic is not going to be attacked by bees. They will, rarely, seek a taste of the jelly on your PBJ sandwich because they are looking for sugar. But it's hornets, wasps and yellow jackets that descend on the pan of bratwurst. When you see someone frantically running from a "bee" you can be about 98% sure they are running from a wasp, hornet, yellow jacket, etc, NOT a honeybee.
Mulch where you can Till if you have to Weed when you must It's all part of the plan.
Posts: 1420 | Location: Zone 4b, Rio Grande Headwaters, 38 N, 106 W, 8000ft | Registered: September 16, 2006
One of the things that concerns me the most about Colony Collapse Disorder is the studies have only been done on bees in captivity, in man-made hives that travel around the country being exposed to numerous pesticides and different environments.
I haven't found any studies that are watching hives in nature. And I know that the hives that live naturally on my place are always active, always in their territory, although they do move as the mice and snakes invade their hives, but they don't move far.
And why do we have beekeepers moving from field to field? Because we use pesticides that kill the native bees! How come no one is even questioning this? And heaven knows what conditions those man-made hives are in. And I have already mentioned elsewhere on these boards that in China they are hand-pollinating their fruit trees because their pollinators are gone, all of them, not just honeybees. And why isn't the solution to stop spraying? Yeah, we all know the powers that control the pesticide industry.
The cell phone tower idea was a remark that wasn't scientifically based. And when you think about it, all the bees and sun-navigating insects should have gone berzerk by now in LA and New York, because cell phone towers have been around for 20 years, it would have started long ago.
I have no shortage of bees, yellowjackets, hornets, wasps or bumblebees. And oddly enough, I've found mine making their nests in 5 gallon black plastic pots loosely stacked and turned upside-down in the shade inside of a shed, so I stack a few for them to give them the opportunity to stay a while.
If anyone finds a study about hives in nature collapsing because the bees can't find their way home, I'd love to read it.
---------------------- Life goes on within you and without you - George Harrison
Posts: 554 | Location: desperately protecting 2 acres from the critters, coastal California | Registered: February 11, 2002
Bee keepers I talk to say that our best hope is to crossbreed domestic bees with feral bees that have naturally developed resistance to the nosema and varroa mites and to the various diseases and maladies that are affecting bees.
Science keeps trying to find a panacea for CCD, but some beekeepers are saying that there is not any one thing that is killing the bees, it's a bit of everything.
In the end it is going to be the use of organic practices that saves the bees, and maybe the good in that is that it will lead the way for all of us in other realms of life.
Mulch where you can Till if you have to Weed when you must It's all part of the plan.
Posts: 1420 | Location: Zone 4b, Rio Grande Headwaters, 38 N, 106 W, 8000ft | Registered: September 16, 2006
One of the main problems is that they can't find dead bodies to examine. The bees aren't returning to the hives. So there's no proof that they are dying, just that they are leaving. And since they are in huge agriculture areas at the time they leave, they probably are killed by nearby spraying.
---------------------- Life goes on within you and without you - George Harrison
Posts: 554 | Location: desperately protecting 2 acres from the critters, coastal California | Registered: February 11, 2002
Perhaps the use of neonicotinoid pesticides is a major factor:
quote:
One recently published view is that bees are falling victim to new varieties of nicotine-based pesticides; beekeepers in Canada are also losing their bees and are blaming neonicotinoid pesticides. To date, most of the evaluation of possible roles of pesticides in CCD have relied on the use of surveys submitted by beekeepers, but it seems likely that direct testing of samples from affected colonies will be needed, especially given the possible role of systemic insecticides such as the neonicotinoid imidacloprid (which are applied to the soil and taken up into the plant's tissues, including pollen and nectar), which may be applied to a crop when the beekeeper is not present. The known effects of imidacloprid on insects, including honey bees, are consistent with the symptoms of CCD; for example, the effects of imidacloprid on termites include apparent failure of the immune system, and disorientation.
In 2005, a team of scientists led by the National Institute of Beekeeping in Bologna, Italy, found that pollen obtained from seeds dressed with imidacloprid contains significant levels of the insecticide, and suggested that the polluted pollen might cause honey bee colony death. Analysis of maize and sunflower crops originating from seeds dressed with imidacloprid suggest that large amounts of the insecticide will be carried back to honey bee colonies. Sub-lethal doses of imidacloprid in sucrose solution have also been documented to affect homing and foraging activity of honeybees. Imidacloprid in sucrose solution fed to bees in the laboratory impaired their communication for a few hours.
Posts: 1599 | Location: Zone 7 - Charlotte, NC | Registered: March 28, 2007
One of the best things we can do is plant something for the bees (all types) that lasts for several months, like clover cover crops (bird's foot trefoil is low growing and "perennial), honeysuckle vines, flowering trees (see link to the list below).
I have a red bottle brush tree that can't survive below freezing, but it can survive in lots of parts of the US. It is amazing how many bees are on it way into November where I am. It also drops tons of litter that is great compost. It's drought tolerant, has beautiful, twisted bark. I can't say enough for the usefulness of this tree.
Also catnip, I can't believe how many pollinators are on blooming catnip. I've never seen so many pollinators! Catnip reseeds itself, is drought tolerant, it's a lovely herb. It even is a good ingredient in compost tea.
Our lab at UC Berkeley observes native bees and their favorite flowers. Native bees are different from the honeybee you are familiar with. They do not live in hives and do not produce honey but they have equally important roles in gardens and natural ecosystems."
And for those who are allergic to stings, taller sources of food for bees makes it more compatible, and larger sources brings in stingless bees as well.
Couldn't home gardeners all over the world make a difference if there was a food source for the bees and other pollinators?
---------------------- Life goes on within you and without you - George Harrison
Posts: 554 | Location: desperately protecting 2 acres from the critters, coastal California | Registered: February 11, 2002
Honeybees like my five year old Ceanothus flowers. The honeybees seem to carry a lot of pollen(on their hind legs) from this Ceanothus; much more bees on this bush. ...... The bees are still taking nectar from my lavendar bush flowers. No pollen on these honeybee's hind legs. ......... I wonder where those honeybees have their hives?
