Honey Bees

gunny · Post by **gunny** » Sat May 26, 2007 3:36 am

We have noticed the absence of honey bees on our flowers this year. The current Smithsonian has an interesting article addressing this issue. None have been found dead in their hives. Spectulation, since supposedly, the bees use the magnetic arcs to navigate, is that they cannot find their way back to the hives. Economic disaster for fruit trees on Kalifornia (PRK) is on the horizon. Many times in the past the poles have shifted. Is this possible today?

Post by **Minimalist** » Sat May 26, 2007 7:49 am

http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article ... YAodUyZLKw

Oh, no....they are dying in droves. Bill Maher spoke about this a week or so ago while doing an environmental wrap-up. Very serious problem.

By the time John Miller realized just how many of his bees were dying, the almonds were in bloom and there was nothing to be done. It was February 2005, and the hives should have been singing with activity, plump brown honeybees working doggedly to carry pollen from blossom to blossom. Instead they were wandering in drunken circles at the base of the hive doors, wingless, desiccated, sluggish, blasé. Miller is accustomed to death on a large scale. “The insect kingdom enjoys little cell repair,” he will often remind you. Even when things are going well, a hive can lose 1,000 bees a day. But the extent of his losses that winter defied even his insect-borne realism. In a matter of weeks, Miller lost almost half of his 13,000 hives — around 300 million bees.

gunny · Post by **gunny** » Sat May 26, 2007 9:12 am

Could the bees a notice for us that there is an issue that we primates should may attention to?

Digit · Post by **Digit** » Sat May 26, 2007 11:44 am

Same here Min, didn't realise it has hit the States though.

Forum Monk · Post by **Forum Monk** » Sat May 26, 2007 1:41 pm

So in spite of all the strange theories such as magnetic fields and cell phones, according to Min's article, they are fingering the Varroa mite as the predatory culprit.

Is that the consensus?

Post by **Minimalist** » Sat May 26, 2007 2:18 pm

Seems to be.

Over the course of the next decade, though, the mites developed resistance to that treatment. They acquired immunity to a second compound after only three or four years. And in the winter of 2005, beekeepers realized, too late, that the current medicines were no longer working.

I wonder if Arch can see the workings of evolution here?

Digit · Post by **Digit** » Sun May 27, 2007 6:10 am

That's the concensus over here Monk. The stupid part is that most our people don't understand the connection between Bees and pollination so they are not overly concerned.

Post by **Minimalist** » Sun May 27, 2007 8:50 am

Which is why one does not let the common people make important decisions.

Digit · Post by **Digit** » Sun May 27, 2007 8:58 am

Oh I don't know about that Min! Our 'important' people would take some beating on that score my friend.

Post by **Minimalist** » Sun May 27, 2007 10:04 am

I forget where I saw it but the reference is to the observation that "a person can be smart but people are stupid and easily panicked.

Digit · Post by **Digit** » Sun May 27, 2007 10:29 am

Most of our senior ministers are ex-lawers and their inability to see the outcome of their lawmaking is near legendary.
An example. Cattle get Bovine TB. Other mammals can get Bovine TB from cattle, so we slaughter the cattle that develop it.
Not nice, but sensible.
BUT, our idiot animal loving Ministers refuse to slaughter the other animals that get TB from the cattle then transmit it back to the cattle.
Result? Large increase in cattle with TB followed by large increase in compensation paid to farmers.
And for the last 9yrs the Ministers in charge have refused to accept the logic.
None of the Ministers have a farming background, so, let's ask the experts.
They do. Experts say slaughter wild vector animals.
Result? Ask another expert, same answer.
So? Form a committee. Committee comes back with same answer.
Result? 9yrs of buck passing till treasury decides the compensation too high must do something about TB in vector animals.
Ye Gods!
Same thing with wild Deer, having refused to cull 25000 a yr when they came to power they now have to agree to slaughtering 250000 yr!
As they have banned hunting with dogs they are now having to issue an increased number of licences for heavy calibre rifles so that people can shoot them, and as the idiots don't wish to dirty their hands with problems they have caused they are now having to licence private individuals to do it for them!

Post by **Minimalist** » Sun May 27, 2007 11:24 am

We get the same thing over here. Having done away with the wolves the deer proliferate and overgraze. Then, when it becomes apparent that something must be done the local Bambi-Lovers Guild whines and moans about shooting them.

Digit · Post by **Digit** » Sun May 27, 2007 11:49 am

Fine Min, but what pisses me off is that they never come up with a viable alternative.
One of my neighbours in the village puts food out for those luverly cudderly Foxes, so I have to install Fox proof fences! She also feeds the Squirrels, so to protect the wild life in my little acre I have to shoot the Damn things!

Ishtar · Post by **Ishtar** » Sun May 27, 2007 12:04 pm

I think it was Einstein that said if the bees become extinct, he would give the human race just two years after that.

Post by **Minimalist** » Sun May 27, 2007 12:57 pm

There really is no viable solution, Dig. There are not enough hunters to do the job that the wolves used to do. Besides, the wolves would take out the old and the sick whereas hunters look for the best specimen they can get.

They have actually re-introduced wolves into some places in the west but they'll never do it in the Eastern US. Too populated.