100 replies to this topic

[Tom Servo]

Does anyone have any good information on what's going on with the bees? A while ago I was hearing all this stuff about them being endangered, but now I haven't heard anything in a while.

[gangandealer]

I haven't heard anything to horrific. I think their situationis much better than before, but my guess is that they are still endangered.

[artistry]

...I have not heard anything recently either. When I first heard about them dying off, it was scary as far as their importance, in the food cycle goes. I hope whatever it was that was affecting them has lessened. If I remember, I am going to do a bit of research, to see of there is any updated information.

[Ecodisaster]

This is what I have heard so far:
This one farmer in the US noticed how bees were disappearing. He decided to investigate. There is a documentary on the subject, "Vanishing of the Bees" where they explain all this. Very informative indeed.

The "Colony Collapse Disorder" as they call it, has been tied to GMO's in the nectar of hybrid flowers, after being genetically modified. Also, it seems many bee keepers are feeding their bees with a big mix of high fructose corn syrup. In order to see if this was in fact the reason, they went to France and studied the effect of the ban of GMO's and high fructose corn syrup in the food for bees. A couple of years after the ban, the bee population increased considerably.

Now, all it takes is doing the same in other countries to see if it works.

http://www.vanishingbees.com/

[SolaStarr]

artistry, on 26 October 2011 - 06:05 PM, said:

...I have not heard anything recently either. When I first heard about them dying off, it was scary as far as their importance, in the food cycle goes. I hope whatever it was that was affecting them has lessened. If I remember, I am going to do a bit of research, to see of there is any updated information.

Crazy how if according to research everything could go extinct. Sometimes we dont realize the importance of the small things in the environment. I do remember as a kid always being told not to kill  the bees, and running like crazy when one would come near me.

[Hayden]

Ecodisaster, on 26 October 2011 - 06:39 PM, said:

This is what I have heard so far:
This one farmer in the US noticed how bees were disappearing. He decided to investigate. There is a documentary on the subject, "Vanishing of the Bees" where they explain all this. Very informative indeed.

The "Colony Collapse Disorder" as they call it, has been tied to GMO's in the nectar of hybrid flowers, after being genetically modified. Also, it seems many bee keepers are feeding their bees with a big mix of high fructose corn syrup. In order to see if this was in fact the reason, they went to France and studied the effect of the ban of GMO's and high fructose corn syrup in the food for bees. A couple of years after the ban, the bee population increased considerably.

Now, all it takes is doing the same in other countries to see if it works.

http://www.vanishingbees.com/

I was just about to post this. I watched on (free) on Netflix. Amazing! I think the issue is with systemic pesticides and how they have long term/non-immediate effect on bees who pollinate. US Bee keepers are having a hard time prove with science. But in France and Germany just the logic of the only obvious addition by the farming industry (systemic pesticides) was enough for both France, UK, Germany and others to ban those type pesticides.

The question is when we eat there foods does the new systemic pesticides affect our kids or our health in the long run as well?

[Ecodisaster]

Hayden, on 27 October 2011 - 06:26 AM, said:

I was just about to post this. I watched on (free) on Netflix. Amazing! I think the issue is with systemic pesticides and how they have long term/non-immediate effect on bees who pollinate. US Bee keepers are having a hard time prove with science. But in France and Germany just the logic of the only obvious addition by the farming industry (systemic pesticides) was enough for both France, UK, Germany and others to ban those type pesticides.

The question is when we eat there foods does the new systemic pesticides affect our kids or our health in the long run as well?

Right, systemic pesticides also. But remember how they mentioned the GMO's in the food and the mix they feed the bees? And high fructose corn syrup. I watched it a while ago, so perhaps I forgot something or mixed some other ideas.

And yes, I was just going to mention that about how it could affect humans...obviously it does, but people (and companies) are not willing to change habits. Amazing uh. It is just sad.

[jasserEnv]

Another aspect of the problem is that the bees get shipped around all over the place to pollinate farmer's crops. In a few studies that I had heard of, this was very stressful for the bees and like us, when they are stressed, their immunity is reduced. A few of the researchers were suggesting that bee keepers do the traveling instead and keep the colonies in one place. Certainly, if this is the problem, keeping colonies in specific locations would highlight those areas where pesticides were being used excessively and damaging the health of numerous beneficial insect species.

[Ecodisaster]

jasserEnv, on 30 October 2011 - 12:59 PM, said:

Another aspect of the problem is that the bees get shipped around all over the place to pollinate farmer's crops. In a few studies that I had heard of, this was very stressful for the bees and like us, when they are stressed, their immunity is reduced. A few of the researchers were suggesting that bee keepers do the traveling instead and keep the colonies in one place. Certainly, if this is the problem, keeping colonies in specific locations would highlight those areas where pesticides were being used excessively and damaging the health of numerous beneficial insect species.

Yes, I remember that. They are exploited like pigs or chicken in a truck, basically, same way. They travel more than any business person in America a year. It is amazing. The stress, they said, contributed to the weakening of their immune system when being fed the fructose syrup type of food, genetically modified. On top of that, the systemic pesticides they get from crop to crop, completely annihilates them. While watching that documentary, I felt the problem was the bee keepers in part for treating the bees inhumanely, horribly, living in that type of stress conditions, no wonder they simply give up and die off. Then they blame it on other stuff (which it is true as well) instead of looking at their own mistakes first.

[zspuckl]

I remembered hearing a lot about this for a while, but I do think that the situation has gotten better which is good.  Its funny how we forget how something as tiny as bees could be so vital to the whole ecosystem.

[Ecodisaster]

zspuckl, on 30 October 2011 - 08:09 PM, said:

I remembered hearing a lot about this for a while, but I do think that the situation has gotten better which is good.  Its funny how we forget how something as tiny as bees could be so vital to the whole ecosystem.

Oh yeah, you are so right, it is so vital to the entire ecosystem. Look at mosquitoes, humans hate them, animals and humans alike get diseases, but they are the diet of many species such as birds, fish and bats. They are tiny, annoying, but very important.
One day when the bees are gone, we won't have honey, honey cures many maladies, and many species will die since they don't have bees to eat.

I am not sure the situation is any better, unless in the US, where, as far as I know, they haven't banned systematic pesticides or high fructose syrup.

[kristyleann]

I found this article saying that scientists are claiming that bees are dying due to a combination of a virus AND some kind of parasite http://www.nytimes.c...ref=todayspaper but other than that, I haven't heard anything else about it.

[jasserEnv]

Ecodisaster, on 30 October 2011 - 08:18 PM, said:

Oh yeah, you are so right, it is so vital to the entire ecosystem. Look at mosquitoes, humans hate them, animals and humans alike get diseases, but they are the diet of many species such as birds, fish and bats. They are tiny, annoying, but very important. One day when the bees are gone, we won't have honey, honey cures many maladies, and many species will die since they don't have bees to eat. I am not sure the situation is any better, unless in the US, where, as far as I know, they haven't banned systematic pesticides or high fructose syrup.

You are forgetting the most important role of bees as pollinators. There is a reason that they are being exploited to pollinate crops and that is because they are very effective at it. If bee populations collapse, it will become increasingly difficult for crops to be pollinated and crop yields will decrease dramatically. Crops failures will also increase. This would mean much higher food prices and could lead to more land usage being allocated for farming to make up for the shortfalls in production.

[Ecodisaster]

jasserEnv, on 01 November 2011 - 06:14 AM, said:

You are forgetting the most important role of bees as pollinators. There is a reason that they are being exploited to pollinate crops and that is because they are very effective at it. If bee populations collapse, it will become increasingly difficult for crops to be pollinated and crop yields will decrease dramatically. Crops failures will also increase. This would mean much higher food prices and could lead to more land usage being allocated for farming to make up for the shortfalls in production.

Of course! That's one of the natural functions of bees. Isn't that incredible? Pollinating. I have noticed decrease in production in my little garden due to that. And yes, the food prices will increase due to lack of bees as well. I mean, not that they are not inflating them now, because they are, regardless of bees, but it could even get worse.

[Tom Servo]

Thanks for all the replies, everyone. Vanishing of the Bees... I want to see that! Einstein said the world would end in 4 days without bees (I'm pretty sure), yikes! And, why am I not surprised this is linked to HFCS?

[Liv]

I read a report about how the number of bees in the UK had diminished because of the unpredictable weather. I must admit that, during the very brief summer we did have I didn't see many. I was still plagued by wasps mind you, they seemed to be everywhere when it was hot!!

[jasserEnv]

Liv, on 01 November 2011 - 04:05 PM, said:

I read a report about how the number of bees in the UK had diminished because of the unpredictable weather. I must admit that, during the very brief summer we did have I didn't see many. I was still plagued by wasps mind you, they seemed to be everywhere when it was hot!!

I would not doubt this at all. Many species are being challenged by the varying climate that we have created. Bees can succumb to heat exhaustion and mold and mildew from excessive moisture and cool temperatures. What we notice the most is news about the bees managed by the beekeepers, but we hear much less about the bees in the wild and just how poorly their populations are faring as a result.

[Germs]

I remember a lot of buzz, no pun intended, about this whole situation some time ago.

Seems to have been quiet for a long time now though, hopefully the dangers facing bee's and whatever was killing them has stopped, for our sake.

[jasserEnv]

Germs, on 04 November 2011 - 07:38 AM, said:

I remember a lot of buzz, no pun intended, about this whole situation some time ago.

Seems to have been quiet for a long time now though, hopefully the dangers facing bee's and whatever was killing them has stopped, for our sake.

Sadly, this is is not the case. The media and we its consumers generally have the attention span of a fruit fly when it comes to such issues. These stories only get attention when they are new or when there are significant developments in the field. A slow degradation in the bee population will only be published once it has declined by a significant amount. It goes back to the idea on climate change that a frog would sit in a slowly increasing pot of water until they died from the heat all because the frog didn't respond to small signals.

[Mon-Jes]

I don't know about ending in 4 days. Yes, Einstein was a genius, but 4 days?

There would be a vast reduction in the amount of fruits and nuts available, though, because you simply can't do enough hand pollination in a large orchard unless you are able to hire and train a lot of people.