Don't know if you saw 60 min. tonite but pretty scary info about bees disappearing in mass quantities with no known reason. A 6 month old show but an update stated that the same thing is happening again this year. Beekeepers will be forced out of business and look for food prices to rise if a solution is not found. Very bad situation. I have noticed a continual drop in bees in the last 17 years of having fruit trees and small fruits. Every year seems to get worse, and I have a cranberry grower with bees a 1/4 mile away. I have gotten to rely on bumbles and Mason bees to do most of what little I get in pollination. Bees, as stated in the show, are a good barometer of the environment and we know what we do to the environment.:fishslap:

P., missed it, but i haven't seen any honeybees here for the last two summers. :(

I have a feeling with the use of herbicides to keep our perfect lawns free of white clover
and insecticides to kill anything on the lawn that crawls is part of the reason.

Last year they were talking about a virus that was killing them, but we in any event, will be screwed without cross pollination.

An 1/8 th MILE up the road...

they'll be going to Maine soon when the people sell their farm
which used to be the other half of mine....

did that show say that most of the Bee's and Bee products
come from china now?

i thought the area (over there) where they had used to much chemicals and then
had to do all the pollination themselves (since all bees were gone)
was the saddest thing i ever saw...
interesting but very sad ....

AFTER,,, i mowed some of my asparagus bed down last fall and they re-grew a stalk...
i was real happy to see actual honey bees gathering the asparagus pollen ...
the first bees i had seen in ages

i will be ordering a colony soon, as no pollination = no fruit

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c66/ravenob1/sign4.gif

.

funny thing is...about clover is that it's biologically similar to potatoes
in the way that it makes these tiny potato like roots called nodules that are able to absorb free nitrogen right out of the air...therefore enriching the lawn with free fertilizer....and because of that fact -i'll be ordering clover seed and broadcast seeding it into my lawn....as its nicer to walk on then grass anyways...

Had it on but was busy so I couldn't pay attention but didn't it focus more on the bees getting lost and not finding their way back to the hives rather than the hives actually dying? They think that the hives have been dying from a virus while the lost bees may be from an insecticide. The ave. person doesn't realize how important bees are.

bees,bees, the musical fruit..:laugha:

I saw exactly one honeybee last summer. I was so shocked I had to look again to make sure I wasn't seeing things or mistaking a yellowjacket for one.

We still had quite a few bumblebees around the yard all season.

I also had a nest of bald faced hornets under one of my eaves, so that may have accounted for why I saw only that one---presumably lost--honeybee.

Only had peaches last year no apples on five trees. I think I am going to polinate them myself this year. I had plenty of honey bees show up though for the male pumpkin flowers that I let go to full unprotected bloom after I had used what male flowers I needed to polinate the female pumpkin plants I was growing. The only problem is the pumpkin flowers bloom after the fruit tree bloom has gone by.

I am going to take a q-tip or just another flower and make whoopee with all the flowers myself and see what happens. I have some really unique apple trees that I haven't been able to grow anything on so far. One tree comes from a tree planted in Maine in 1705, a Cox's Orange Pippin. I really need to eat one these apples.

No bees is bad. I had fruit on all of my five trees as long as I beat the squirrelsto it.

I think it is called Colony Colapse Disorder. Have a friend that alleges it started in Warwick, RI. I believe the PBS special refers to it starting with a colony in Australia or New Zeland. I never realized that trading bees around the globe was such big business..

I still have plenty of bees here on Cape. My wife plants flowers all along the house perimeter and we have a flower bed by the drive, always full.

What we will have in the next few months if the cicadas, been seventeen years since the last onslaught. I thought aliens had landed in the woods behind the house as the noise was eeire for days then they came by the millions. Cats loved them, nice and crunchy with chewy centers.

Steve you probably have cranberry growers near you that is why. An expert told me many years ago that there are no wild honeybees anywhere, anymore. Been whipped out by virus's and mites. Yes CCD. In a nutshell they said the bees are disappearing, not dying. virus's and mites have long been a problem with bees and antibiotics are applied in their feed to keep those problems in check. They think the disappearance problem is more from the new pesticides that we use nowadays for lawns and golf courses and such.There seems to be a chemical in them that effects the memory of the bees so they leave the hive and can't find their way back. Something that bees are famous for, their navigational skills. This pesticide makes insects forget to eat and thus they die. They seem to think the bees are forgetting also where they live. French bee keepers got the chemical all but banned in France. The beekeeper on the show raises like 80 million bees and trucks them from Calif. to Maine year round. He has lost half of his bees for the last 2 years in a row and had to borrow 1000's to re stock. Says he will be out of buisness if it happens again. Said he makes $100,000 a year doing it. The major crop producing CEO's of blueberries, almonds, oranges, pumpkins, etc... are calling him to see how things are going because with out his help they will not be able to supply the market place

Swimmer I too have a Cox orange pippin and have yet to eat one. The

Cox's Orange pippin is only one of several old scions I planted that were grown on Russian cultivars. I really am going to polinate myself this year. Hell I do great with the pumpkins polination I might as well do it for the apples as well.

Careful or you will start looking like this.

Corn is the crop hit hard without pollination as each string of silk is attached to a

potential kernel, and if its not pollinated the kernel will not develop.

Corn is pollinated airborne . . . not bees silly :tooth:

Saw the 60 minutes thing. Funny thing is, last summer a gang of bees converged on my kitchen window. They completely covered the bottom half of the window. I'm talking a swarm, thousands of bees. I thought they were going to build a hive right there. Then out of nowhere.... they were gone. Kinda creepy.

Ya know G2, you are right. :btu:

Ya keep me learning. :)

Study links bee decline to cell phones - CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/06/30/bee.decline.mobile.phones/index.html?hpt=C2)

very interesting

Channel 4 wbz news in one minute, about bees and cell phone

there has to be a way to "show and tell" the bees back to the hive visually with either magnets or colored foil making strings go north, south, east, and west that are color coordinated as an experiment

to see if this solves the problem long before cell phone companies change the electromagnetic signatures that are screwing up the bees ability to navigate.

this bees and cellphone link was linked in another study I read last year.

More towers more radiation less bees more cancer.

And the government made it illegal to sue a cellphone company for radiation damage. :smash:

this bees and cellphone link was linked in another study I read last year.

More towers more radiation less bees more cancer.

And the government made it illegal to sue a cellphone company for radiation damage. :smash:

was that georgy bushes government or Obama's government?

Short segment was on and an asian country is doing a study with bees and cell phones. There had seem to be a die off when cell phone was placed beside a hive for a month.

I use to raise bees, had thirty hives and use to rent some of them out to others around the city. Back in the late seventies it was a mite that was killing off the bees.

It is illegal to kill honey bees.

I used to raise bees, had thirty hives and use to rent some of them out to others around the city. Back in the late seventies it was a mite that was killing off the bees.

It is illegal to kill honey bees.

i had fifty hives out in California .....

this disease has kept me from re entering the ring....

My privets in Truro are loaded with the common honeybee right now as they blossom. They weren't there the last coupla years. There is another breed of honey bee that looks like a miniture bumble bee that was strangely absent last weekend. Your familiar huge bumblebee was present along with maybe 5-6 different butterflys. We'll see this coming weekend

that privet smell is something i never forget. Small bumble type bee could be a mason bee, pretty common around here, thank goodness.

privet...eh... i don't know it

very distinct. Makes me think of the Vineyard as a lot of the house's there have lots of it.

busy as a bee
some bumbles in my Japanese Snowbell tree and a honey bee in the asparagus

a couple bumbles in the gooseneck and a honey bee in the clover

i had fifty hives out in California .....

this disease has kept me from re entering the ring....

My wife hated late May or early June warm and humid days especially weekends if we had plans to go some place, that would be the time the bees would swarm and she would go by herself while I stayed home climbing a tree or what ever to capture a swarm.

I Just returned from a bee keepers farm

he told me that the scientists are zero- ing in on the cause
of colony collapse disorder CCD

and it's from the chemical people are using on their lawns to
kill the lawn grubs

apparently it collects in the pollen which the bees also collect
as their bread....

and in the fall it concentrates in the pollen and then makes them loose
there navigation abilities.

You mean Bayer's Merit?
CHO - Fact Sheet on the grub killing pesticide Merit Insecticide containing Imidacloprid (http://www.flora.org/healthyottawa/merit-pesticide-insecticide-grub.htm)

Fact Sheet on "Merit" insecticide (grub killer)
(active ingredient: Imidacloprid)
(Instead of using Merit please consider using natural Nematodes, which eat grubs!

Overview:

- Imidacloprid is the active ingredient used in the grub killing pesticide named "Merit"
(Merit and Bayer are trademarks of Bayer CropScience)

- imidacloprid is a chlorinated nicotinoid compound, that affects the nervous system

- Imidacloprid is manufactured by Bayer

- Imidacloprid is banned in Italy, Germany, Slovenia, and restricted in France (see: source).

- Imidacloprid works by fitting into nerve receptors meant to receive the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh). By blocking these acetylcholine receptors, an excess of acetylcholine accumulates causing paralysis and eventual death

- Adverse effects of imidacloprid may include apathy, difficulty breathing, loss of the ability to move, staggering, trembling and spasms[1]

- The thyroid is particularly sensitive to exposure of imidacloprid, which is linked to causing thyroid lesions.[2]

- Imidacloprid is very toxic to earth worms,[3] with an LD50 of between 2 and 4 parts per million in soil

- Imidacloprid is extremely toxic to honey bees [see product label example] and is restricted in France because of plummeting bee populations.

- Imidacloprid kills parasitic wasps that control grub larvae. This is counter-productive, setting the stage for repeated, more extensive grub infestations.

- Imidacloprid is applied to seeds because it acts as a bird repellent. Birds such as starlings and robins eat very large numbers of grubs. Repelling this important natural control would be counter-productive.

- Imidacloprid use has been linked to eggshell thinning in birds.[4]

- Imidacloprid is highly toxic to certain species including the house sparrow,[5] pigeon, canary and Japanese quail[6]

- Imidacloprid severely limits the mobility of lady beetles[7] and other predatory insects such as marid bugs and lacewings.[8]

- At exposures of 0.2 ppm, imidacloprid has been shown to cause deformed sperm and 0.5 ppm for DNA damage[9].

- When imidacloprid was fed to pregnant rabbits between the sixth and eighteenth days of pregnancy, there was an increase in the number of miscarriages and an increase in the number of offspring with abnormal skeletons.[10] Imidacloprid-exposed rats also gave birth to smaller offspring.

- The label stipulates that food crops cannot be planted for a year after imidacloprid application. Thus, two growing seasons would have elapsed before harvest. Our children are not afforded the protection of two growing seasons before exposure to turf that has been treated with imidacloprid.

- Breakdown of imidacloprid in the environment is very complex and slow, and some degradation products are more toxic than the parent compound. Thus, the possibility exists that soil will become more toxic rather than less toxic with the passage of time. This may not happen if sufficient pesticide was washed away, but pollution of our water is not a desirable outcome either.

- Compared with 11 other popular pesticides, imidacloprid moved more quickly through soil than any of the other pesticides tested.[11] The EPA places imidacloprid in category I as having the highest leaching potential.

- There is a potential for the compound to move through sensitive soil types including porous, gravelly, or cobbly soils, depending on irrigation practices [12]

- The New York State Department is concerned that imidacloprid is found in an "increasing number of detections in private homeowner wells" -- click here to view

- Imidacloprid is extremely long-lasting. It has a half-life up to 730 days, yet is approved for annual applications. It has been observed to build up over the years, in agricultural application.

- Inert ingredients / contaminants of the imidacloprid product "Merit" have been reported to include naphthalene and crystalline silica. Both napthalene and crystalline silica are proven cancer causing agents [13],[14]

- Imidacloprid degrades into toxic, persistent, 2-chloropyridine. This was not considered in the federal assessment.


Recent News:

- On August 25, 2008, The Coalition against Bayer Dangers initiated a lawsuit against Werner Wenning, chairman of the Bayer AG Board of Management, and Bayer CropScience for "marketing dangerous pesticides and thereby accepting the mass death of bees all over the world." The alleged dangerous Bayer pesticides are imidacloprid (used in "Merit") and clothianidin. Both are "neonicotinoid" insecticides. Harro Schultze, attorney of the Coalition against Bayer Dangers, said "we're suspecting that Bayer submitted flawed studies to play down the risks of pesticide residues in treated plants” For more info, please see: The Coalition against Bayer Dangers, News item 1, News item 2 and PMRA's 2004 assessment of Clothianidin - which on page 30 found studies "to be deficient in design and conduct".

You mean Bayer's Merit?
CHO - Fact Sheet on the grub killing pesticide Merit Insecticide containing Imidacloprid (http://www.flora.org/healthyottawa/merit-pesticide-insecticide-grub.htm)

Fact Sheet on "Merit" insecticide (grub killer)
(active ingredient: Imidacloprid)
(Instead of using Merit please consider using natural Nematodes, which eat grubs!

Overview:

- Imidacloprid is the active ingredient used in the grub killing pesticide named "Merit"
(Merit and Bayer are trademarks of Bayer CropScience)

- imidacloprid is a chlorinated nicotinoid compound, that affects the nervous system

- Imidacloprid is manufactured by Bayer

- Imidacloprid is banned in Italy, Germany, Slovenia, and restricted in France (see: source).

- Imidacloprid works by fitting into nerve receptors meant to receive the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh). By blocking these acetylcholine receptors, an excess of acetylcholine accumulates causing paralysis and eventual death

- Adverse effects of imidacloprid may include apathy, difficulty breathing, loss of the ability to move, staggering, trembling and spasms[1]

- The thyroid is particularly sensitive to exposure of imidacloprid, which is linked to causing thyroid lesions.[2]

- Imidacloprid is very toxic to earth worms,[3] with an LD50 of between 2 and 4 parts per million in soil

- Imidacloprid is extremely toxic to honey bees [see product label example] and is restricted in France because of plummeting bee populations.

- Imidacloprid kills parasitic wasps that control grub larvae. This is counter-productive, setting the stage for repeated, more extensive grub infestations.

- Imidacloprid is applied to seeds because it acts as a bird repellent. Birds such as starlings and robins eat very large numbers of grubs. Repelling this important natural control would be counter-productive.

- Imidacloprid use has been linked to eggshell thinning in birds.[4]

- Imidacloprid is highly toxic to certain species including the house sparrow,[5] pigeon, canary and Japanese quail[6]

- Imidacloprid severely limits the mobility of lady beetles[7] and other predatory insects such as marid bugs and lacewings.[8]

- At exposures of 0.2 ppm, imidacloprid has been shown to cause deformed sperm and 0.5 ppm for DNA damage[9].

- When imidacloprid was fed to pregnant rabbits between the sixth and eighteenth days of pregnancy, there was an increase in the number of miscarriages and an increase in the number of offspring with abnormal skeletons.[10] Imidacloprid-exposed rats also gave birth to smaller offspring.

- The label stipulates that food crops cannot be planted for a year after imidacloprid application. Thus, two growing seasons would have elapsed before harvest. Our children are not afforded the protection of two growing seasons before exposure to turf that has been treated with imidacloprid.

- Breakdown of imidacloprid in the environment is very complex and slow, and some degradation products are more toxic than the parent compound. Thus, the possibility exists that soil will become more toxic rather than less toxic with the passage of time. This may not happen if sufficient pesticide was washed away, but pollution of our water is not a desirable outcome either.

- Compared with 11 other popular pesticides, imidacloprid moved more quickly through soil than any of the other pesticides tested.[11] The EPA places imidacloprid in category I as having the highest leaching potential.

- There is a potential for the compound to move through sensitive soil types including porous, gravelly, or cobbly soils, depending on irrigation practices [12]

- The New York State Department is concerned that imidacloprid is found in an "increasing number of detections in private homeowner wells" -- click here to view

- Imidacloprid is extremely long-lasting. It has a half-life up to 730 days, yet is approved for annual applications. It has been observed to build up over the years, in agricultural application.

- Inert ingredients / contaminants of the imidacloprid product "Merit" have been reported to include naphthalene and crystalline silica. Both napthalene and crystalline silica are proven cancer causing agents [13],[14]

- Imidacloprid degrades into toxic, persistent, 2-chloropyridine. This was not considered in the federal assessment.


Recent News:

- On August 25, 2008, The Coalition against Bayer Dangers initiated a lawsuit against Werner Wenning, chairman of the Bayer AG Board of Management, and Bayer CropScience for "marketing dangerous pesticides and thereby accepting the mass death of bees all over the world." The alleged dangerous Bayer pesticides are imidacloprid (used in "Merit") and clothianidin. Both are "neonicotinoid" insecticides. Harro Schultze, attorney of the Coalition against Bayer Dangers, said "we're suspecting that Bayer submitted flawed studies to play down the risks of pesticide residues in treated plants” For more info, please see: The Coalition against Bayer Dangers, News item 1, News item 2 and PMRA's 2004 assessment of Clothianidin - which on page 30 found studies "to be deficient in design and conduct".

sounds just like
British Petroleum tactics....

msnbc.com Video Player (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/40107569#40041890)

now being trained to sniff out explosives and are more accurate than dogs

7 Million ACRES will be set up to
feed the bee's by the Obama administration

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/19/politics/white-house-bees-protect-pollinators/

fungi perfecti is doing some literally amazing research
feeding bee brood different mushrooms to thwart mites
similar to their ant controls....

I've seen plenty of bumble bees around my flowering shrubs, but no honey bee sightings. It is a concern.

Becoming a bee keeper is my next
Adventure
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

8 cousa squash plants and not one squash,,,, no bees, no squash

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/opinion-honeybees-are-dying-and-our-food-supply-will-go-with-them/ar-BBmXQ52?li=BBieTUX

Scary stuff. Imagine what those pesticides are doing to our health too.

Becoming a bee keeper is my next
Adventure
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

I had thought about that too, but where I live it's not feasible (too many nocturnal intruders to contend with).

If the lawn care chemical concern is valid, you may be fighting a lost battle from the start if you have neighbors that treat their lawns with that stuff.

Reminds me of an old neighbor who thought that the issues of their neighbor's yards had no effect on theirs, like bugs, birds and weeds wouldn't cross property lines.

Hopefully if you try, you will be successful and get a decent honey harvest!

Becoming a bee keeper is my next
Adventure
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Do you know about the bees of the Himalayan mountains that make halicagenic honey?
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Of course he does he uses a teaspoon every day
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

LOL !
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

That would be from Hunza
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Do you know about the bees of the Himalayan mountains that make halicagenic honey?
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

IF U ment hallucogenic ,now I know Y I ran naked thru woodstock festival....there were plenty of honey's.........LOL....:)

Nebe made a spelling error. A rare event
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

don't eat the yellow snow
because they ate a rare red topped mushroom
and their pee is just hallucinogenic

how else would reindeer fly? hmmmmm :read:

Amanita Muscaria. The Mongols use to have one guy eat the mushroom and the rest would drink his pee as the hallucinogenic properties were not diluted in the pee.