honey bee collapse

[BMEUPSCOTTY]

interesting show about the honey bee problem on right now on PBS

[Raven]

the ole lady accidentally hit the remote
as she got up from the couch
and i was pleasantly surprised...to see it.

i had over fifty hives in the mountains in California
that i used to take care of.

i thought it was interesting that we have plans to
genetically alter or combine the good features of the
aggressive African bee's with our own honey bee's
to give them immunity to the disease.

I also found it interesting that china exported 90%
of the royal jelly and that American bee keepers were buying it
in bulk to feed to their colonies...

I hope to be fully involved as a bee keeper in 2008
and making my own hives and experimenting on my own.

watching the Chinese doing their own pollination by hand was
fascinating... and the cost to America of 90 billion dollars
to do ours was unbelievable...

the shape of a bee....their aero -dynamics are all wrong
and by the laws of science they shouldn't be able to
fly at all... makes you think of robotic insects for pollination
being an impossibility.

[ProfessorM]

Good show. Bee keeper years ago told me there were no wild honey bees left anymore. All have been wiped out by disease and parasites. If you raise bees it is a constant application of antibiotics and pest control just to keep the hive healthy. No pollinators, no food. Pretty important link to the well being of mankind.

[fishpoopoo]

i'll say it here first:

it's all bush's fault.

[ProfessorM]

No fruit comes from that bush, no pollinators needed

[Swimmer]

Originally Posted by fishpoopoo

i'll say it here first:

it's all bush's fault.

So this is why my apple tree blossoms poop out.

[ProfessorM]

I keep a close check on my fruit trees and bush fruits, not GW Bush fruits, every spring. I only see a few honey bees every year. There are cranberry bogs close by and they have a few hives and rent hives. I would think I would see more but they are on cranberries and honey bees will not pollinate more than one fruit at a time. they don't go from apple to pear to clover in a day. They concentrate on only 1 crop at a time. Us home gardeners have to rely on bumbles, mason, and wasps, and other bugs to do the pollination. Another reason to limit pesticides as they kill beneficial bugs needed by us. I can usually tell if I am going to have a good crop or not but the amount of pollinators i have seen. Crannberry growers are experimenting on bumbles for pollination as they are better workers than honey bees. They work during rain and overcast and colder temps. Honeybees will not usually go out of the hive if it is raining and cold and overcast, which is what spring is around here so it might end up being a better alternative for them. I too have not had very good fruit tree production the last several years, although it has been cold and damp when the things are in bloom which doesn't help.