Bee - what is the status?

[DanishDynamite]

The video below reminded me of the bee crisis:

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2008/10/23/oakley.uk.honey.bee.crisis.cnn

Anyone know what the current status is of the Colony Collapse Disorder?

[geni]

Posible some level of over reporting but no one really knows what is causeing it yet.

[DanishDynamite]

25% of our food supply in immediate danger of disappearing, and no one is talking about it.

Oh well, I guess it isn't a problem then.

[geni]

25% of our food supply in immediate danger of disappearing, and no one is talking about it.

Oh well, I guess it isn't a problem then.

The people who's job is to talk about it are but they don't know what is causeing it.

[DanishDynamite]

The people who's job is to talk about it are but they don't know what is causeing it.
I understand that those investigating the problem are talking about it and are worried. What I don't understand is that more attention, aside from the attention of those immediately involved, is not on this problem.

[luchog]

25% of our food supply in immediate danger of disappearing, and no one is talking about it.

Oh well, I guess it isn't a problem then.

That would only be true if European honeybees were the only pollinators in existence. They aren't, by a long shot.

It's a serious issue; but hardly that catastrophic. Many regions are already promoting populations of native pollinators. Local garden shops carry starter kits for mason bees, and bumblebees don't appear to be doing badly.

It's going to have an impact on large factory farms, but that's one of the dangers of monoculture.

[DanishDynamite]

That would only be true if European honeybees were the only pollinators in existence. They aren't, by a long shot.

It's a serious issue; but hardly that catastrophic. Many regions are already promoting populations of native pollinators. Local garden shops carry starter kits for mason bees, and bumblebees don't appear to be doing badly.

It's going to have an impact on large factory farms, but that's one of the dangers of monoculture.
Are you saying that 25% of our food supply is not in immediate danger of disappearing?

[technoextreme]

I understand that those investigating the problem are talking about it and are worried. What I don't understand is that more attention, aside from the attention of those immediately involved, is not on this problem.
The answer is easy. It's a problem with no solution and it's relegated to North America. You can't fix something from which you have no theory and since it's only relegated to North America the worst case scenario is that you import colonies in from other countries.

[SkeptiChick]

For the record, not only those who's jobs it is to worry about it are the ones worrying. Häagen-Dasz advertises quite prominently on their ice cream containers that bees are disappearing, and that they are donating a portion of their profits to research on the subject.

[geni]

The answer is easy. It's a problem with no solution and it's relegated to North America.

Non US reports appear a fair bit but the situation is unclear there. Not just no solution we don't even know what the problem is at the moment.

[Corsair 115]

There were some threads about it earlier this year in this forum, if you want to try a search for them.

[Denver]

All I know, is I had as many bees hanging around my yard this year, on my plants, as always. I've personally seen no lessening.

[Nomada]

Wiki page has plenty of info on CCD: Link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_Collapse_Disorder)

Notice not only the US is affected:

<snip>
European beekeepers observed similar phenomena in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain,[2] and initial reports have also come in from Switzerland and Germany, albeit to a lesser degree.[3] Possible cases of CCD have also been reported in Taiwan since April 2007.[4]
<snip>


Bumblebee decline threatens British countryside: Link (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/10/20/eabees120.xml)

<snip>
However bumblebees are in sharp decline. Of the 25 species found in the UK, three are nationally extinct and many more are seriously threatened.
<snip>
There has been growing concern about the decline of bees around the world because loss of habitat, climate change and disease. In some areas of the UK honey bee numbers have dropped by as much as 80 per cent, while bumblebees across the country have declined by 60 per cent since 1970. This has led to concern for agriculture as bees are responsible for pollinating most food crops.
<snip>


Re native bees: Red Mason Bees (osmia rufa) are good at pollinating fruit trees for instance, but on the whole they're a spring species so are typically on the wing for only a couple of months of the year. Whereas honeybees can be active all year round if the weather is mild. Also unlike the social honeybees and bumblebees, most species of bee are solitary, so you'll never get them in large numbers.

[technoextreme]

Wiki page has plenty of info on CCD: Link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_Collapse_Disorder)

Notice not only the US is affected:




Bumblebee decline threatens British countryside: Link (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/10/20/eabees120.xml)




Re native bees: Red Mason Bees (osmia rufa) are good at pollinating fruit trees for instance, but on the whole they're a spring species so are typically on the wing for only a couple of months of the year. Whereas honeybees can be active all year round if the weather is mild. Also unlike the social honeybees and bumblebees, most species of bee are solitary, so you'll never get them in large numbers.
Yeah. Read the article again.What the DanishDynamite wants to talk about is relegated to the United States. I'll admit I didn't read the article entirely but now that I did I realize you are trying to shoehorn a square peg into a round horn. It' disturbingly enough two separate issues.
Non US reports appear a fair bit but the situation is unclear there. Not just no solution we don't even know what the problem is at the moment.
Yeah that's just vague enough to include the cases reported back in the 1800s.

[DanishDynamite]

Yeah. Read the article again.What the DanishDynamite wants to talk about is relegated to the United States. I'll admit I didn't read the article entirely but now that I did I realize you are trying to shoehorn a square peg into a round horn. It' disturbingly enough two separate issues.
I wasn't talking about the status of bees in the US. I was talking about their status worldwide.

[technoextreme]

I wasn't talking about the status of bees in the US. I was talking about their status worldwide.
Now I think everyone is thoroughly confused because of where are talking about colony collapse disorder that is predominantly occurring in North America. Everywhere else is just plain old population decline.

[Nomada]

Yeah. Read the article again.What the DanishDynamite wants to talk about is relegated to the United States. I'll admit I didn't read the article entirely but now that I did I realize you are trying to shoehorn a square peg into a round horn. It' disturbingly enough two separate issues.

The video in the OP link was entitled 'Britain's buzzing problem'. It covered possible reasons for honeybee declines in Britain and the US. It mentioned varroa in the UK and CCD in the US plus other factors.

Like many have said, the underlying reasons for CCD are of course unknown but it's considered a mixture of many factors. Many of these same factors (parasites, disease, stress, low food quality, climate, pesticides, GM crops, overcrowding etc) don't just concern the US. After all, if we don't know what CCD is, how can we discus it without mentioning related and possibly the same issues in other countries?

Whatever causes there are for the honeybees decline, and whatever country your in, if the honeybee numbers drop, the native bee populations won't be able to fully pollinate many crops on a production scale for the reasons I mentioned: because many native bees are also declining and many are only active in limited periods throughout the year.

None of these are separate issues as the whole topic revolves around pollination.

[DanishDynamite]

Large numbers of bee colonies have been unaccountably disappearing for several years now. We may not know the reason why at the moment, but does anyone know if the bee die-off has manifested itself yet in the fruit and vegetable production?