Collapse of the Honey Bee population

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Bufford

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The decline of bee populations has been in the news, but now its hit home here.

The wild flowers are in full bloom here, but the usual buzz of bees is gone, they have infact vanished. The flowers are a field of silence except for the occassional bug that feeds on the flower nectar.

In each previous year bee activity was fast, furious and buzzing with activity and now silence.

There is no pollution problems around here, as it is deep in the boreal forest far from any factories or cities, the water is good, the air is clean- but something is stressing out nature, and now the bees are absent.

How are the bee populations in your neck of the woods?
 
I very rarely see bees, and I'm always looking for them. I've seen precisely one honeybee this year.

My family used to keep bees on our farm in West Virginia, but all of our hives were wiped out a few years ago by tiny mites of some sort. The West Virginia honey industry was decimated, I don't know if it has rebounded. I have definitely noticed fewer and fewer bees in the past few years- not just honeybees, but bumblebees, wasps and hornets as well.
I watched a wasp hive on my office building last year with great interest. At first, there were several wasps, building the nest normally. I expected the nest to grow large enough to become a nuisance, but I left them alone because I wanted to watch them build it. But over the course of a few days, there were fewer and fewer wasps at the nest. Finally, there was only one left, who just hung around, never leaving, until she died. I've never seen a nest started that didn't grow before.

And also, where have all of the frogs and toads gone? It used to be so noisy at night from all of the frogs on our farm that it was hard to sleep. There were frogs everywhere. Now, nary a peep.
 
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We have no shortage of wasps or hornets for that matter.Everywhere I look the wasps are building nests and I spray the h--l out of them every year.I've been watching this honey bee thing for the past couple of years,that was when I first heard about it.We have a colony that has been in the wall of the house for quite a few years now and they were doing very well.Back 5 or 6 years ago I tried a couple times to get someone to move them and nobody was really interested.Last year,they were gone,I didn't see any activity the whole summer.There are a few back now but not like they were,I don't know if they just died of from overpopulation or if possibly the water meter reader did something,he has to read the meter right near where they go in and out of the house.But I don't know,there aren't as many as there use to be.
 
Those bee mites did in fact decimate the population all over the country, I had thought that the populations were rebounding to some extent and now they are saying that cell towers are doing something to them? Anyone know any more about this?
 
I've been noticing the collapse of bee populations for a decade or more. I rarely see European honeybees any more. I don't think it's related to "colony collapse disorder" as much as it has been caused by Varroa mites and, to a lesser extent, tracheal mites.
 
I believe the phenomena is referred to as "colony collapse disorder". I've read several articles about it, but I don't think anyone has really figured it out yet.

Here's a Wikipedia link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_Collapse_Disorder

I'll see if I can dig up some of the articles I've read.

Edit: here are a few:

http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/29/news/honeybees/
http://cbs11tv.com/consumer/bees.honeybees.dying.2.502236.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6438373.stm
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/1087?page=1

Scary stuff.
 
I thought I read where they are bringing over some aussie or new zealand bees which had some degree of immunity.

Around here I almost never see bees anymore.
 
I certainly agree that there are just fewer pollinators of all sorts out in the fields and swamps.Watched a recent program on Public TV a month or so ago about this problem. They really weren't coming up with a solution or even a real consensus on what caused the colony collapse. My Dad lost all his hives to the mites around 10 years ago - at his age he just didn't have the energy to start up again.
The scariest part of the PBS program was them showing a area in China that had essentially wiped out their bee population via over enthusiatic use of pesticides some years ago. Farmers and farm families were hand pollinating their fruit trees in order to get a crop. Another interesting aspect of this problem was the way "whatever" was spread by international shipping of queens. Sorta the insect equivalent to the one airline steward who apparently is the source point for AIDS on multiple conitenents.
Anybody know Bill/Melinda Gates or Warren Buffet? How about a $25 million dollar prize to whoever/whatever solves this puzzle?
 
audiopile said:
Farmers and farm families were hand pollinating their fruit trees in order to get a crop.
Click to expand...

I hand pollinate my zucchini - but I do it so I can harvest the male flowers and either stuff ' em or just flour, egg/milk, and fry them. :)
 
There's been fewer bees in my yard but I'm still seeing them in my flowers and garden.
 
Goggle; Bee Blocks, make them and put them up. All bees are beneficial. Do not kill any unless you have No choice.
 
For those of us who live around the Great Lakes - another strange collapse has been the near disapearance of perch a few years back. Again - for reasons that remain un-explained - about 99% of the perch population shifted to one sex - they simply wern't reproducing as a result.
Suffice to say it's been a couple of years since I saw local perch listed on a fish fry menu .
 
On a related note, here in the Philippines when I was younger waaay back in 1990, I started noticing the decline of dragonflies. I distinctly remember wondering one certain year during a nature hike where the heck they've all gone.

Only during rare occassions do actually see one or two unlike when they were the vast, swarm-like groupings that came with the seasons when I was a tyke.
 
I planted a section of Tx wild flowers for the Bee's / Insect on the back side of my work shop and they are in full bloom and I have seen less than 2 dozen so far this summer at any given time....not good !
 
I've read about the issue, but didn't notice it personally, until this weekend, looking through the garden and noticing that only about 10% of our zucchini and pumpkin flowers were bearing fruit. I see at least one bumblebee in the yard each day, but most days, it's only one bee.

I wonder if this day of well-manicured lawns is also part of the problem - back in the day, before lawncare OCD took over, there was always plenty of clover flowers in everyone's lawn by the end of the week, right before mowing day. Now the thought is that clover must be eradicated at all costs - leaving alot less for the bees to collect pollen from.
 
wintermute said:
I've read about the issue, but didn't notice it personally, until this weekend, looking through the garden and noticing that only about 10% of our zucchini and pumpkin flowers were bearing fruit. I see at least one bumblebee in the yard each day, but most days, it's only one bee.

I wonder if this day of well-manicured lawns is also part of the problem - back in the day, before lawncare OCD took over, there was always plenty of clover flowers in everyone's lawn by the end of the week, right before mowing day. Now the thought is that clover must be eradicated at all costs - leaving alot less for the bees to collect pollen from.
Click to expand...

I'd disagree on that one. In my old neighborhood, up to about 2 years ago, there were always bees about. They didn't bug you, you didn't bug them, and there were always plenty. Now there are next to none, and I know for a fact that the lawncare preferences haven't changed- hell, the same people still live there!
 
I have run into two beekeepers in two different areas (strange I know) and asked them about colony collapse. Both of them attribute it to the use of newer systemic pesticides. One of them said "ask Monsanto, they know but certainly won't tell."
 
They have been absent here in Ky. for about 3 or 4 years, but this year I've noticed a few coming back, mostly on white clover.
 
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