Army/scientists discover cause of colony collapse syndrome?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/scien ... ef=general

Hopefully this is true so we no longer have to worry about the disappearance of bees from the ecosystem and everything that will mean for folks who like honey and any sort of plant that bees happen to germinate.

A couple years ago we were at one of the nearby county fairs, and there was a bee colony on display. I had a fascinating conversation with the scientist who had brought it: his opinion is that colony collapse disorder is about stressed bees that are more vulnerable to disease. Not to say this disease isn't causing the collapse, but that there are other factors at work, too.

Prior to this conversation, I had no idea that bees were rented to farmers - and hives are loaded onto trucks and driven from place to place to pollinate. I'm no expert, but this doesn't seem like good husbandry to me.

Wow that is certainly fascinating!
We need the bees and I love my honey. I hope they solve the problem of the disappearing bees!

Here's a better article on bee rental. Who thought it would be a good idea to ship bees from Florida to California? Really.

Mhays wrote:Prior to this conversation, I had no idea that bees were rented to farmers - and hives are loaded onto trucks and driven from place to place to pollinate. I'm no expert, but this doesn't seem like good husbandry to me.

A lot of farmers keep their own bees for pollination purposes.

One advantage of this is that they can harvest their own honey.

There is a fantastic documentary called The Last Beekeeper I caught on tv last year. If you can get your hands on it, it is completely fascinating.

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/reel-impact/reel-impact-beekeeper-documentary.html

MHays,

I was talking to two beekeepers on Monday on the very same subject. They also talked about these bees who are transported around the country.

These beekeeper friends were not very impressed by the collapse issue. They felt the abnormally high death rates were in those hives travelling from location to location. A normal stationary beekeeper can loose 30% of his hives annually. The commercial beekeeper may loose as much as 90%.

The bees who are on the travelling team (my phrase) are stressed. They may stay at a location for a few weeks. At the initial phase of their visit, they send out bees to investigate their surroundings. Once they understand their living conditions, then the rest of the hive goes to work.

This bee keeper described how some vegetables flower only in the morning. Nearby there may be other crops who flower in the afternoon. When it is determined their job is done, then the hives are sealed at night. They are put on trucks with additional seals to keep them in a restricted area, then trucked to the new location. These stressed bees are more prone to disease.

They were far more concerned about Africanized bees. When you are stung by an Africanized bee, the stinger emits an odor that attracts every Africanized bee in the area to target you.

Regards,

What a scientist didn't tell the New York Times about his study on bee deaths from Fortune raises some serious questions about the New York Times story.

ek...it would seem that the study has no credibility...thanks for posting...and you'd think the NYT would be able to call a few more scientist?

believe the University of Minnesota agriculture school is deep into this issue...one of its scientists just got a MacArthur genius grant for her work....believe it was around breeding

No one has said his methodology is wrong. But heaven forbid he takes money from anyone but the government, he now has no credibility.

Okay -- here's the latest on what is really killing the bees at an increasingly rapid rate: it's your cell phone.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/ ... -honeybees