As Bee Colonies Disappear Across the Nation, Experts Are Wondering Why
April 2nd, 2007Via: Jacksonville Daily News:
Louie Foy has been charming Mother Nature’s pollinators for more than 40 years. Foy, who keeps bees at his home in Verona, makes honey from his tiny pets and knows everything about them — when they breed, what makes them angry, when they die.
But for the past three weeks, Foy has been stumped. He can’t figure out what drove some 30 of his colonies away.
“They just disappeared,†Foy said. “I have a few dead ones left but very few. Most of them, there’s just nothing there, and I have no idea why.â€
Researchers throughout the country are scrambling to find out too. They wonder why colonies like Foy’s are vanishing without a trace or warning. Coined “colony collapse disorder,†or CCD, scholars have several theories but no conclusions.
Area beekeepers learned about it in January at the American Beekeepers meeting in Austin, Texas. Concerns were raised by Maryann Frazier, an apiculture extension associate at Penn State University.
“During the last three months of 2006, we began to receive reports from commercial beekeepers of an alarming number of honey bee colonies dying in the eastern United States,†Frazier said at the meeting. “Since the beginning of the year, beekeepers from all over the country have been reporting unprecedented losses.â€
Although Onslow County has no large commercial beekeepers, some mid-level breeders are feeling the pinch.
“This is a relatively new thing; there’s a lot about it we don’t know,†said Jeff Morton, horticulture specialist for Onslow County Cooperative Extension.
Top apiarists, or bee specialists, explained common symptoms and theories surrounding the ailment during the January meeting. Experts believe the disorder affects the bees’ immune system, causing them to flee and die off.
One way scholars are hunting for a cure is through bee and hive autopsies. Attention has also been drawn to nearby colonies that remain but inexplicably become weakened.
well, when Darpa starts messing with honeybees, the law of unintended consequences might be at play:
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/001754.html
Also, in the Tin Foil Hat category, Sepp speculates on the electromagnetic GWEN (Ground Wave Emergency Network) connection:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2007/03/06/millions_of_bees_die_are_electromagnetic_signals_to_blame.htm
a lot of speculation everywhere:
http://breakfornews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2176
probably related to a combination of toxins, poor aviary management practices, media not mentioning similar bee disappearances last year/s, poisons in cheap corn syrup and non hygenic queens.
The picture in the article shows colonies with an inadequate number of hive bodies, this will enhance the bees natural tendency to swarm/migrate as well.
Inadequate hive bodies and supers increase uncleanliness, mites and diseases that can trigger a colonies tendency to swarm/take off as well.
From Sioux Falls site:
http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2007/04/01/news/iowa/c925030854f0a94d862572af00809010.txt
Researchers call it Colony Collapse Disorder. The ailment has killed off tens of thousands of honeybee colonies in Iowa and at least 20 other states, threatening the livelihood of commercial beekeepers.
Researchers have offered several theories on CCD’s cause but aren’t sure what to do to fix the problem.
Donna Brahms, president of the Iowa Honey Producers Association, says the bees apparently leave the hive and are unable to use their built-in senses to find their way back. Thus, the queen bee is left with young bees that the departed bees normally care for.
-I’ve heard that it is the pesticide used on termites which are also hive insects that cause them to be unable to find their way back to their hive, and die is whats affecting some of these bees..
My money’s on pesticides…but that is some damn intriguing tin foil…
This linked map shows the US states affected by CCD with 60% to 100% honey bee disappearances without explanation.
http://www.earthfiles.com/Images/news/H/HoneyBeeCollapse2007MAP2.jpg
http://www.earthfiles.com/news/news.cfm?ID=1223&category=Environment
“Over the past six months, massive disappearances of honey bees have been reported in at least 24 states; internationally in Poland and Spain; and it’s still unknown how many more honey bees will be gone as more northern hives are opened this spring in North America and Europe.”
With cross-pollination of GMO crops becoming more of a danger, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if GMOs are a contributing factor here.
Catastrophic Bee Population Decline May Be Related to Bt-Spliced GMO Crops
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_4682.cfm
While I like a good conspiracy theory as well as the next person, I’d be interested to sight references to the research that’s about to be made public in a major scientific journal saying massive imports of bees from Australia and New Zealand have brought into the USA a bee virus, or rather a strain of a bee virus, to which local bees do not have sufficient resistance.There have been hints from the team of scientists, but they are keeping quiet until the journal publishes…any links?