Comments on: Passion: Bees

By: Potter

Potter — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 13:31:01 +0000

The New Yorker was kind enough to put Elizabeth Kolbert’s article “Stung” online so here:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/06/070806fa_fact_kolbert

By: Beepocalypse » Today, instead of reading, try listening.

Beepocalypse » Today, instead of reading, try listening. — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 14:56:05 +0000

[...] on NPR have tackled the Beepocalypse over the last week or two.Â Â They even have guests. Â Radio Open Source:Â Listen Kuow’s Weekday: Listen

[...]

By: jschwa

jschwa — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 07:23:56 +0000

I’ve got a rundown on the going theories on Colony Collapse Disorder on my blog at http://www.hive-mind.com/bee/blog/labels/Colony%20Collapse%20Disorder.html.

Also, if you’re interested, useful information on Love and Beekeeping, Bees as sculptors and a bit about bees as disease detectors: http://www.hive-mind.com/bee/blog/

By: MThomas

MThomas — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 04:26:03 +0000

One place that tracks the latest news on the whole situation on a regular basis is beepocalypse.com. Sometimes even funny.

By: UtahOwl

UtahOwl — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:16:43 +0000

A friend of ours in northern Maryland kept bees for years, until the “attack of the two mites” made it too expensive and troublesome. He said he hadn’t seen a wild swarm in his area for over 10 years – before, he’d occasionally be called to pick up a wild swarm. So the mite problems have been going on for at least a decade out east.

Here in Utah, a beekeeper at the Farmer’s Market said he lost nearly 2/3 of his hives – over a thousand, he does commercial pollinating as well as making honey – over a 2 year period & it nearly killed his business. Now he has some Russian hybrid bees recommended by the Dept of Agriculture that seem to be more resistant to the mites than the European honey bees. He’s also had some luck with some organic treatment methods.

Here’s the link to the High Country News page – interesting info on native bees (“alkali bees”, etc) that are very good orchard pollinators. We have lots of orchards here in northern Utah…until the developers pave them all over…

Check out http://www.hcn.org/

By: Potter

Potter — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 01:41:36 +0000

Great guests! Thank you!

By: herbert browne

herbert browne — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 05:08:05 +0000

Thanks to demarconia for the potential dilemmas of a “one size fits all” world imposed on the honeybees. My neighbor, who keeps 2 hives, really burned my ear about the problems of bees that were too big (making them vulnerable to varroa mites), of the illegality associated with using any but the “standard” bee boxes, and of some hazards of using queen excluders and the “honey only” supers. Here’s a link to some history on beekeeping and to the construction of a “skep”- which my neighbor feels is unjustly maligned by the honeybee industry:

http://www.beedata.com/data2/skeps.html

The latest “High Country News” has an interesting feature that highlights both the plight of honeybees & the efficacy of the native bees as pollinators… ^..^

By: demarconia

demarconia — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 22:33:01 +0000

so it looks like the consensus at this point is that it’s only the farmed bees that are suffering from colony collapse, and natural free-range bees and those who are cultivated naturally are doing ok.

The technique used by bee farms (one that has been used for hundreds of years now) is to manufacture the hexagonal honeycombs for the bees in a strict grid. In addition to being more efficient, beekeepers discovered that the larger they made the hexagons the larger the bees become. What’s interesting is that naturally occuring honeycombs are not as evenly distributed hexagons as it would appear, and are actually all different sizes. This allows them to be extremely adaptable to changes in their environment, which could be why the farmed bees are the first to go. There is some change in the environment (Posssibly UV increase, heat, reduction of pollen quality etc.) and the rigid grid honeycomb bees aren’t as able to adapt as the free-form bees.

This could serve as a metaphor for our disorganized grid sprawl, which also seems to be failing especially quickly.

By: peggysue

peggysue — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 21:18:59 +0000

A friend was walking me through her garden the other day when we came to a bush of blue flowers that stood shimmering and vibrating with all different kinds of bees crawling into and out of every blossum. We just stood there for a while just grooving on the buzz.

By: herbert browne

herbert browne — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 06:54:21 +0000

I’ve been watching the little yellow-furred bumbles (I don’t know… there are about a dozen local bumble species) working over some non-native flowers here (hardy fuchsias and blue columbines). They don’t go near the pollen- just climb around on TOP of the flowers and chew little holes into where the nectar is- way up inside these species. I watch them come back to the same flowers and work on the same hole that they, or another of their tribe, chewed into the flower flesh (the holes are kind of brownish- oxidized- around their edges… makes them easier to see). I don’t think we have to worry too much about losing all the honeybees, which aren’t native to North America, anyway. A lot of pollinating goes on by other means- insects of all sorts are taking part- and the biggest of all is the wind (cereals & other grasses). I love honey, though… the fireweed honeylocally is really complex… and so is the early stuff- the tree honey- from maples & madrones… really dark, extra viscous, and… rich… chow ^..^