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Anonymous-0

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I was checking on my 1 acre corn patch this afternoon and noticed very few bees. In past years there was a constant buzzing all day long.Same thing with the cucumbers and tomatoes. Just wondering if y'all have noticed this too. I'm in N. Ga.
 
Yep Bee numbers are down. People don't understand we need them so they spray to kill them and that is a problem. Plus theres a lot of other things that kill them off. So no bees are bad
 
There's a fair rundown on Wikipedia, plus many hits on Google.
Whatever is killing the bees seems to be affecting their homing systems--they're not just dying, they're disappearing, not returning to the hives, and if it's a kaput homing system they might just die without the hive support system.
All the other guesses seem to fail because with them there should be a percentage that die in or around the hive, but they aren't, at least not in sufficient numbers to apply.
If it is their homing system, it's apparently not fluctuations in the earth's magnetic system, as I don't recall any such problems with homing pigeons recently. It's a major--repeat--major problem.
 
I understand that it is a problem, and I'm not trying to minimize that, but there's dang sure no shortage of them in my flower beds.

In fact, I called the wife out to look yesterday, there was a literal cloud of them swarming my flowering thyme and primroses.
 
There are a lot less bees and wasps of all types than there was years ago.Around my farm old barns and building would be full of nests of all types now very few nests.When cutting hay I could figure on hitting a couple Bumble Bee and Yellow jacket nest in most fields now I go all year and only hit a nest or 2.Rare to see a honey bee these days
 
Live in western PA and have noticed a lot of very small bumble bees on about all flowering plants and trees, clover, apple trees seen a lot in garden etc. Wonder if they are doing the same work as the honey bee.
 
I have read that they are disappearing too.
I also heard that it may be too much insecicide, I have killed many of those yellow jackets, the kind that build the mud nests in your eaves. And if you *iss them off they sting you. What works real good in killing them is brake cleaner spray--knocks em dead instantly.
I try not to use insecticide on them just the brake cleaner.
 
I'm in NE Georgia and there is an overabundance of yellowjackets here this year, any time I disturb the ground the jackets cover it up. Now honeybees I have not saw.
 
Yes we have seen a decrease in honey bees around here but just thought it was from urban sprawl or lost of habitat.
I have even considered putting a hive or two in my back lot just so the bees will have a place to live.

If the bees are dieing off everywhere I can assure you of two things.

1) it will be some silly thing we invented and do not know the true results of using it.
Such as the use of DDT for body lice years ago.

2) When we do find the thing that is causing the problem it will be covered up and swept under the rug to protect that business.
Such as the scandal years ago that smoking is not bad to your health.
 
The backyard apple trees right here have the fewest apples on them this year that I've ever seen. There were plenty of pretty blossoms & no late frosts that I can recall. Yes, where are all the bees? Mark SW Wis.
 
I also live in western pa and I now of two large hives within 2 1/2 miles of each other and one of them is in a railroad bridge and the other is in a bulldozer
but also in other places I have also noticed a decline in them
 
Honey bees are scare here in Iowa also, also note the there were very few corn bore moths, plus no June bugs. Interesting
 
It was said

"(1) it will be some silly thing we invented and do not know the true results of using it.
Such as the use of DDT for body lice years ago."

OK! it may be hard on the Eagles. What about the millions of children in third world countries who have died since the ban on spraying DDT for mosquito? A few countries have began using DDT again and malaria has gone way down saving many lives.

Where should our priority be, humans or birds?
 
Bees have been scarce around here for around 12 years. A farmer friend told me that mites have got in the hives and somehow kills the honey bees. I have seen more this year than I have in the last 12 years. Yes I believe the small bumble bees have increased in quanity also.
 
Bee keeper keeps some hives at my BiL's place. Usually 12-15 hives or so is all.

This year he has 9 pallets, 4 hives per pallet out there. Wow, lot of buzzing going on.


BT corn is helping bees. Soybeans & alfalfa is having more & more insect problems, never used to spray those crops 20 years ago; now we spray them 3x a year. That can't be good.

--->Paul
 
DDT used correctly had no detremintal effects to wildlife that whole killling birds thing was made up tripe. the birds they tested were deliberatley fed a diet low in calcium so the testers could get the resluts they wanted. Rachel Carson is the worlds biggest mass murder and should be rembered as such
 
(quoted from post at 08:20:26 07/20/08) It was said

"(1) it will be some silly thing we invented and do not know the true results of using it.
Such as the use of DDT for body lice years ago."

OK! it may be hard on the Eagles. What about the millions of children in third world countries who have died since the ban on spraying DDT for mosquito? A few countries have began using DDT again and malaria has gone way down saving many lives.

Where should our priority be, humans or birds?
Click to expand...

Do you honestly want to be the last species standing? It's a system, we need the birds, and everything else for that matter. This isn't a "tree huger" talking either but if your willing to risk everything else just for the safety of humans, well that's a though world to live in.

Back to Bees. I think CCD is going to be a combination of things. Mite loads are high, Nosema-A has always been a problem but now we have to deal with Nosema-C as well.

Chemicals in the field and those we put into the hives probably factor in too.

I think we are going to see the end of "wild bees" though.

Also, becoming a Bee Keeper is pretty expensive these days.

K
 
I did not mean it to say DDT was a bad thing.
It has helped many as you stated.

But you also have to admit we have done some stupid things with chemicals in our past history because we did not know the side effects.

I was saying that DDT is a strong checimal. I for one would not want a chemical this strong sold for use in my underware.
 
Over the past few years this subject has come up both in forums such as this and in news items I've read. Some beekeepers say their bees 'just don't return' and others are saying the use of chemicals are causing them problems. The latest I've read is the increased use of electromagnetic energy, Cel Fones was named, is confusing their homing senses.
Take your pick.
We've had a lot of hop clover this year yet I've seen just one bee in my yards.
 
They're mostly in this North Dakota field of canola!

<img src = "http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u125/27Grainfield/100_1665.jpg">

Local beekeeper (who winters his bees in Cali) says "No Problem". However, in some areas of the country, there's CCD... Colony Collapse Disorder".
CCD
 
PBS just had a special on about the bee problem. There still unsure about the original problem but they did find out why the bee's were dieing alot faster in the past two years more than any other year.

To replace the bee population they were importing bee's from Australia that had a deadly fungus. The Auzzie bee's were thought to be the best in the world until this report came out.

T_Bone
 
I checked out the youtube on bees this is a big problem. Then i watched this thing on Planet X it was a five part movie. Wow i couldn't sleep all night. It has always thought some hard times were comming, but this makes sence to me. Am I crazy ? I do know there have been alot of strange things going on. all over the world and right here at home. I have been saying all summer that the sun feels stonger.
I think I am going to look into this more and if this information is correct I am going to start to get ready.
Ed
abcrepairparts
 
Yellowjackets like dry weather since they nest in the ground, and with the drought in the South I'd figure that explains your observations.
 
My guess is it's just a combination of factors -- this is the first time in history colony collapses have been observed, it's just the latest and possibly more severe then historical occurances. So you may have some underlying natural history at work.

Add to it stresses from being exposed to damaging but non-fatal doses of instecticdes and other toxins, plus newer diseases and parasites like the mites...makes for unhealthy bees.

At my house, I seldom see a honey bee (nearest hives I know of are, oh, 1/2 mile through the woods?).

But I do have a healthy population of bumble bees, and I encourage them by:
-- Leaving sections of my lawn (I have 2 acres) high in the spring to let dandelions & clover bloom to give them early flowers;
-- Having some wildflowers (um, really unmown lawn...) near the garden
-- Planting flowers in the vegetable garden. Although the damn rabbits took out this year's sunflower patch.

I figure if I give the bees lots of food sources, I'll have more bees...even if the bumbles aren't as efficient pollinators as honeybees.

I'd love to keep hives, but I know it would go horribly wrong for me :) Same reason I don't own a motorcycle.
 
(quoted from post at 16:36:53 07/20/08) wag; wild a## guess, and intended "supportive" rather than "surportive".
Click to expand...

I guess I was curious who it was directed at, if it was me then...

It wasn't a wild guess. I've been reading what I can find, and talking to people who work on this sort of thing (state bee inspector etc).

No one knows for certain at this point, I just listed some of the stuff being thrown around and merely said it makes sense to me. Even if none of the things I've listed turn out to be connected to CCD, they're all big issues in Bees right now and some (mites) have been for quite some time.

Seems kind like kind of a combative response to a post that was 100% on topic.

K
 
It was directed to the post which stated that BT was the cause of the lower bee population, without any corroborating evidence. Some may consider this an opinion, and others a wag.
 
Neither! When bt first came out there was a corolation between bt pollen and the drastic reduction in monarch butterflies.
This spring I met the president of a seed corn company who intimated to me that there is evidence that pollen from genetically modified crops is harming insects including bees. He specifically indicated yieldguard bt and liberty link genes and as a a result his company wants nothing to do with gm crops
 
READ YUOR BIBLE , IT SAYS : it says IN THE LAST DAYS THERE WILL BE PLAGUES. and Men ASK your pastor if this is true and open your eyes WE ARE IN THE LAST DAYS!!!!!!
 
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