Comments on: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Bees (And Why They’re Disappearing) http://www.ecosphericblog.com/93/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-bees-and-why-theyre-disappearing/ Information for those who want to live and laugh more sustainably! Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:14:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: New Film Documents The Impact Of Vanishing Bees | The EcoSpheric Blog http://www.ecosphericblog.com/93/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-bees-and-why-theyre-disappearing/comment-page-1/#comment-3941 New Film Documents The Impact Of Vanishing Bees | The EcoSpheric Blog Mon, 30 May 2011 15:49:40 +0000 http://eco.seebethwrite.com/?p=93#comment-3941 [...] Honeybees have been mysteriously disappearing across the planet, literally vanishing from their hives, say the directors of a new documentary. And this doesn’t bode well for BBQs of the future. Known as Colony Collapse Disorder, this phenomenon has brought beekeepers to crisis in an industry responsible for producing apples, broccoli, watermelon, onions, cherries and a hundred other fruits and vegetables. Commercial honeybee operations pollinate crops that make up one out of every three bites of food on our tables. [...] [...] Honeybees have been mysteriously disappearing across the planet, literally vanishing from their hives, say the directors of a new documentary. And this doesn’t bode well for BBQs of the future. Known as Colony Collapse Disorder, this phenomenon has brought beekeepers to crisis in an industry responsible for producing apples, broccoli, watermelon, onions, cherries and a hundred other fruits and vegetables. Commercial honeybee operations pollinate crops that make up one out of every three bites of food on our tables. [...]

]]> By: Willie Wilmette http://www.ecosphericblog.com/93/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-bees-and-why-theyre-disappearing/comment-page-1/#comment-41 Willie Wilmette Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:52:16 +0000 http://eco.seebethwrite.com/?p=93#comment-41 11. That where European honeybees have disappeared, native bees and insects pick up 80% of the slack. 11. That where European honeybees have disappeared, native bees and insects pick up 80% of the slack.

]]> By: Alex Zorach http://www.ecosphericblog.com/93/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-bees-and-why-theyre-disappearing/comment-page-1/#comment-39 Alex Zorach Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:11:52 +0000 http://eco.seebethwrite.com/?p=93#comment-39 I have a sneaking suspicion that the honeybee decline is due to various aspects of commercial agriculture more than anything else. You mentioned pesticides in this post. Another culprit may be monocultures, placing them in a huge area of monoculture with little or no wild plants, giving the bees access only to a single food source; naturally the bees would be pollenating a variety of flowers and picking up trace minerals. I've also seen the suggestion that colony collapse disorder is caused by feeding bees corn syrup from genetically modified corn.<br /><br />Another suggested culprit I've seen has been eliminating natural hive sites for bees (i.e. cutting down dead trees) and thus not having any wild population for the bees. Wild populations preserve genetic diversity and help species adapt to local conditions as well as changing conditions.<br /><br />It's interesting to note though that honeybees are not native to North America. So, in a sense, the disaster is more for humans than for the natural ecosystems.<br /><br />Another interesting observation, just of a personal nature, was that when I started reading about this problem with the bees, I started looking for bees in my own yard in Delaware and also at my parent's house in Pennsylvania. I found many bees in both places! Both the non-native honeybees and the native bumblebees and other types of bees. I often would be able to count 3 or 4 species of bees pollenating even a single species of flower!<br /><br />This also suggests to me that the problem is commercial agriculture, monoculture, and pesticides. We use no chemicals in our gardens...and our gardens are very diversified, with lots of plants growing wild, lots of weeds that we don't pull out, it's all overgrown. This is the way it was meant to me and if we grew things like this, we wouldn't have problems like this with the bees. I have a sneaking suspicion that the honeybee decline is due to various aspects of commercial agriculture more than anything else. You mentioned pesticides in this post. Another culprit may be monocultures, placing them in a huge area of monoculture with little or no wild plants, giving the bees access only to a single food source; naturally the bees would be pollenating a variety of flowers and picking up trace minerals. I've also seen the suggestion that colony collapse disorder is caused by feeding bees corn syrup from genetically modified corn.

Another suggested culprit I've seen has been eliminating natural hive sites for bees (i.e. cutting down dead trees) and thus not having any wild population for the bees. Wild populations preserve genetic diversity and help species adapt to local conditions as well as changing conditions.

It's interesting to note though that honeybees are not native to North America. So, in a sense, the disaster is more for humans than for the natural ecosystems.

Another interesting observation, just of a personal nature, was that when I started reading about this problem with the bees, I started looking for bees in my own yard in Delaware and also at my parent's house in Pennsylvania. I found many bees in both places! Both the non-native honeybees and the native bumblebees and other types of bees. I often would be able to count 3 or 4 species of bees pollenating even a single species of flower!

This also suggests to me that the problem is commercial agriculture, monoculture, and pesticides. We use no chemicals in our gardens…and our gardens are very diversified, with lots of plants growing wild, lots of weeds that we don't pull out, it's all overgrown. This is the way it was meant to me and if we grew things like this, we wouldn't have problems like this with the bees.

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