Buzz grows over beekeeping

Boston Globe ^ | April 28, 2008 | Irene Sege

[fishhound]

All morning one cool, drizzly April Sunday, cars pull up to the Reseska Apiaries warehouse in Holliston - one driven by an attorney, one carrying a plumber and a machinist, another a yoga studio owner. The occasion is the arrival by truck of 270 three-pound boxes of honeybees from Georgia, all ready for pick-up by a diverse and burgeoning cadre of backyard beekeepers. "When I signed up for bee school, I thought there would be six people," says Kristina Ward, a 38-year-old landscape designer from Norfolk. "It turned out there's a whole subculture."

Subculture indeed. Ward is among almost four dozen aspiring beekeepers who recently completed the Norfolk County Beekeepers Association introductory "bee school," up from 17 two years ago.

[fishhound]

Fom Ma's most lefty homegrown paper. Interesting story.

[fishhound]

Photos for the story.

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/gallery/042708bees/

[tickmeister]

I thought all the bees died last fall. Virus or global warming or ag chemicals or something.

[fishhound]

this is a pretty scary interview. Though i don’t like the interviewers use of caps....in Asia it means screaming.

http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1416&category=Environment

[Theo]

I’m wondering the same thing. They were dying off in droves — maybe power lines, maybe cell phones, maybe “climate change”.... Did this turn out to be like those shark attacks a few years back — a non-story invented by the press?

[hole_n_one]

Ooh!

Another thread about Honeybees............

[Old Flat Toad]

Bees are doing fine in the Az desert. I’ve got a native hive in a saguaro arm out front. Seen several swarms pass through also.

[fishhound]

This is grim

snip:

Implications for Increasing Decline
of American Honey Bees?

“If the almond people come up short, my guess is that probably the Mexicans will petition to bring their Africanized bee colonies across the border to fill that gap. And that will probably destroy the U.S. commercial beekeeping industry.”

YOU AND I HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER AND THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SO MANY HONEY BEES IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA NOW FOR A YEAR. I THINK I THOUGHT, AS A REPORTER, THAT BY THE SPRING OF 2008 THAT WE WOULD BE SEEING A RESTORATION OF BETTER HEALTH TO THE BEES AND THAT EVERYTHING MIGHT BE GETTING BETTER. THE FACT THAT IT’S GONE DOWN HILL EVEN MORE, THE FACT THAT EVEN MORE BEES HAVE DISAPPEARED THROUGH THE WINTER OF 2007 TO 2008, THE FACT THAT AFTER THE ALMOND POLLINATION THAT, TO USE YOUR WORDS, ‘THE BEES ARE FALLING APART IN THE UNITED STATES.’ WHAT HAPPENS WHEN EVERYTHING IS GOING DOWN HILL IN APRIL?

There might be crops that are potentially impacted and as the almond acreage grows, the almond growers will try to use every honey bee colony in the United States. If the almond people come up short, my guess is that probably the Mexicans will petition to bring their Africanized bee colonies across the border to fill that gap. And that will probably destroy the U.S. commercial beekeeping industry.

BUT WOULD YOU AND OTHERS IN AGRICULTURE ALLOW THAT TO OCCUR?

I’m just a mid-level civil servant. The almond people and value of the almond crop – money talks in our capitalistic society and the almond people will not be denied.

BUT DO YOU SERIOUSLY MEAN THERE COULD BE A DECISION THAT WOULD BE ONLY POLITICAL AND ECONOMICAL FOR THE ALMOND INDUSTRY THAT COULD END UP BRINGING IN AFRICANIZED BEES THAT WOULD DESTROY THE REST OF THE NORTH AMERICAN HONEY BEE?

It’s very possible.

THAT IS ACTUALLY BEING DISCUSSED NOW AS AN OPTION?

I didn’t make that up! (laughs)

end snip

[fishhound]

Ginger or MaryAnne?

[struggle]

CAPS LOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL

[PzLdr]

Mary Anne!

[fishhound]

ditto

[C210N]

This is my 5th beekeeping year, now with 3 hives; and in MA, noless. The Colony Collapse Disorder is a real story, however IMHO, there is no problem here in MA. In fact, the article is right on with the surge in beekeeping interest... watch for falling honey prices later this year in places like MA where CCD is no real problem, while at the same time there will be many more operational hives.

OTOH, CCD is a big time problem for those commercial guys with hundreds or thousands of hives, that truck them across the country in our breadbasket states. I've heard of some having losses of over 50%. These lossed hives are stressed in many ways (mites, disease, genetic engineering, and more), and studying the hive after the fact is not much help as the remaining bees are relatively healthy - its the ones that didn't return (staying away for the betterment of the hive) are the bees needing study.

[Soliton]

I have honey bees trying to build a hive in the wall of my house. I keep moving them out of the house.