Posted on 03/17/2007 12:56:27 PM PDT by RedAlert
KALAMAZOO, Mich., Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Michigan's $350 million fruit industry is in peril after the recent death of countless honeybees from what is called Colony Collapse Disorder.
Michigan Department of Agriculture official Mike Hansen told the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Gazette that with honeybees dying at an alarming rate in 22 U.S. states the 2007 fruit harvest is at risk.
"Michigan has about 125 crops, and 60 to 65 of those are dependent on honeybee pollination," the state beekeeper said.
With reported losses of bees reaching up to 90 percent in some states, scientists have found no cure for what they labeled Colony Collapse Disorder.
Experts doubt other species of bees and flies could adequate pollinate the fruit crop in time for harvest.
Commodity specialist Ken Nye said that the true impact of the missing honeybees won't be accurately assessed for months.
"In reality, the light is going to go on at the first of May when the migratory beekeeper shows up and says, 'I only have 10 hives for you,'" the Gazette said.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
but will this effect Ethanol production?
It will be fruit and vegetables that will be high priced. Gotta have those pollinators. When the mites, Varroa and the tracheal first came out, I participated in a study to see if there were native bees that would do the job. Answer: not enough of them. The honeybee as we know it is a European import. It came with the crops that needed the pollination; apples, cucumbers, almonds etc etc. Strawberries, a North American plant, will benefit from the added help. We have imported too much honey from places like China where this disorder probably came from. Your FRreeping Entomologist, Battle Axe
No. Ethanol from corn will not be affected. Honeybees do feed on the corn pollen, but the corn plant is from the Americas and is wind pollinated.
When stored for a long time, honey may crystallize. The crystallization isn't harmful nor does it affect the flavor. If you want, it can be restored by placing the honey container in hot water until the crystals melt. Hot tap water will work. A really large container may require changing the water a few times.
The corporate farms here spray large amounts of pesticides and weed killers. No till farming came and we see no more ringneck pheasants and other birds. We used to have them all over the place. No more. I leave a large section of our field uncut and natural for wildlife. I would buy a few birds and set them out to breed and nest but I am sure they would not do well with the foamy poisons being sprayed on all sides of us.
IIRC, she said a common fungicide made Roundup 10,000 times more powerful a neurotoxin in bees.
Tupelo honey (the finest there is, IMO) will not crystallize.
I understand it's also a problem in Spain and Poland, but not England, France, Italy, Germany for the most part. Is it just the U.S. and parts of Europe? How about the African Honey Bee hives?
There's also speculation about the effect of systemic insecticides and such.Any clues?
Nah.....it is Bush's fault abetted by Karl Rove.
Please... do not post photos that frighten children and small animals.
WOW!
Those are really big BEEHINDS!
I hadn't heard that. But then, Tupelo Honey isn't very common around here, especially in quantities that would be part of what I call a stockpile. I was given a large jar of honey from a local producer. I don't remember how large it was but the jar was much more than quart size. It took quite a while to use it all, and it crystallized. I spent over an hour and changed the hot tap water several times to restore it but it did work.
This problem (or a series of related problems) has been going on for some time. Penn State just renamed this problem and made a press release in February - that's why the media has it's undies in a bunch.
Make no mistake, though, this is a real problem. I had huge winter kill this winter myself and the postmortems I did on several colonies showed CCS was behind some losses. Then again, CCS was behind losses last fall, too. Researchers suspect a number of contributing factors, but chiefly, environmental stresses on the bees - significant - and mites acting as vectors for pathogen(s) unknown seem to be the avenues of suspicion. Whether it is viral, bacterological or fungal, or a combination, is unknown. The thing is, this is not a new problem. CCS related problems have been around for at least 5-10 years.
Bees are in trouble, though, and when they are in trouble, we're all in trouble. This is no joke, but the environmentalist idiots will fan the flames of this just as high as they can to feearmonger and agitate for more draconian measures totally unrelated to reality.
I would suspect GM crops also -- the tinkering they do to those would also probably cause fatal tinkering with the DNA/genes of bees also. It remains to be seen what the tinkering will do to humans.
I bet Africanized honey bees would do the job.
You're 100% correct. In my mind, the world can live without honey, but we can not live without Bees.
Bee keepers store stacks of hives all around these several counties. Today, a large swarm of bees is probing the giant live oak trees in my yard.
Every time a wind gust comes by, there is a loud, droning, whine that increases mightily as the bees try to stay with the tree and not be carried away. It's this way every year after the orange trees set their fruit—and I'd miss it.
RAGBRI?
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