Cure For Honey Bee Colony Collapse?

For the first time, scientists have isolated the parasite Nosema ceranae (Microsporidia) from professional apiaries suffering from honey bee colony depopulation syndrome. They then went on to treat the infection with complete success.

In a study published in the new journal from the Society for Applied Microbiology: Environmental Microbiology Reports, scientists from Spain analysed two apiaries and found evidence of honey bee colony depopulation syndrome (also known as colony collapse disorder in the USA)...

My speculation was that there are about 20,000 different species of bee in nine families, and many of them would be just as suitable for pollination, alone, than would honey bees, even if they produced no honey at all.

Which ones would pollinate only? As I recall, bees do their thing with pollen - stuff it in their legs, then fly on to another blossom of the same variety.

Pollen is their protein. They need honey for carbs to complete their diet. Their stomachs have six shards.

Before they swarm, they gorge on honey - filling those sections. That's why swarms are sluggish and easy to hive.

One section will feed them per day. If their body uses up all six compartments (6 days), they will die of starvation.

Staying on a tree limb only a short while - before a scout targets a new home, you'll see that they had already begun to secrete wax.

I would imagine antibiotics are either sprinkled in the hive, dry, or given to them in sugar water.

Did you guys read the title? It has a big QUESTION mark in it. This means that "perhaps" they have the answer. This does not mean that they DO have the answer!

I am a hobbyest beekeeper and we closely follow the reports from UGA about the CCD problems. The University of GA has been assigned a major grant to head up a study in which the other major universities are all participating.

The truth is that it was just this one research group that says they found Nosema ceranae as the only disease present in CCD. But there are plenty of other studies where evidence of other problems were present.

That's the mystery of this thing...... the evidence is different in different cases. Which is one of the reasons they tend to believe that something weakens the bees and then they succumb to either one of the presently known diseases or in some cases to no disease they can spot, just disappearance.

Treating your colonies regularly for Nosema ceranae is NOT the answer! We all wish it was that easy! Big commercial bee keepers are regularly treating their hives for all the diseases and they still are having the Colony Collapse happen.

The bad part of that is many of us KNOW that it is dangerous to be treating the bees so much with antibiotics. The stuff gets into the comb and builds up and stays. No matter how careful we are, it gets into the honey and is ingested by humans. That leads to our human diseases becoming immune to these antibiotics.

In our apiary we avoid the use of antibiotics completely. This past winter we lost several colonies to Nosema ceranae (at least we think that's what they had.... we didn't send any off to get the expensive test done since the evidence was so similar to our commercial beekeeper friend in the area who was diagnosed by the university). We decided not to treat our remaining hives with antibiotics but to let them either die or survive on their strength.... thus hoping to breed this spring from the strongest survivors.

We raise new queens from these strong survivors, did colony splits just these past few weeks while they are all building their numbers.... and we now have a bunch of new hives... all the stronger to survive in the coming years and free from the buildup of antibiotics.

Now to address the comments about it not being pesticides that are killing the bees. Don't be deceived, pesticide IS still a major problem and proven to be! Don't be so quick to pin the label of environmental quacks on us because we call it like it is. It's the ole scream "wolf" problem. The enviro wackos have screamed wolf so many times that now some of you refuse to see the wolf when he really does show up.

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