Posted on 04/24/2009 6:11:15 PM PDT by KayEyeDoubleDee
I'm not an enviro-wacko, but I always believed that everything should be checked. It makes sense when no one knows what is going on to follow all possible leads. That would include pesticides and biologically altered plants.
Good news - thanks!
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.
First good news since November.
The drugs are put into sugar syrup that the bees eat.
GASP! You mean man-made global warming isn’t to blame?
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.
Red Boots... please see my post # 27 and do yourself a favor...... go read the fable about crying wolf. You have heard the enviro wackos cry wolf so many times now that you can’t recognized the real wolf when he shows up. The truth is my FRiend that PESTICIDES DO KILL BEES!!!!!!!!!!!
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