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New Article: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees
- Thread starter pain
- Start date
When I first heard of Colony Collapse Disorder, I began to worry about honey prices. After some research, I'm much less concerned - here's why: http://www.washingtonwinemaker.com/...ces-making-sense-of-colony-collapse-disorder/. I'll just briefly say that nationwide, CCD has claimed 25% of commercial colonies. Last year's unfavorable weather depressed per colony yield, so if this turns out to be a more normal year, then 25% fewer colonies will result in about 15% less honey. Beekeepers will be trying to rebuild their colonies and I think it's way too pessimistic to assume they will have no success at all. So I think US production will fall by less than 15%, possibly much less.
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I emailed my uncle who owns a large farm in Fehmarn Germany (Island in the Baltic Sea) to see if he would send me some Rape Honey to make a mead...he told me they had very little honey available because they had lost most of thier bee's...He told me about the law suit that had been filed against Bayer...I guess they never learn.
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wrohan
Guest
Guest
i was really frustrated with the US media as they covered CCD. France and Canada basically went through the same thing after the Bayer pesticide Imicloprid (yes, same as the drug in Advantage for pets) was approved for widespread pesticide use. They have released it under several names, but i think the US version is called Gaucho.
I am not sure who has seen this yet, but here are exerts from an article on cnn.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/05/smallbusiness/biotech_for_bees.fsb/index.htm?postversion=2009030606
One Miami startup hopes to cure a mysterious plague threatening the food supply.
(Fortune Small Business) -- Bee colonies might not seem like the most lucrative market for designer drugs. But the need is urgent: CCD, or colony collapse disorder, a strange syndrome that kills adult worker bees outside the hive, has been reported across the U.S. and Europe. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) says American beekeepers lost 37% of their hives to CCD last year, after losing 31% the year before.
Scientists still can't agree on which virus, if any, causes CCD. The government estimates that a third of our food supply - $15 billion annually in vegetables, nuts and fruits from plants that depend on bees for pollination - could be in danger.
Enter Beeologics, a Miami biotech startup that aims to create vaccines for all viruses that could lead to CCD. It's an unlikely collaboration between Eyal Ben-Chanoch, 49, a tech entrepreneur who helped design the first Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) Pentium chip, and Ilan Sela, 71, an Israeli expert on sequencing the genomes of bee viruses.
FDA approval is still pending, but the company is confident it will be able to commercialize the vaccine this summer, at around $2 per dose.
This is promising, and hopefully it will come soon.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Michael
http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/05/smallbusiness/biotech_for_bees.fsb/index.htm?postversion=2009030606
One Miami startup hopes to cure a mysterious plague threatening the food supply.
(Fortune Small Business) -- Bee colonies might not seem like the most lucrative market for designer drugs. But the need is urgent: CCD, or colony collapse disorder, a strange syndrome that kills adult worker bees outside the hive, has been reported across the U.S. and Europe. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) says American beekeepers lost 37% of their hives to CCD last year, after losing 31% the year before.
Scientists still can't agree on which virus, if any, causes CCD. The government estimates that a third of our food supply - $15 billion annually in vegetables, nuts and fruits from plants that depend on bees for pollination - could be in danger.
Enter Beeologics, a Miami biotech startup that aims to create vaccines for all viruses that could lead to CCD. It's an unlikely collaboration between Eyal Ben-Chanoch, 49, a tech entrepreneur who helped design the first Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) Pentium chip, and Ilan Sela, 71, an Israeli expert on sequencing the genomes of bee viruses.
FDA approval is still pending, but the company is confident it will be able to commercialize the vaccine this summer, at around $2 per dose.
This is promising, and hopefully it will come soon.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Michael
There is an interesting article in the Economist (March 5, 2009) entitled The bees are back in town discussing the glut of pollinators for California's Almond crop this year. It discusses how economics and nutritional support may play a role in CCD. The disturbing part was -
Uh-oh here it come again....
Uh-oh here it come again....
The writers for the Doctor Who series have also worked at drawing attention to the disappearance of honey bees -- it was made a repeating theme during the fourth season.
http://jamesmcinerney.ie/2008/06/30/dr-who-and-the-disappearance-of-honey-bees/
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080521152142AA53aZP
http://jamesmcinerney.ie/2008/06/30/dr-who-and-the-disappearance-of-honey-bees/
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080521152142AA53aZP
The hardest part isn't the needles. It's keeping unvaccinated bees in the waiting room.
No, seriously: I know it may have come out as a bit of a flippant question, but how does one give a large population of very small critters medication? Perhaps one of our beekeeping forum-mates can chime in? Being from Texas, I know how they do livestock, but small flying insects? Perhaps a topical spray and they absorb it through their "skin"? Or in some sort of food source that they take in "orally"? How can you be sure of the proper dose being delivered with those methods? -- Olen
I am not a beekeeper, but I believe many of the medications they give are mixed into syrup or honey and fed to the bees. I'll let someone more knowledgeable speak to how they decide the dosing.
I would think that the vacination needs to get to the queen, maybe thru the food or a spray into the hive. Then the subsequent generations of worker bees would be protected as the unvacinated workers die off. Pollen nutrition was identified as a possible cause of CCD, the lower protein pollens produce worker bees with a much shorter life span. I still wonder if low levels of different pesticides can have a long term affect and increase the effect of poor quality pollen. We need to wait and see if the bees are out of the woods yet.
A
andrewschwab
Guest
Guest
Here is the cool thing about bee hives. They are VERY social, you introduce something (via pollen mix, syrup, or whatever) it will be passed through the hive in about 30 min...
OK I made up the 30 min..., BUT it is very fast, they pass everything around good or bad. It could be less then 30 or a bit longer but you get the idea.
Bees are managed different then in the "old days" for better or worse. You decide.
BUT come up with a better way to feed this many people on less land. We did it to ourselves. ALL of us... hence the bees are paying for it now, US later????
OK I made up the 30 min..., BUT it is very fast, they pass everything around good or bad. It could be less then 30 or a bit longer but you get the idea.
Bees are managed different then in the "old days" for better or worse. You decide.
BUT come up with a better way to feed this many people on less land. We did it to ourselves. ALL of us... hence the bees are paying for it now, US later????
In humans, vaccines don't pass from generation to generation. Just the first few months of our lifespan until our own immune system kicks off. I assume it's similar for bees. It would almost have to be food or water borne. Or perhaps similar to how pesticides are delivered.
I hope it isn't mixed into honey and fed back. And how would you work out dosing? I would think overdosing would be fairly easy.
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There are reasons for optimism about Colony Collapse Disorder, even if our scientists never discover the cause. This, or something with identical symptoms, has struck several times in the past. Each time it faded away before anyone could figure out why. In the here and now, CCD has been taking colonies since at least 2006, but it just hasn't hurt the industry that badly. To see that, you need to look past the scary stories (they are scary and my heart goes out to beekeepers that do all they can only to see healthy colonies struck down for no apparent reason) to look at the total number of producing colonies in the US and how that has changed since 2006 (when CCD was first identified).
2008 was the worst year, with the number of colonies dropping 6% (and CCD is only one possible explanation for that - might the cold 2008-2009 winter have increased ordinary winter losses?). The population was remarkably stable in 2006 and 2007. More details here, but as catastrophes go, CCD is pretty mild.
2008 was the worst year, with the number of colonies dropping 6% (and CCD is only one possible explanation for that - might the cold 2008-2009 winter have increased ordinary winter losses?). The population was remarkably stable in 2006 and 2007. More details here, but as catastrophes go, CCD is pretty mild.
Hello Erroll,
I had much the same thought looking at data from the USDA. The numbers of colonies hadn't really dropped that much. Ken Schramm provided a much different perspective in a thread on CCD Here (in the Patron's section).
Essentially beekeepers have been able to maintain the colony count by doing all sorts of extra (and costly) measures - splitting hives, starting with smaller populations and so forth. While they have been able to afford to do this replacement thus far, they certainly won't be able to continue to afford such replacements year after year if it continues.
I certainly hope the problem disappears.
Medsen
I had much the same thought looking at data from the USDA. The numbers of colonies hadn't really dropped that much. Ken Schramm provided a much different perspective in a thread on CCD Here (in the Patron's section).
Essentially beekeepers have been able to maintain the colony count by doing all sorts of extra (and costly) measures - splitting hives, starting with smaller populations and so forth. While they have been able to afford to do this replacement thus far, they certainly won't be able to continue to afford such replacements year after year if it continues.
I certainly hope the problem disappears.
Medsen
Hi Medsen,
I don't know that I can say much about a thread I can't see, so I'll just ask some questions.
Is he saying that beekeepers are splitting colonies more often since 2006 than they were before 2006? Is he saying that colonies are, on average, smaller than before 2006? These sound measurable. Are there reliable nationwide data on them?
Is he saying that the problem with CCD is that it adds to the cost of beekeeping? It makes sense to me that it would, but that sounds a lot milder than statements like, "CCD is wiping out the honeybees."
I don't know that I can say much about a thread I can't see, so I'll just ask some questions.
Is he saying that beekeepers are splitting colonies more often since 2006 than they were before 2006? Is he saying that colonies are, on average, smaller than before 2006? These sound measurable. Are there reliable nationwide data on them?
Is he saying that the problem with CCD is that it adds to the cost of beekeeping? It makes sense to me that it would, but that sounds a lot milder than statements like, "CCD is wiping out the honeybees."
I won't presume to speak for Ken, and I do not know if data on splitting and colony size is collected. Someone with more beekeeping knowledge here may be able to direct you.
The point I took away is that by heroic efforts, despite large losses of hives, the beekeepers have thus far been able to keep the number of hives from dropping dramatically. If the continuing losses persist at the rate seen in 2006-2008, you will see the number of hives drop at some point.
The point I took away is that by heroic efforts, despite large losses of hives, the beekeepers have thus far been able to keep the number of hives from dropping dramatically. If the continuing losses persist at the rate seen in 2006-2008, you will see the number of hives drop at some point.
