Honey Bee Population

[LadyCook61]

When hubby had beehives , there were numerous honeybees. Now I only see those big bumble bees and yellow jackets.

[Uncle Bob]

I love the big "bumbly bees"...they love to pollinate yellow squash...Early morning gathering squash they are everywhere...ya just brush them out of the way sometimes..They are not very aggressive, and I've never been stung...unless you disturb their in ground nest...then they will attack with vengeance!!!

[Wart]

Originally Posted by jennyema

I think this is a very serious problem.

As do I.

I can live without honey, I'm not sure we can do so well without pollination.

{edit} It will be a real personal bummer if I can't get the raw honey by the gallon anymore but it will be an even bigger bummer if we can't get the 2/3 to 3/4 of the food we now have. {/edit}

Colony decline may have happened before. We don't know what previous causes were and we don't know whats causing the decline this time so we can't assume the causes are the same and that bees will recover.

Plan for the worse and hope for the best.

[Wart]

Originally Posted by Uncle Bob

I love the big "bumbly bees"...they love to pollinate yellow squash...Early morning gathering squash they are everywhere...ya just brush them out of the way sometimes..They are not very aggressive, and I've never been stung...unless you disturb their in ground nest...then they will attack with vengeance!!!

Yep, if one goes swatting and swinging at bees or go running from them they do tend to zero in.

I've noticed if I do a hand ball swat and knock a yellow jacket far enough away they don't usually come back.

Never felt the need to swat at a honey bee, never been brave enough to hit a bumble bee.

[Alix]

Just seen the ginormous queen bumble bees so far this year. I heard that bees might be a problem soon, we will just have to see what happens.

[mcnerd]

Here's a CBS news release as recent as March 7, 2008, regarding the bee situation.

What's Killing The Honeybees?, For A Second Year, Bees Are Dying Off And America's Farmers Are Getting Stung - CBS News

One of the issues not being discussed much in public is the Earth's weakening magnetic field which many insects and animals rely on for getting around. It is now so weak that if an insect or animal has a "stuffy nose" it cannot sense the magnetic field and get lost.

Also, the Magnetic North has been moving (fast) towards True North. In the northern reaches of Russia it was tracked at about 25 miles per year. This is causing weirds events, including the necessity of airports to change the names of their runways on an accelerated basis (runways are named according to the direction they point).

[Jeff G.]

If you want the facts.. One, it has happened before. they don't know why, and no, it isn't cell phones..

ARS : Questions and Answers: Colony Collapse Disorder

[ErikC]

My mother has a lot of plants and tree fruits that need pollination, and she says that last year, and so far this year, the Mason bees have picked up the slack. No, they don't make honey, at least not any that can be harvested, but she has lost nothing in productivity since the honey bee population has started declining.
For the record, this is on Vancouver Island, and I don't really know if this is the "official" name of the bees.
Also, they don't sting at all.

[bethzaring]

Originally Posted by ErikC

My mother has a lot of plants and tree fruits that need pollination, and she says that last year, and so far this year, the Mason bees have picked up the slack. No, they don't make honey, at least not any that can be harvested, but she has lost nothing in productivity since the honey bee population has started declining.

This is a good point. It does not take honey bees to pollinate flowers. I don't know what insects were on my crab apple trees a few weeks ago, but I have literally thousands of baby apples on those two trees right now.

[quicksilver]

In the summer of 1995, I moved up to a 160 acre apple orchard in NY state. We rented the farmhouse, the owner lived off-site. Back then they were worrying about the bees and were having new queens shipped from georgia and elsewhere to cross breed. They were professional beekeepers and had to be for apple production. Even the migrant workers, who came from Jamaica, noticed the changes happening. After they picked apples from mid-april to late september, they would come to florida to cut sugar cane (very, very difficult job). They said other migrants thoughout the northern states were noticing the same thing with the bees. It's not a new thing. It's taken years of farmers warning us, and the solution, when it does come won't cure overnight.