here for a larger version of this image. " data-pin-do="buttonBookmark">
Click here for a larger version of this image.
Image: CHARLES KREBS
In Brief
- Millions of beehives worldwide have emptied out as honeybees mysteriously disappear, putting at risk nearly 100 crops that require pollination.
- Research is pointing to a complex disease in which combinations of factors, including farming practices, make bees vulnerable to viruses.
- Taking extra care with hive hygiene seems to aid prevention. And research into antiviral drugs could lead to pharmaceutical solutions.
More In This Article
-
Infographic
Breakfast without Bees
-
Infographic
One Potential Solution: A Bee Medicine
-
Infographic
Colony Collapse Disorder: The Search for the Cause
-
Overview
The Buzz on Bees
Dave Hackenberg makes a living moving honeybees. Up and down the East Coast and often coast to coast, Hackenberg trucks his beehives from field to field to pollinate crops as diverse as Florida melons, Pennsylvania apples, Maine blueberries and California almonds.
As he has done for the past 42 years, in the fall of 2006 Hackenberg migrated with his family and his bees from their central Pennsylvania summer home to their winter locale in central Florida. The insects had just finished their pollination duties on blooming Pennsylvanian pumpkin fields and were now to catch the last of the Floridian Spanish needle nectar flow. When Hackenberg checked on his pollinators, the colonies were "boiling over" with bees, as he put it. But when he came back a month later, he was horrified. Many of the remaining colonies had lost large numbers of workers, and only the young workers and the queen remained and seemed healthy. More than half of the 3,000 hives were completely devoid of bees. But no dead bees were in sight. "It was like a ghost town," Hackenberg said when he called us seeking an explanation for the mysterious disappearance.
Already a Digital subscriber? Sign-in Now
If your institution has site license access, enter here.
See what we're tweeting about
61 Comments
Add CommentIn the USA there is a tendency to breed bees for volume of honey production using artificial insemination. A consequence of this is a high degree of inbreeding, a decrease in genetic diversity and a decrease in resistance to disease.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisElsewhere in the world where bee-keepers are maintaining heterogeneous populations of bees, colony collapse syndrome is much less of a problem. Indeed, the famous killer bees, which are by definition the avatars of honeybee hybrid vigor, do not suffer from CCS at all.
The pathogens described are important considerations in CCS, but out-breeding would tend to maintain natural resistance to these diseases.
Good informative article on useful science, as a beekeeper this problem is a real concern, we have lost 2/3's of our hives twice. but this last winter the losses were light. perhaps the infection has run it's course. Our hives are resident in field and forest area.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI just interviewed a bee keeper for a similar story. He has some of the same conclusions. Too much monoculture in our area and crop dusters bomb all of us mid-day when we and the bees are out and about. Plant some flowers and stop praying the dandelions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI suspect the range of chemicals harming bees immune systems is even larger than stated here. I used to have a small nest of bees in a corner of my property. I sprayed weed-killer (weedbegone) on a weed about five feet from the nest and two days later the bees had disappeared. This could be coincidence, but I doubt it. I now do all my weeding by hand.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think that bees are one of the canaries in a coal mine in our environment. Whatever is killing them off is probably harming us as well.
From what I can gather it seems to be a combination of inbreeding and the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. We need more diverse bee populations and we need to figure out how to work our agriculture without all the crazy chemicals. If we kill off all the bees, the Ag industry will be hit much harder than if we simply used common sense organic and/or permaculture practices wherever possible.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn the past few years, several agrichemical companies have been receiving patents to "coat" their crops - both conventional and genetically engineered - with neonicotinoids. As long as the regulatory bodies continue to rubber-stamp these crops, exposures will be a run-away train. This doesn't bode well for beekeepers or the food supply.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLaurel Hopwood, Sierra Club Chair, Genetic Engineering Action Team <lhopwood@roadrunner.com>
"There may be no easy remedy to CCD. It may require taking better care of the environment and making long-term changes to our beekeeping and agricultural practices"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf global warming has anything to do with this then I'd say there's not a chance the problem will be solved during this decade...
My beehives afforded pollinisation to large plots of rape-seed and orchards planted around my home. Now, the hives are empty, but despite common fears, the rape-seed fields and orchards still give a good harvest. This would tend to suggest that in the absence of the honey-bee, other insects do the pollinating in their place.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs a biologist and teacher I have kept honeybees in the same Pennsylvania valley for over thirty years and the only significant changes in the surrounding forage areas has been the introduction of GM crops and seed treatments which act as systemic poisons. In recent years the farmland hives barely experience a season where they make winter stores let alone any extra honey for harvest. Hives of related bees pastured in the northern forest regions still produce predictable large crops of honey. When this information is presented to researchers studying the problem their response is always the tired phrase," more study is needed", and as long as the EPA remains impotent, and Monsanto and Bayer support state universities that phrase will sum it all up.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI see Monsanto's commercial exploitation of living things cited more and more often in regard t0 such problems as bee colony collapse. Perhaps the time is right to have Congress put the leash on Monsanto, whether they're begging for bailout money or not. Notice too that one strain of the paralytic virus is probably due to the lifting of restrictions on bee importation in response to almond mega-growers in California. Maybe this whole area of "global economics" needs serious re-examining.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOr perhaps we could just create a chain of colony collapses in all the local colonies ("headquarters") of Republicans. Just a thought. :-)
I totally agree with Buck SkinMan's comment. When I looked up GMO's on the internet and discovered Monsanto had a test done in England - and the results had been released at a conference, with the scientist involved fired for doing so - I knew something was up!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe scientist had not been told NOT to release the information. In doing the testing he had discovered that genetically changing the plants structure had caused a number of horrible things, cancers, growths, etc. on the lab rats or mice.
In the article it is mentioned that only SOME organic farmers had this problem - and this could be because sometimes the crops NEXT to the organic crops are sprayed or have been genetically engineered - and the bees would probably be going over to their crops as well. (It's not like we put up boundary signs for the bees!)
Has anyone done a geographic or a taxonomic analysis of the die off patterns? Is there a pattern in space or time, any correlation with diet breadth or lineage of the bees involved?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNothing here explains the sudden death of bees around the world at the same time. All of the reasons given would take affect when the local conditions enabled them. Are we to be believe the conditions suddenly became "right" all around the world?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGMO and CCD http://tinyurl.com/cafcq6
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne problem associated with all scientific research is that the resultof the research must not combat the source of the funding. Otherwise the research ends and the speed of the ending is dependent on the size of the available funding and the determination of the funder to pursue the truth. The nicotine industry is a classic example. How can this syndrome be avoided in a field so important to the sustainability of the planet?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAn excellent, informative and well written article that leads the reader from the history of the problem, to field work, and how isolating the symptoms, and tracking the causes was sought out.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisas a beekeeper I've seen many bees have been dying when the queen lays her eggs and those eggs are affected too. But in these case, the bees have been killed by mites because they are viruses that destroy the whole colony really fast. ):
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI would like to make a comment on the article "Saving the Honey Bee"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this> in the April issue of the Scientific American by Diana CoxFoster
> and Dennis vanEngelsdorf. The authors refer to Nosema apis as a
> "unicellular fungus". To the best of my knowledge Nosema apis is not
> a fungus but it belongs to the Protistan Phylum Microsporidia. All
> members of this taxonomic group are unicellular and parasitic.
>
> Thanks,
> Noorullah Babrakzai
> Department of Biology and Earth Science
> University of Central Missouri.
>
I would like to make a comment on the article "Saving the Honey Bee"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this> in the April issue of the Scientific American by Diana Cox‑Foster
> and Dennis vanEngelsdorf. The authors refer to Nosema apis as a
> "unicellular fungus". To the best of my knowledge Nosema apis is not
> a fungus but it belongs to the Protistan Phylum Microsporidia. All
> members of this taxonomic group are unicellular and parasitic.
>
> Thanks,
> Noorullah Babrakzai
> babrakzai@ucmo.edu
>
I would like to make a comment on the article "Saving the Honey Bee"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this> in the April issue of the Scientific American by Diana Cox‑Foster
> and Dennis vanEngelsdorf. The authors refer to Nosema apis as a
> "unicellular fungus". To the best of my knowledge Nosema apis is not
> a fungus but it belongs to the Protistan Phylum Microsporidia. All
> members of this taxonomic group are unicellular and parasitic.
>
> babrakzai@ucmo.edu
>
I would like to make a comment on the article "Saving the Honey Bee "in the April issue of the Scientific American by Diana Cox‑Foster and Dennis vanEngelsdorf. The authors refer to Nosema apis as a "unicellular fungus". To the best of my knowledge Nosema apis is not a fungus but it belongs to the Protistan Phylum Microsporidia. All members of this taxonomic group are unicellular and parasitic.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisbabrakzai@ucmo.edu
On page 3, should this "Honeybee colonies are dynamic, and our initial sampling was not we took samples only once. " be this: "Honeybee colonies are dynamic, and our initial sampling was not. We took samples only once."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI've heard of animals that respond to impending danger such as weather related events, earthquakes, etc by fleeing. I wonder if this could perhaps be an explanation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThank you for the article on Colony Collapse Syndrome in Bees. The article was somewhat complete and managed to round up the usual suspects. However what was missing was the fact that bees are highly attuned to the earths electromagnetic signature and use it to navigate. They have two known organ structures their antennae and the mushroom gland that act as flight recorders so that the bee can lay down memory traces. The glands work on a frequency of 800-1200 htz and can be jammed by background microwave frequencies, which is the setting for cell phone transmission. Such a disruption would lead to a case of instant Alzheimer's disease in bees, they would fly out but would never be able to find their way back to their nests. Their internal flight recording system having been disrupted. What is not discussed is that in colony collapse disorder most of the bees never return to the nest. Also another peculiar finding is that ccs has occurred simultaneously in the same sessions late November and December simultaneously on four continents. Viruses and pollutants could be co-contributing factors but this would make it extremely difficult to explain a simultaneous and world wide collapse in colonies. This is not to minimize the role of viruses or pesticides or selective inbreeding of bee populations, but electromagnetic interference would act as a general stressor on bees, increasing their susceptibility to these other pathogenic factors. This is just another example of our technology having a deleterious affect on life on this planet. Of note electromagnetic interference is not limited to bees alone and may explain other illness patterns that one is currently observing in the environment.There has been an epidemic explosion of diseases in the last ten to fifteen years that are wholly unexplained, but nevertheless go against a primary genetic explanation. One such example is autism, Alzheimer and other neurological illnesses that have gone up exponentially. The shear shift in the demographics which has not been illustrated from the article detracts from the ability of your readership to derive any intelligible insights about the scale of the epidemic and its pathogenesis and how it will affect their lives. This may be fertile ground for speculators but not for a responsible science.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGerald Goldberg,MD
Author:
Would you put your head in a microwave oven, Authorhouse publications, 2005
To bee or not to bee
emf and autism
I see you subscribe to the Democrat/Republican, Liberal/Conservative, Us vs. Them divisive B.S. Grow up.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHey "BuckSkinMan", maybe you should have a colony collapse of your hate mongering towards Republicans. Grow up.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSome Honey bees,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiscan't find their trees,
for this their hives are dying.
Plants and trees need honey bees,
without them they'll be dying.
Man of course needs
plants and trees,
without them,
we'll be dying.
Albert Einstein postulated that man would become extent within five years of the extinction of the Honey Bee.
As Dr. Goldberg pointed out above in his remarks (submitted as glgmd at 08:35 PM on 04/07/09,) electromagnetic pollution is a good suspect to investigate. It would also explain the disappearance of web weaving spiders that I have noticed here in Kentucky. Last summer I told friends that it was very odd that as I paddled on local streams and rivers, the low hanging branches were nearly devoid of spider webs or stands of silk from other spinners like inch worms. Such webs were always a constant annoyance and hazard to navigation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhile hiking through tall grass or woods I often had to carry a stick to catch the stray silk or remove webs blocking the path. Last season I noticed formerly common giant garden spiders are seemingly extinct and the few scrawny web weavers I see are mostly found on the undersides of rock ledges or below the curved sides of fallen rotting logs. Electromagnetic pollution would explain their retreat to such sheltered areas.
As for the bees. it is dandelion season and I saw no bees on my dandelions when mowing, which is unusual.
The authors touched on many issues environmental and cropping issues that could effect bees. There is anecdotal evidence that bees kept under certified organic systems have not been subject to colony collapse.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne would think that from a scientific point of view the authors would attempt to do some research on organic bees to either refute or verify these claims.
There is anecdotal evidence that bees kept in a certified organic system have not been effected by colony collapse.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFrom a purely scientific point of view one would think the authors would do some research to either refute or verify the claims.
Dear Sirs and Madams,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisObviously pesticides and monocultures, no doubts. Stupidity of people are infinitive -"Money now!!!"
The international disease exchange (i.e. taking bees and honey from one country to other) yes of course - next stupidity.
Moving bees around continent -US commercial beekeepers, again no good at all.
Well, environmentalists - were is intelligence? No thinking about working of systems in complex way -why? Medals decorations and money blind you.
When I say we have much problem with Varroa - 65% of honey bee population gone from 1987 (all wild bees and 30% of domesticated ). Wow, no problem Colony Collapse Disorder and funds for "research" more important.
The CCD already is going away but public got wrong message - only the current problem and current money were taken - and what about the real problems - #1 Varroa.
I sent to Dr. Pettis an e-mail long time ago pointing the all public relation issue and CCD.: The CCD is most probably related to periodical Sun activity. - Of course no answer or deliberation.
CCD is milking cow, thus why bother about Varroa and true source odf CCD. The CCD will appear in next 11 (or in 22 years more probable) and again will be call for funds NOW!!! Right?
Best,
Andrerw Serafin MSc Eng
(andrewserafin@hotmail.com)
JUST kill off all clover-hating humans
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI was told its from cell phones. Is it true? What i gather here. Its has a name for what causing the bees to die off. How interesting.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs noted in beered comments on 4/10 background emf would have more generalized disruptive effects on ecosystems. The hallmark would be the scale and abruptness of change in any given ecosystem. This would put tremendous selective pressures in any food chain. Emf effects would be nondiscrimatory in nature and would extend to the base of any food chain or ecosystem. The microflora in any enviornment or in larger animal species would be affected as well producing untoward effects in the adult organism. There are currently several large die offs that remain enigmatic in nature. These is also anectodal reporting of loss of insectovores on other continents. Dramatic changes in bird populations as well as bats. Many of these phenomena may have a common link. Our atmosphere has been transformed into a microwave sea of information which has never been present in our planetary evolution and we may be merely seeing the consequences of this transformation of the biosphere, which most species are unadapted to handle.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisglgmd
Well, let's see. Chemical giants making big bucks with herbicides and pesticides. If the chemicals don't kill them then the non nutritional GMOs will.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell, let's see. Chemical giants and their herbicides and pesticides are weakening the immune systems of all of us and the the rest of the animal world. Then we have GMOs that have no nutritional value. What is left for the bees?? When all the chemicals and GMOs blow with the winds, everything is infected.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have found many websites that states chlorothalonil is non-toxic to bees (Just Google chlorothalonil bees). I hope the authors shares these finding with all these sites (I sent one to Perdue).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am a hobby beekeeper with about 20 Langstroth hives in Central Spain at the Southern slopes of the Gredos Mountains. There are mostly wildflowers around with no plantations of herbicide or insecticide treatments.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDespite of all, I lost 15 hives with up to 20 lbs. of honey each without bees.
My friends face the same problem.
After cleaning the hives thoroughly we are now taking swarms or splitting strong colonies to regain our losses.
I am an all natural Honeybee keeper on Cape Cod.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI believe the bees, bats & butterflies are trying to tell us something! We are a product of nature as well, and live here together experiencing the same things. That's why giving back to nature is giving back to us.
Becoming non-toxic inside & outside of our bodies & homes is the answer to the survival of all living things, including us.
Laws, regulations, restrictions, governmental help, individual participation every given day is needed now, forever.
The Honeybees are still here, there is hope. During this "lag time" between knowing there is a problem and implementing reinforcements, the bees are still uncomfortable.
There are simple things we can be doing each day to help them along their pathway now. It's called LIFESTYLE change. Start by receiving all your foods from local farmers and recycling 100% of all your waste. We must become responsible for our actions and clean up after ourselves in order for nature to stay natural. Human impact is changing the lives of all animals on the planet. We are dominating and not helping. We could dominate and heal instead. We have a choice. Each one of us matters. Doing this together will be the answer to a successful future on planet Earth.
Can the honeybees count on you?
I have just put up a new web site that will become more of an informational site soon. Please check out www.BeeFuture.com and enjoy my song.
And remember to Be Kind to our Bee Kind!
There is a natural answer for everything. It has been given to us in nature. We must reconnect back to nature to find our answers. Lets become better stewards of our home, the Earth.
Further to Dr Goldberg's comments on the radiation emitted from cell phone towers as being a worldwide contributory factor.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAt a conference in the UK last September, there was a review paper presented by Dr Warnke on the mechanism by which the radiation interferes with the bees navigation and communication systems.
It also destroys their immune system, thereby leaving them defenseless from attack from pests, viruses, etc. Rather like an AIDS patient.
You can see the report at
http://www.hese-project.org/hese-uk/en/papers/warnke_bbm.pdf
Birds, Bees and Mankind: Destroying nature by electrosmog, Dr Ulrich Warnke. 2008.
Also
http://www.hese-project.org/hese-uk/en/niemr/kompetenz_beekeepers.pdf
German Scientists write urgently to bee associations and beekeepers and explain about EM fields and bee colony collapse
and
http://www.hese-project.org/hese-uk/en/papers/bigbeedeath_0407.pdf
The Big Bee Death
For more information:
http://www.hese-project.org/hese-uk/en/issues/nature.php?id=bees
Save The Bees Shirts
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSelect A Shirt- Wear Our Logo
Support A Student and Bee Research
www.savethebeesshirts.com
Here's a timeline with some interesting stuff from Spanish sources:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://inthesenewtimes.com/2009/04/25/the-disappearing-bees-ccd-and-electromagnetic-radiation/
I understand that certain parasites can influence a host's behaviour to the benefit of the parasite and to the possible disadvantage of the host. Is there an organism that benefits from CCD? For instance a parasite that has a secondary host outside the hive. What happens to the dead bees. The bees may leave the hive in winter in ones and twos, die of cold and may be eaten by beetles or birds. One or more of these scavengers could be the secondary host.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHowever I would expect that you would have found a suitable organism that was the parasite
Feral Bees in their original habitats existed for long periods without the maladies that afflict them lately. In the last century domesticated bees have become afflicted with pests, colony collapse and Varoa.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHumans have altered bee housing allowing pests to spread easily.
For an explanation see http://vandermerwe.co.nz/?p=8
Feral Bees in their original habitats existed for long periods without the maladies that afflict them lately. In the last century domesticated bees have become afflicted with pests, colony collapse and Varoa.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHumans have altered bee housing allowing pests to spread easily.
For an explanation see http://vandermerwe.co.nz/?p=8
Artificial hives make bees prone to pests. Bees are more prone to pests, colony collapse and Varoa because their housing is different. Bees have thrived for a long time prior to their domestication.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor an explanation, see http://vandermerwe.co.nz/?p=8
great work! Ihope we can identify the exact reason in the near future so the humble bumble bee can go about his business without being subject to this annoying problem.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNon of the reasons above are the reasons my bees disapeard I live in portugal in a pritty wild regon and many of our bees disapeard.I em very sensative to Mobiele weaves and ged totaly disorderd from it.I can ges that the bees have this to.Some friend finds honybees who went in to the ground ,he do not know why but erery year he finds moore.I hope the world thakes this seriaus Thanks Leen
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisVery informative. I was however somewhat irked by the lack of grammatical editing. I've always esteemed S.A as a "learned" magazine. Better get a "learned" editor, or at least proof-read the write-up before publishing.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBUT again, I truly appreciated the information included in this article. I liked how it follows the history of the research, eliminating the suspects as it went along. Very well done. Thank you.
Is anyone looking into electromagnetic phenomena that might lie outside the pathologic findings suggesting virions or mite vectors???
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn Zimbabwe I kept six hives of what are known as the African killer bee. Now these bees only killed my chickens and ducks, nearly my wife too, when the ambient temperature was over 35 centigrad and the humidity about sixty percent.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy not try the African bee as well as the Australian to try and rescuse the American industry: afterall they have alrready crossed the Alamo from S.America via Mexico.
In Zimbabwe I kept six hives of what are known as the African killer bee. Now these bees only killed my chickens and ducks, nearly my wife too, when the ambient temperature was over 35 centigrad and the humidity about sixty percent.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy not try the African bee as well as the Australian to try and rescuse the American industry: afterall they have alrready crossed the Alamo from S.America via Mexico.
I would like to hear more from John about what GMO crops are being grown. I believe that the coincidence of some of the greatest bee declines- USA, Canada, Britain who all have large acreages of GMO is no coincidence
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you refer to the Aug 13 2009 Scientific American article Do Seed Companies Control GM Crop Research?
Scientists must ask corporations for permission before publishing independent research on genetically modified crops. That restriction must end
You can see why there is no real independent research on GMOs, this has to be unconstitutional that 3rd party safety evaluations cannot be done on consumer products particularly food
Huge number of bees, then all of a sudden many are gone- no dead bees around. . . Doesn't this appear like the hive has simply swarmed? Also- good luck getting the gov't to do anything about Monsanto- follow the money- we won't get anything from the gov't going against Monsanto
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOn a trip to London this past summer, I heard on a t.v. broadcast that the government in Scotland was encouraging all homeowners to start a backyard beehive to assist in combatting the problem of CCD. This is so different than what goes on here in Southern California, where small-scale hobby beekeeping is outlawed by city ordinances in most suburban areas. Hobby beekeepers are not experiencing CCD to anywhere near the degree that commercial beekeepers are, probably because they do not use as many--if any--medicines and pesticides on their hives and their bees are not transported to agricultural areas that have been heavily doused by agricultural pesticides. If urban/suburban beekeeping were encouraged in California as it is in Scotland, perhaps bees would survive until the root causes of CCD for commercial beekeeping can be discovered.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLast year, my fruit and vegetable garden produced very little. There were no bees to be seen pollinating it and the reason for no fruits and vegetables was clear to me. No pollinators. I made the decision to ignore the city ordinances and start a beehive. Not only has this been a very satisfying hobby, the bees have been pollinating my neighborhood non-stop for the past 6 months. I now have two hives and will not have more because I want to be a responsible neighbor. No one seems to notice that I have beehives. My bees are extremely healthy and thriving and I have never had to use any chemical treatment on them. They are all feral bees that would have otherwise made homes in inconvenient places for my neighbors. I have rescued feral hives of bees that would otherwise have been destroyed. For all the time and money I have spent in doing my part to "save the bees," it would certainly be nice to have the legal sanction of my city. Instead, I must remain a member of a secret society of hobby beekeepers who knows at any moment we could be forced to shut down.
new- Scientific MECHANISM:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHOW the GMO Corn Killed the BEES..
www.fractalfield.com/savethebees
Hello America.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy name is John Harding and been a beekeeper for 30 years, in that time I have invented, Queen Rearing System, Floor, Mini Nuc System and more. I have kept up to 300 national hives in that time, yes I know its nothing compered to yours, however in that time I have wondered at the mysterious honeybee world and asked why would mankind want to change their perfect world of 200 million years.....
The decline of honeybees has not just happened in the past 30 years due to Varroa or Pesticides or anything else you would like to blame....Honeybees have been dying ever since mankind found honey and tried to domesticate the Honeybee.....All the current possibilities, not answers, have esculated the problem and has brought it to the attention of the media and main stream public causing a panic scenario due to Einstein stating that mankind would die out 4 years aftewr Honeybees......
So how did the Honeybee survive without mankind for so long......it is quite simple.....they were allowed to settle and make their home where they wanted.....what did mankind do.....simple we took them away from their natural source which they need to survive to combat mites, brood decease and basically any other intruder into their microclimate....mankind moved them into logs, boxes, skeps and eventually beehives but putting the bees where mankind wanted the beehive with no concideration for the Honeybee.....
Yes I have found the answer and solution completely chemical free to stop Honeybees from dying out....
I haven`t used chemicals or sugar for 18 years and I DO NOT HAVE VARROA and each hive is healthy......
I have written a book with the answer but I cannot afford to get it published after going through a very expensive divorse...so if anybody would like to help then please do get in touch....
One thing to remember the Chemical Industry has got a foot in the door to most if not all Scientist, Professors, Univercities and in England our own British Association....I have tried relentlessly for the past 18 months to get heard but due to the chemical infiltration the fundees are biased towards a chemical or bacterial answer so if someone like me comes up with a holistic natural answer it is not even looked at leave alone concidered.....
Thank you for reading, the answer is here already.
John Harding UK 01384 423557 or 07974121472 or harding@clavies.freeserve.co.uk
This is a great article! it is no doubt that bees are becoming more and more obsolete with so many things in the world changing. I am a beekeeping expert and I strive to help out bees in their habitat, but also merging their lives into the human world, as a beekeeper. Not only does this assist our flowers and natural greenery, but it also helps them become more safer. This is the reason for me posting, as I would like everyone to learn about beekeeping and its win-win benefits. Please spread the word! <b><a href="http://www.beekeepingpassion.com/keeping-bees/">Beginning Beekeeping</a></b>
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is a great article! it is no doubt that bees are becoming more and more obsolete with so many things in the world changing. I am a beekeeping expert and I strive to help out bees in their habitat, but also merging their lives into the human world, as a beekeeper. Not only does this assist our flowers and natural greenery, but it also helps them become more safer. This is the reason for me posting, as I would like everyone to learn about beekeeping and its win-win benefits. Please spread the word! http://www.beekeepingpassion.com/keeping-bees
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor this following this here is evidence of a new cause.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSee:
http://news.yahoo.com/zombie-fly-parasite-killing-honeybees-230200867.html
and:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0029639?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+plosone%2FEvolutionaryBiology+%28PLoS+ONE+Alerts%3A+Evolutionary+Biology%29
Monsanto has bought out Beelogics - what is next? We were told that eating GE food had no effect - yet GE bee-foods (Remebee & RemebeePro) are being pushed by USDA/Monsanto/Beelogics through the EPA examination process for commercial use in the USA, EXACTLY BECAUSE IT ALTERS the bees' gene expression to be better able to avoid IAPV & CCD, with unkown other effects- whats next? - Patented GE bees that can handle pesticides? Not good for non-corporate beekeeping, our declining native bee species, or our common future. Monsanto has no qualms about GEing and patenting things that kill ALL non-patented life!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this