Bees // Current

....Bee Peace.....

...Bees forming Peace to Peter Gabriel's Mother of Violence.....

Relevations
added this
17 days ago
|
4 comments

Who killed all those honeybees? We did.

The nation’s great bee die-off has provoked a furious debate: What has caused a third of all commercial honeybee colonies to perish each year since 2006? Although widespread bee deaths have occurred before, the current sharp decline is different. This time some bees have simply vanished, abandoning their hives. The phenomenon, known as colony collapse disorder (CCD), has been attributed in part to the same viral and bacterial infections, pesticide poisonings, and mite infestations that devastated bees in the past.

Whatever the proximate cause, it increasingly appears that the bees are succumbing to a long-ignored underlying condition—inbreeding. Decades of agricultural and breeding practices meant to maximize pollinating efficiency have limited honeybees’ genetic diversity at a time when they need it the most. Addressing CCD may therefore require more than a simple fix. “We need to have a diverse set of genetic raw material so we can find bees resistant to disease,” says Steve Sheppard, an entomologist at Washington State University. “Genetic diversity is an important part of the solution.”

The problem is hardly trivial. A third of the total human diet depends on plants pollinated by insects, predominantly honeybees. In North America honeybees pollinate more than 90 crops with an annual value totaling almost $15 billion. Indeed, that importance lies at the root of what went wrong. In trying to make bees more productive, apiarists have torn the insects from their natural habitats and the routines they mastered over millions of years. As a result, today’s honeybees are sickly, enslaved, and mechanized. “We’ve looked at bees as robots that would keep on trucking no matter what,” says Heather Mattila of Wellesley College, who studies honeybee behavior and genetics. “They can’t be pushed and pushed.”

In the beginning, honeybees and their partners, the flowers, drove an explosion of natural diversity. While most bees preferred a specific type of plant, honeybees were equal-opportunity pollinators—“pollen pigs,” beekeepers called them. The most socially complex of the bees, they thrived in colonies led by the egg-laying queen, who ensured the genetic fitness of her progeny by breeding with multiple male drones from other colonies.

All that began to change in the early 20th century, when farms and orchards started enlisting honeybees to pollinate their crops. Bees that were adapted to harvesting pollen from a variety of plants suddenly spent a month or more at a time surrounded by nothing but almond or apple trees. Farmers eager to increase their crop yields turned to commercial beekeepers, who offered up massive wooden hives stocked with queen bees genetically selected to produce colonies of good pollinators. These breeding practices slashed the genetic variety that helps any species survive infections, chemicals, and other unforeseen threats.

And lately those threats have been profound. During the 1980s, tracheal mites and then varroa mites arrived in North America, decimating honeybee populations. One entomologist studying the mite invasion was Michael Burgett of Oregon State University, who spent much of his career searching for pesticides that would kill the mites but not the bees. In 1995 he published the results of a 10-year bee survey. The average annual honeybee loss, attributed to both mites and chemicals, was about 23 percent.

The stresses endured by honeybees became clear to Sam Comfort earlier in this decade when he was working for a Montana pollination outfit called Arlee Apiaries. Every February at the start of pollinating season, Comfort and fellow contract workers used forklifts to move 12-foot-tall towers of wooden hives onto flatbed trucks. “Five hundred hives to a truck, all of them covered by a giant net,” he says. With the loads jammed in tight, drivers set out for the almond groves of California, where the bees’ whirlwind pollination tour began.The nation’s great bee die-off has provoked a furious debate: What has caused a... more

JanforGore
added this
22 days ago
|
14 comments

Action alert: Save the bees!

A new documentary seeks to unravel the mystery of why billions of honey bees have been... more

JanforGore
added this
1 month ago
|
10 comments

Call for research into pesticides implicated in deaths of honeybees: Video

Campaigners today called on the government to commission research into pesticides that... more

bansheewail
added this
1 month ago
|
5 comments

New film blames drug firm for plight of honey bees

"It's a question that has baffled the worlds of agriculture and science – what is it... more

lookatmypix
added this
1 month ago
|
3 comments

Urban hive could save the honey bee

The humble honey bee is in trouble, but a designer from the US thinks he has a solution.

aatami
added this
1 month ago
|
0 comments

Man dies after bees escape hives in crash

A teenager died and more than 20 people were injured when swarms of bees escaped from... more

blanch
added this
1 month ago
|
2 comments

30-Pound Beehive Removed From Yard

"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- It's hard to believe, but there's a beehive in town that could... more

lookatmypix
added this
1 month ago
|
0 comments

Paris rooftops abuzz with beekeeping

In the romantic city of lights, the bees are downright busy. Common sense says it is... more

JanforGore
added this
1 month ago
|
1 comment

Bumblebees Now Vanishing Too: Yeah, We're Screwed...

What will happen when these bee's slip away for good, followed by our native crops and... more

FishaHouse777
added this
1 month ago
|
44 comments

Super Honey Helps Fight Off MRSA Superbugs

Honey lovers, you have a whole new reason to feel dedicated to the sweet sticky stuff.... more

TheodoreSouza
added this
2 months ago
|
1 comment

Watch "The Last BeeKeeper" on TV.

THe last Beekeeper will be on Planet Green, Channel 286 on DirecTV. Currently this... more

Agent_Alpha
added this
2 months ago
|
3 comments

Heat forms potentially harmful substance in high-fructose corn syrup

Researchers have established the conditions that foster formation of potentially... more

JanforGore
added this
3 months ago
|
19 comments

Bee genome gives killer clue to colony collapse disorder - environment - 25 August 2009 - New Scient

Screening for the genetic fragments could act as an early warning system for... more

BUILDUSMAXIMUS
added this
3 months ago
|
1 comment

New Clues in the Mass Death of Bees

n late 2006, something strange began to happen to America's honeybees. Colonies that... more

leahl
added this
3 months ago
|
22 comments

"Do The Honey Bee" and Celebrate National Honey Bee Awareness

The Häagen-Dazs brand is urging consumers to grab a friend and "Do the Honey Bee"... more

retro_Syl
added this
3 months ago
|
4 comments

The Beehaus: Modern Beekeeping For Your Backyard Or Rooftop

From the people who brought you the Eglu, for all of your urban chicken and rabbit... more

theauthor
added this
3 months ago
|
0 comments

HELP Native American & youth projects: Please vote today to help Michigan environment projects

See Links to vote below: Please vote daily through August 30, 2009 for story about... more

Yoopernewsman
added this
3 months ago
|
0 comments

Your vote needed today: Support EarthKeepers/Zaagkii project/Vote daily thru August 30, 2009

Please vote daily through August 30, 2009 for story about Rev. Jon Magnuson's... more

Yoopernewsman
added this
3 months ago
|
0 comments

Pesticide Kills Over 100 Billion Honey Bees...Who's Responsible?

New research from the Washington State University has confirmed that a microscopic... more

organicjar
added this
3 months ago
|
2 comments

tagged w/ Bees

....Bee Peace.....

Who killed all those honeybees? We did.

Action alert: Save the bees!

Call for research into pesticides implicated in deaths of honeybees: Video

New film blames drug firm for plight of honey bees

Urban hive could save the honey bee

Man dies after bees escape hives in crash

30-Pound Beehive Removed From Yard

Paris rooftops abuzz with beekeeping

Bumblebees Now Vanishing Too: Yeah, We're Screwed...

Super Honey Helps Fight Off MRSA Superbugs

Watch "The Last BeeKeeper" on TV.

Heat forms potentially harmful substance in high-fructose corn syrup

Bee genome gives killer clue to colony collapse disorder - environment - 25 August 2009 - New Scient

New Clues in the Mass Death of Bees

"Do The Honey Bee" and Celebrate National Honey Bee Awareness

The Beehaus: Modern Beekeeping For Your Backyard Or Rooftop

HELP Native American & youth projects: Please vote today to help Michigan environment projects

Your vote needed today: Support EarthKeepers/Zaagkii project/Vote daily thru August 30, 2009

Pesticide Kills Over 100 Billion Honey Bees...Who's Responsible?

current videos

Sarah Haskins in Target Women: Broadview Security

Carrie Prejean Sex Tape

Precious reviewed by The Rotten Tomatoes Show

The Anticipatron: Clash of the Titans, Salt, & The Slammin' Salmon

Texting While Driving

Obama Aborts Abortion

about current

watch current

the people are talking

the basics

take us with you

tools

stay in touch

© 2009 Current TV, LLC
All Rights Reserved