USDA Totals Show Continuing Loss Of Beehives In 2009, Though At Marginally Slower Rate

[hatrack]

The decline in the US bee population, first observed in 2006, is continuing, a phenomenon that still baffles researchers and beekeepers. Data from the US Department of Agriculture show a 29 percent drop in beehives in 2009, following a 36 percent decline in 2008 and a 32 percent fall in 2007. This affects not only honey production but around 15 billion dollars worth of crops that depend on bees for pollination.

Scientists call the phenomenon "colony collapse disorder" that has led to the disappearance of millions of adult bees and beehives and occurred elsewhere in the world including in Europe. Researchers have looked at viruses, parasites, insecticides, malnutrition and other environmental factors but have been unable to pinpoint a specific cause for the population decline.

The rough winter in many parts of the United States will likely accentuate the problem, says Jeff Pettis, lead researcher at Department of Agriculture's Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland. Winter figures will be published in April. But preliminary estimates already indicate losses of 30 to 50 percent, said David Mendes, president of the American Beekeeping Federation.

"There are a lot of beekeepers who are in trouble" he said. "Under normal condition you have 10 percent winter losses.. this year there are 30, 40 to 50 percent losses."

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/afp/100329073521.rrhhrf15.html

[MineralMan]

1. This bodes badly. My father owns a citrus farm in California.

They just brought hives into his orchard to pollinate the Valencia orange trees, which have just bloomed. Without the bees...no oranges.

[HillbillyBob]

2. Without bees we lose most food crops.

[MineralMan]

3. With the notable exception of grain crops, of course.

You're right, though. Bees are hugely important to agriculture.

[happyslug]

5. There are other pollinators but they are all nearly impossible to move around

Bumble bees and Native Bees can also pollinate crops, but unlike Honey bees, Bumble Bees and Native bees live in very small "hives" with just a few hive members. Furthermore, if the hive is moved, Bumble Bees and Native bees tend to vacate the hive and go elsewhere (But stay in roughly the same area).

Thus the problem with Bumble bees and Native Bees is that to have them around to pollinate crops, you have to have plants coming into flower ALL YEAR ROUND, so that the bumble and Native bees have something to gather pollen from (We have been moving Honey Bees hive since the late 1800s, thus Honey bees are moved to an new area with crops coming into flower and thus you do NOT need to have crops for Honey bees if the bee keeper moves them for you). Farmers before the late 1800s ALWAYS DID THIS for they needed the bees, thus such farmers (except for Grain crops which does NOT need Pollinators) always had multiple crops coming into bloom so the bees always had a source of pollen (And such farmers would keep certain non-crop plants around for those times the farmer had no crop coming into bloom).

My point is we will still have most crops that need pollinators if we lose the Honey Bee, but it will be the death call for Mono-Culture except for Grains.

More on Native bees:
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/nativebee.html
http://www.knoxcellars.com/
http://www.umext.maine.edu/onlinepubs/htmpubs/7153.htm
http://www.ournativebees.com/

More on Bumble Bees, while most bumble bees are native in North America, some have been imported like the Honey bee, thus I treat them separate from other native bees:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumblebee
http://www.pestproducts.com/bumble-bees.htm
http://www.xerces.org/bumblebees/

[defendandprotect]

4. Our futures are intertwined with the BEE -- "Bless the bee" . . .!!!