My friend's honeybees all died.

[smoogatz]

She had a couple of backyard hives here in w. central Wisconsin--just a little hobby colony, no big deal. Apparently they came through the winter okay, but all died off in the past week or so. The problem appears to be a virus or parasite, not colony collapse disorder, as the hives were full of dead bees. Still, it's unsettling. Somebody tell me this bee thing isn't an apocalyptic disaster in the making.

[bdamomma]

1. that is sad, I hope they find or work to help these bees, they

are so vital to us all.

[SteelPenguin]

2. 1/3 of our food is in jeapordy

It doesn't sound like they really know why it's happening yet which isn't a good sign.

[HereSince1628]

3. We'll eat more wind pollinated stuff like _Zea mays_.

You call it corn. The first nations call it maize. I call it the money crop.

[Warpy]

6. We'll have a lot of grain

although buckwheat will be scarce. What we'll be lacking is fruit and a lot of veggies, especially tree fruit. Expect higher priced apples this year with 25% of the bees gone.

We may need to garden from now on, hand pollinating all our veggies and saving seeds over.

It would be instructive to find out what killed the bees in the OP, whether it was mites or fungus.

[HereSince1628]

14. Yes...does anyone know whats happening to the other pollinators?

It's not just honey bees that do pollination, but most everything in the popular press seems to be focused on them.

[sarge43]

20. There doesn't seem to be anything to confirm CCD (whatever

it may be) is affecting other insects. However, that doesn't really matter; honey bees do 70% of the pollination. Other pollinators couldn't take up the load.

[spinbaby]

28. The other pollinators are just fine

Honeybees are a concern because large farms depend on them. In a home garden, in a mixed environment such as a suburb, you'll find plenty of other pollinators. Honeybees have been scarce in our area for years, but we have no problems with our fruits and vegetables because there a plenty of other bee species, not to mention other critters such as moths and hummingbirds, that take care of pollination. Agribusiness can't utilize these pollinators because they've razed the environment they live in.

[blueworld]

4. The four horsemen of chemicals & frankenfood, apparently

Dow, BASF, Monsanto, DuPont. Organic beekeepers don't seem to be having these problems - I'm investigating these claims.

http://www.guerrillanews.com/articles/3044/Colony_Collapse_and_Honeycomb_Size

[soothsayer]

5. i heard the same thing abour organic bees. Unconfirmed tho.

[xultar]

7. So, what does she do now? Does she have to buy new hive stuff or can she

clean those out and start over.

I have a neighbor that has a couple of hives herself and they seem pretty active. (Gwinnette GA)

[sarge43]

12. The problem now is finding package bees.

Package bees: Three pounds of workers bees with a fertilized queen. Starter kit for one hive.

CCD has also raised hell with the package bee business. My live-in bee keeper spent a week on the phone trying to find any one who had any available. He finally found three at twice the price of last year's.

Plus, as noted below, in northern areas the hive must get up and running ASAP. Further, until she determines that disease wasn't responsible, not a good idea to put bees into those hives. They could be contaminated. If she has surplus hives, then no problem there.

[SmokingJacket]

8. I think we'll figure it out.

A lot of highly motivated scientists are on it.

Apparently there was less pollen around last year, so some hives were weak going into the winter, and then the late freeze killed a lot. And varroa mites are still an issue.

I've been wanting to get a hive to make sure my garden and orchard has enough pollinators, so I've been reading up. Some beekeepers are pretty sure CCD has to do with recent changes made in an insecticide -- it's mildly toxic to the bees, but when they bring it back to the hive, the toxin builds up. Others think it's a contagion, since it seems to be spreading like one... it might also be more than one thing.

[sarge43]

9. Not necessarily.

We lost all four of our hives this winter thanks to the weather. Too many cold wet days last spring, so decreased or no honey flow (available nectar and pollen).

In northern areas spring is the make it or break it time. The queen is back to maximum production, so a lot of food is required. If it's not there, the larvae start to die off. This means the population never reaches optimum. Often, as happened with our hives, the queen panics and leaves the hive in search of better conditions, taking a fair share of the remaining population with her. Even if the hives doesn't swam, the low numbers are bad news.

Now there are usually a princess in waiting to replace the departed queen; however, we're now half way through the season and it takes six weeks from egg to foraging workers. Worker bees don't specialize. All of them perform in turn the hive duties from nurses, janitors, guards, etc finishing their life cycle as foragers. So the moral of this story -- a lot of workers are needed ASAP to bring in the food before there isn't anymore.

This is especially worrisome during late fall and winter; the queen no longer reproduces in any great numbers. So the hives goes into the cold season with a decreased population and due to the above a decreased food supply. Bees don't hibernate during winter. They cluster around the queen to keep her warm. You can probably see where this is going. Decreased numbers equals less protection for the queen and as she's not laying much or at all equals few if any replacement for the workers which are dying off. Without enough protection, the queen dies, along with the rest of the hive.

Under the best of conditions, bees live on a knife edge. Without more information I can't say what happened to your friend's hives. It may well be a normal, understandable, if regrettable, occurrence. Animal husbandry is always a crap shot. She definitely should check for diseases.

[cooolandrew]

10. One explanation I heard..

... was that cell phone signals were messing with their sense of direction and they are dying from exhaustion. Don't know how much truth there is too it, but the radiation signals my tv makes are similar to the buzz of a bee.

[BluePatriot]

11. *gossip*

Second-hand scuttlebutt from a local beekeeper:

As an experiment they stuck some cellphones near some hives and switched them on. Per them, after a few days, the workers left, and the new generation of bees was oddly mutated.

Again, grain of salt, YMMV. They supply MIL's health food store.

[InvisibleTouch]

13. I'd like to be able to tell you that, but...

...it's an apocalyptic disaster in the making. Sorry.

[gulfcoastliberal]

15. The fact it's so widespread on different continents is troubling.

If the entomologists at the UC Davis Bee Research program are concerned, so am I.

snip

CCD has been reported across the United States, in two Canadian provinces, Europe, Brazil and Taiwan. At least 25 percent of the 1,600 commercial beekeepers in the U.S. have experienced the disorder, according to Diane Cox-Foster, an entomologist at Penn State and head of the Colony Collapse Disorder Working Group.

snip

"The bee colony proceeds rapidly from a strong colony with many individuals to a colony with few or no surviving bees," said Diana Cox-Foster, in March 29 testimony to members of the U.S. House of Representatives. "Queens are found in collapsing colonies with a few young adult bees, lots of brood, and more than adequate food resources. No dead adult bees are found in the colony or outside in proximity to the colony."

CCD is unique because, after a hive abandonment occurs, there is a "significant delay" by scavenging insects who would otherwise utilize the once active hive. This phenomenon suggests a toxin is deterring other organisms from utilizing the once active hive, according to Cox-Foster.

snip

While honey bees aren't as prevalent around Lake Tahoe as they are in many parts of California and Nevada, several species of native bees are responsible for the pollination of many local plants, according to Eric Mussen, a honey bee expert with UC Davis. Mussen mentioned these native bees are susceptible to the same stresses as honeybees, so the cause of CCD, once determined, has the potential to effect the pollination habits of these native bees as well.

http://tinyurl.com/38dzsm

[shadowknows69]

16. Can't

Fucked we are.

[Blue-Jay]

17. Personally, I think there's a "Bee Rapture" happening.

BeeJesus is calling them home to live in that big honeycomb in the sky.

(get it? "BeeJesus"?)

[HereSince1628]

19. Be careful you can cause water damage to thousands of keyboards

that way!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

18. One of my son's best friend's Dad has hives. I'm going to have to ask how their hives are

doing here in NY. I keep meaning to ask and forget.

[mdmc]

22. I think the hudson valley needs more bees

:kick::hi:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

25. We do mdmc! It isn't easy getting local honey! And.....

:hi: :)

[mdmc]

21. oh no!

sorry to hear....

[leftofthedial]

23. civilization in north america existed fine for thousands of years before

the English brought bees. Of course, there were only a couple million people here then . . .

:scared:

[earth mom]

24. OMFG! A very ominous sign!

:cry:

[RamboLiberal]

26. Story from Western PA

Although his losses were less dramatic than other beekeepers' losses, Brubaker lost 30 percent of his hives this year, the most ever. He is getting more calls for his services, as are many bee hobbyists who keep only a few colonies.

After renting his bees to Pennsylvania growers, Hackenberg typically sends the bees to blueberry patches in Maine and the fertile apple- and vegetable-growing region of New York, just south of Lake Ontario. There, apple trees bloom about two weeks after trees in Adams County. New York is the nation's second-largest apple producing state.

"We will be short of bees for New York state," Hackenberg said. "We do not have anything to send up there."

Nor does Jim Doan of Hamlin, N.Y., that state's largest beekeeper, who lost about 90 percent of his colonies. Doan, 45, who testified before a U.S. House Agriculture subcommittee last month, said he feels pained by telephone calls from desperate growers to whom he has supplied bees for decades.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_506012.html

Sounds really dire - this could really decimate civilization IMHO if it continues.

[Ganja Ninja]

27. On my way home every day I see a field full of bee hives near a

vineyard. I don't think they are all dying and a read somewhere that they had a similar occurrence back in the 60's

[vireo]

29. She should report it and have the hives inspected

Bee Alert Technology, Inc. has developed a confidential online survey for all honey producers and beekeepers that have or have not experienced CCD. The survey, available at www.beesurvey.com, seeks information on symptoms, feeding, supplements, other honey bee diseases, chemical treatments, queen information and medications. Results of the Bee Alert survey may help to pinpoint the cause of CCD.

The DATCP Apiary Program offers free hive inspections from May through July and again in the fall. During a typical inspection, bee inspectors look inside the hives, locate the queen, and check for varroa mites, foulbrood disease, viruses, and other pests. Inspectors also review hive treatments and discuss overwintering success.

To schedule an inspection for the upcoming season, contact Liz Meils, State Apiarist, at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, PO Box 8911, Madison WI 53708-8911, [phone], [e-mail]. For more information on CCD, visit the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium (MAAREC). DATCP will continue to provide links and information on CCD through its agency apiary web pageand through the Wisconsin Pest Bulletin during the 2007 growing season.

-- Elizabeth Meils, State Apiarist

http://pestbulletin.wi.gov/pests.jsp?categoryid=32&issueid=76

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

30. I just spoke to my son's friend. His Dad has a couple of hives here and they

are doing just fine. This is in the Hudson Valley of New York.

I wonder if they checked state by state, if the problem with the hives are in areas where there are GM crops.