honeybees...

[wesw]

anyone have bees in their yard yet? I have a yard full of clover and haven t seen a single honeybee yet. bumblebees, but no honeybees...

[MajGenl.Meade]

Big article in the DC paper today. 2014 worst honeybee fatality figures for many years after a 2013 slight improvement. Bees appear now to be dying during the warmer months (I think that was it) when that's not expected. Either that or during warmer weather vs. colder.

[wesw]

I wonder how they are doing in Europe, I believe that they have banned the most suspected pesticide

[MajGenl.Meade]

I thought the problem was a parasite?

[wesw]

tracheal mites are a problem, but they existed long before colony collapse disorder presented in bee colonies. there is a pesticide that is suspected to cause them to lose their directional acuity or some such thing....

the chemical companies have better lobbyists than the mites tho.

I thinkthat the EU has banned the pesticide in question, but I m not certain

[Gob]

Bees & Pesticides: Commission goes ahead with plan to better protect bees

The European Commission has adopted a proposal (Regulation (EU) No 485/2013 PDF) to restrict the use of 3 pesticides belonging to the neonicotinoids family (clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiametoxam) for a period of 2 years. An Appeal Committee vote on 29 April 2013 returned an inconclusive opinion where: 15 Member States supported the proposal, 4 abstained and 8 voted against. Since no qualified majority was reached, procedurally, the responsibility on deciding whether to adopt the proposal was with the Commission.

The Commission's action is a response to the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) scientific report which identified "high acute risks" for bees as regards exposure to dust in several crops such as maize, cereals and sunflower, to residue in pollen and nectar in crops like oilseed rape and sunflower and to guttation in maize.

Previously the proposal failed to reach qualified majority at the expert's meeting of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health on 15 March. In absence of an agreement between Member States, the Commission decided on the adoption of the proposed restriction.

Main elements of the Commission's proposal to Member States:
The proposal restricts the use of 3 neonicotinoids (clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiametoxam) for seed treatment, soil application (granules) and foliar treatment on bee attractive plants and cereals.

In addition, the remaining authorised uses are available only to professionals.
Exceptions will be limited to the possibility to treat bee-attractive crops in greenhouses, in open-air fields only after flowering.
The restrictions will apply from 1 December 2013.
As soon as new information is available, and at the latest within 2 years, the Commission will review the conditions of approval of the 3 neonicotinoids to take into account relevant scientific and technical developments.

[wesw]

thanks gob

[wesw]

I had bees last year at this time, I think. they were gone by mid summer tho....

[BoSoxGal]

I had a pretty dismal showing of honey bees and bumble bees at this spring's bloom time of flowering shrubs and fruit trees.

In years past I've walked onto my screened porch, which has two plums planted just outside, and it's sounded like I was walking into a bee hive. By comparison I couldn't even hear the buzzing this year, although I could see several dozen bees at the plums and flowering almond. All gone now . . .

[Joe Guy]

I've got plenty of bees here. I could send you some by email if you want them.

Here's one that just flew in my window...

[oldr_n_wsr]

I've seen a few. Don't really keep count from year to year. The lilacs are in bloom but they are in the way back of the yard so I don't notice if the bees are on them.
Clover has not yet come up.
No yellow jackets yet either. It can stay that way as far as I am concerned.

[wesw]

surveyed the whole yard earlier. full of clover. no honeybees, no bumble bees and no little teeny bees that look like honeybees which are usually always there.

I really need to kill the carpenter bees that are drilling holes in my garage, but they hover in front of the entrance and deter thieves so I let them bee this year

[Gob]

They may get a buzz from helping the bee population while enjoying locally cultivated honey, but novice middle-class beekeepers could also be causing a spate of swarms in towns and cities, experts have warned.



Over the past week shoppers and motorists across the south of England have been plagued by swarms descending on high streets and parked cars. On Monday a swarm arrived on the high street in Marlborough, Wilts, settling on a parked car and almost covering it. On the same morning police in Chichester put up a cordon to protect the public from bees that had settled on a branch in the middle of the town. And over the weekend a car in Maidstone became a resting point for a swarm.

Around 10,000 bees also arrived in Salisbury, settled on railings outside an Italian restaurant, and had to be removed by a local beekeeper. The middle-class trend for keeping bees has caused a doubling in hives, according to the British Beekeepers Association, with many new keepers coming from towns and cities. In London alone, the number of hives doubled from 1,677 to more than 3,500 between 2008 and 2013.



Swarming is a natural process which takes place every spring. It sometimes happens when new queen bees are born in a colony, and some of the hive leaves with the original queen, settling on items such as railings, trees and cars as they search for a suitable new home.

It can also happen when a hive runs out of space and some of the bees leave to find a new home.

Francis Ratnieks, Professor of Apiculture at the University of Sussex, said experienced beekeepers try to give hives more space to prevent swarming - but novice beekeepers might not know to do this. He said: "If people are keeping bees in urban areas it could cause more swarms. Beekeepers try to prevent their hives swarming, and if they aren't looking after their hives properly that could cause swarms. "I think a lot of novice beekeepers might not understand how to reduce it. "Keeping honey bees is not as easy as people think. If you had a colony in a box in your garden it would swarm every year."

He added that it's actually a privilege to witness a swarm. "Most people will never see one in their lifetime. It's a hugely exciting thing." Expert beekeepers have been called out to capture bees in Marlborough, Salisbury and Maidstone.

[BoSoxGal]

I saw a swarm on my Uncle David's farm as a child and it was indeed an awesome thing!


Average of 40 deaths per year in the U.S. by bee sting; most recent UK stats (2011) 8 deaths by bee sting.


Let the bees swarm!!

[liberty]

No honey bees in Australia before the coming of the Ice Man:

http://australianmuseum.net.au/honey-bee

Other behaviours and adaptations

Australia's early European settlers introduced Honey Bees to ensure a good supply of honey. Naturally a few escaped and they are now wild throughout most of Australia's southern States. Honey Bees play an important role as pollinators of crops and wild flowers. But some wild flowers have suffered from the presence of Honey Bees as these flowers can only be pollinated by native bees. Some native bees use a special pollination technique required by certain flowers called buzz pollination. Honey Bees do not use this technique and remove pollen without pollinating the flowers. - See more at: http://australianmuseum.net.au/honey-be ... 7SD2E.dpuf


Is there anyplace in the world where Honey bees are doing well and what would be different about the environment there?

[wesw]

not one honeybee today. I cut the clover before it got too high

[wesw]

saw one honeybee this morning.... one.

...made me want to catch a buzz....

[wesw]

just came in from the yard. the clover is in full bloom. the scent filled the air with it s sweet perfume. walked the whole yard.

two honeybees, one bumblebee

[wesw]

about ten honey bees in the clover this afternoon. one of them looked really clumsy, he kept banging into stalks and weeds and and fell into the grass, but he kept gathering pollen. the others were as busy as bees....

[Crackpot]

it'll the Fault of the MMR Vaccine.