With seven billion people on the planet energy and food resources are already highly strained, as evidenced by the fact that the majority of the world’s population lives on just scraps a day.
It wouldn’t take much to send us over a cliff. The last several years have not only reduced food reserves significantly because of widespread droughts, but have led to price inflation in essential grains necessary to feed ourselves as well as the livestock on which millions of Americans depend.
The reality is that we’re just one major calamity away from a catastrophic impact on our ability to feed the people of earth.
And, according to recent data published by the Bee Informed Partnership, that calamity could come in the form of a totally unexpected event: Peak Pollination.
According to the latest survey results, an astounding 31.3 percent, or roughly one-third, of all managed bee colonies in the U.S. were wiped out during the most recent 2012/2013 winter season, a rate that represents a 42 percent increase compared to the number of colonies lost during the previous 2011/2012 winter season.
U.S. beekeepers on average lost more than 45 percent of their colonies during the 2012/2013 winter season, a 78.2 percent jump in losses over the previous season.
And overall, more than 70 percent of respondents, most of whom were backyard beekeepers, experienced losses beyond the 15 percent “acceptable” threshold, illustrating a monumental problem not only for bee survival but also for the American food supply.
…many are worried that this year-after-year compounded increase will very soon make it impossible for grow enough food.
“We’re getting closer and closer to the point where we don’t have enough bees in this country to meet pollination demands,” says Dennis vanEngelstorp, an entomologist at the University of Maryland who led the survey. “If we want to grow fruits and nuts and berries, this is important.One in every three bites [of food consumed in the U.S.] is directly or indirectly pollinated by bees.
Via: Natural News
The bee population has been diminishing at an astounding 30% per year over the last decade, a decline that is often overlooked or ignored by central planners.
Bees are absolutely essential to the cycle of life. In the United States they pollinate about 90% of flowering crops, including those used as feed for cattle.
Take away the bees and the majority of the world’s population will be dead within a year because there will be no way to pollinate the billions of pounds of fruits, vegetables and other plants required to keep all of us alive.
The most frightening thing about the destruction of bee colonies is that we have absolutely no idea what is causing it. It could be contaminants in the air such as industrial pollutants or radiation. Some have surmised that it’s electro-magnetic and radio signals from millions of internet-wired devices. Or, perhaps it’s the very plants the bees are pollinating, most of which are now genetically modified to serve corporate business interests.
Whatever the cause, we have no solution, which means we can expect this trend to continue.
Nature has struck a very delicate balance on our planet. From the thermo-halene circulation of our oceans to the oxygen and carbon dioxide in our air, even tiny changes make for significant global impacts.
At this pace it is only a matter of time before the population of bees on our planet falls below the threshold necessary to produce enough food required to meet global demand.
Adee Honey Farms of South Dakota, the largest beekeeping business in the country, lost 28,000 of its 70,000 hives. That’s about a billion bees gone missing. “It’s off the charts,” said Bret Adee. “It’s not a sustainable thing, what’s happening now.” (link)
How long before we go critical is anybody’s guess, but peak pollination is coming unless we can reverse the trend (something that doesn’t look very promising).
At current rates about half of the world’s bee population is being destroyed every two years.
These are massive numbers.
With bees responsible for pollinating about 35% of the food produced for global consumption, it’s easy to see how serious of a crisis we’ll face if Colony Collapse Disorder can’t be stopped.
Couple this with all of our other problems, both natural and man-made, and things could go very badly, very quickly.
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If SHTF doesn’t happen this summer, I’d really be shocked. All the signs I see point to it getting closer and closer. i’m still prepping all the way to the last minute and hope everyone else is too. braveheart
Braveheart this ever happen to you?
I had a first experience today. Went to the local Wally World to pick up a gal. of milk. When I got to the check outs, the lines where so long some people were grilling hamburgers and hot dog waiting to check out. Took my gallon of milk back, and left. As I walked out someone yelled COME AND GET IT they’re done.
Keep the FAITH (LOL)
Watchman
The goal of the self-appointed “elite” is 95% depopulation and to enslave the survivors.
Killing bees certainly advances famine as one of their depopulation tools.
Bee factoid #2:
Bee venom is used in Russia for the treatment of arthritis.
BigB
upgraded Bee fact #2
It is used in many countries for arthritis and other ailments. Including asthma. So far the biggest case testing has been done
Medical documents from ancient Greece and Egypt describe treating pain and swelling with bee venom.
Bee venom is about to be used curing AIDS.
GMO or genetically modified organisms cause organ damage and cancers in all who ingest them so it is very likely that the bees are being killed by the GMO killer pollen. But GMOs also genetically sterilize anyone who ingests them. It takes 3 generations and then sterility. GMOs entered our food supply in the 1980s but in very limited amounts. They are in 75% of what you buy now. If it does not say “Certified GMO free” or Organic, then it stands a good change of being GMO.
And meat animals and dairy cows are fed corn and soy as the basis fo their diet. 98% or soy and 70% or corn grown in this country is GMO. So when you eat meat, poultry, farmed fish, turkey, milk,eggs, pork etc. you are eating a concentrated source of GMO because you are what they ate.
Sorry, but Organic does NOT mean GMO free.
The monstrosity also known as Monsanto is in the process of getting yet another chemical cocktail approved, that is already known to kill bees. The FDA will let it hit the market and we can expect more of the same.
We need to get on Monsanto and stop it, but this is mixed in with so many other issues going on right now, it makes my head spin—THEY ARE ALL DESIGNED TO DESTROY US, so where do we focus first?
We are simply surrounded, my friends.
On the prepping topic. Does any one have the correct ratio for using Calcium Hypochlorite (pool shock) for water purification. I have 2 tablespoons per gallon in my notes, but that seems a bit much.
Ghost Rider,
Try this article. It gives the correct ratio and lots of other useful information about water.
How to Find Water and How to Make Water Safe to Drink
http://grandpappy.info/wwater.htm
GREAT article post kymom had a couple things in there I may never of thought of, specially the dew collection via the bag.
ya, don’t drink that, that is waaaaay too much, here this should help
http://readynutrition.com/resources/better-than-bleach-use-calcium-hypochlorite-to-disinfect-water_19062010/#comment-826292
I’ve read, in several places, one well rounded teaspoon
Per gallon.
Keep preppin’
you may also want to take a look at the link i provided, it appears you may have been misinformed. best of luck to you, see you on the other side
You guys will kill all bacteria AND anyone who drinks the water. I think you use the ratios discussed to get a concentrate first batch, then use this batch to make the second batches that are much less concentrated
Yeah, just boil the water. If you over-boil the water it won’t put the brain-whammy on you.
Bee Factoid #3
Never give unpasteurized honey to children under two years old. It can kill them.
BigB
Kids today.
do you guys in the USA have have Miltons sterilising fluid for baby bottles, it makes a good water purifier they used to have the ratio and instruction on the back of the bottle but not of lately. it used to be a teaspoon miltons to 5l water (verify first)
Pool Shock Mixture:
Easy directions for small amts: To 1 cup water, add 1/4 tsp c.h.
Add 1/2 tsp. of solution to a 2 liter bottle.
Yes, the c.h. makes the solution; then the solution is added to water to purify it.
So, 1/4 tsp. of c.h. to a cup of clean water–this is the solution.
Of this solution, add 1/2 tsp. to a 2 liter bottle of dirty water.
A 1 lb. bag of pool shock purifies thousands of gallons.
Keep the c.h. in a dry, cool place.
DO NOT pre-mix as it gets old like bleach.
(that’s why someone calculated the small mixture.
Thanks, someone!!)
As a side note, if you rinse your mouth with that mix you got twice a day you would have really white teeth!
Well, up till your gums die and the teeth fall out,
Hehe
Just a little humor,
Sorry
on the Chlorine thing, there was a stray cat, that lived next to a pool that I was Maintaining some years back, the only water it got was from the pool. 5 parts per million was the chlorine concentration. it didnt live long
boil it
solar vacuum tubes, cheap and effective.
thats my prep
will work fine as long as we have sunlight, and if that goes away
we have bigger problems…
the Bees, big problem in a small package
remember the food chain, the circle of life…
i remember hearing of frog dieoffs
fish dieoffs, birds falling out of the sky
i fear the end is near
and if the government dont get us
mother nature will
Life, none make it out alive
it all comes down to how long do we have
the Watcher
Not yet, braveheart, not yet. On the positive side, however, the loss of bees will create a great excuse to import more Illegals from Latin America to pollinate OUR crops by hand like they do in China.
Think of it as the O’Bummer cure for unemployment.
durango- you raise an excellent point !
Dk,
Hope you are well brother. I believe it was Albert Einstein that said, When the bee’s die off mankind has 2 yrs. At a 30 % loss per yr that would give us 2.5 yrs to get prepped up or start some bee’s on our own place.. Just some food for thought..
Been a long time since I posted, Sorry been doing work for the rich sheeple.
CATIYMF- NOMI
DPS
It was Einstein, but he says man will die in 4 years
DPS: Yeah, I noticed your absence; and Gunsmith too. I do not discount the seriousness of the problem, however there are solutions to it.
For one, it gives a new meaning to the term micro drones that have been developed for spying. As I remember the science of pollination, bees brush up against pollen in their quest for the nectar to make honey and it attaches to the tiny hairs on them. As they move from flower to flower the pollen grains are spread and the flowers are “seeded”. Micro drones can do that.
No bees, no honey. Buy some for your stash.
DK,
Gunsmith I think was having a few medical problems. As for this article well we should know better then to mess with mother nature. So things should not be messed with..
CATIYMF-NOMI
DPS
It’s a common saying and the gist of it is very true to a large extent.
Without bees we will see a huge decrease in food and the resulting chaos, wars and fighting will see a vast die off of the population.
Whether is by someone’s design or just another fallout of human stupidity and greed of using things we should have never used in our food supply for the sake of higher profits I can’t say although I’m keeping an open mind on it.
But as far as Einstein being the source of the quote it’s more unlikely than likely. 🙂 That doesn’t make it less true, just someone else said it first.
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/einstein/bees.asp
Snopes is now little more than another front for MSM.
I expect it to happen in the fall. For months during prayer I asked God to give me a dream or a vision about when the collapse would take place. I went to bed one evening. This is what came into my mind:
I’m standing outside a restaurant. It’s out of business. The windows are dusty and streaked where rain drops flowed. There were autumn leaves swirling in the parking lot.
I expect the collapse to happen in the fall. I just don’t know if it’s this year or not.
That would leave the masses in an already weakened state when winter hits, maximizing the casualties even more.
This post is one of the most insanely idiotic things I’ve ever heard. At no point in your rambling in-coherent response, were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone of us viewers is now dumber for having read your post. I give you a thumbs down and may god have mercury upon your soul.
I like this article, but the first part about the world resources being strained and the evidence is billions of people living on scraps. We burn food in this country so that prices stay at a certain level for the farmers. We have had food surpluses since the 60’s and a major reason that will end is by design. Agenda 21 is in full swing kids. Love the site.
The article below is 5 years old. With the drought, I wonder what the current situation is? What effect will the drought have on prices of corn, wheat and other grains?
China has agreements for large purchases of corn and wheat from the U.S. Since the U.S. is in debt so badly to China, I assume they will get their bushels first.
Years ago, the U.S. used to keep large surpluses of corn and other grain…just in case. But, that is not the case now.
US Grain Reserves Dangerously Low
As of 2008, “Our concern is not that we are using the remainder of our strategic grain reserves for humanitarian relief. AAM fully supports the action and all humanitarian food relief. Our concern is that the U.S. has nothing else in our emergency food pantry.
There is no cheese, no butter, no dry milk powder, no grains or anything else left in reserve.
The only thing left in the entire CCC inventory will be 2.7 million bushels of wheat which is about enough wheat to make half a loaf of bread for each of the 300 million people in America.”
free republic dot com
Direct link…
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2029323/posts
KY Mom, Come North a little…. we still have grain sitting in bins from last year. We can have baked beans and corn meal mush til the end of time. As of yesterday we started planting more. Be happy to share. 🙂
>>The article below is 5 years old. With the drought, I wonder what the current situation is? What effect will the drought have on prices of corn, wheat and other grains?
——
last year the prices of corn/soy spiked to the highest level EVER. result = farmers planted more corn/beans then ever before and the price forecasted is going to be less or at break even.
if TSHTF does not happen soon, expect a lot of foreclosures on smaller farms as already overextended
farmers fold.
as a sidenote, in my area, the dairy farms in my area, including the Amish are in so much debt NOW that the banks can’t stop loaning to them without taking a significant loss – collapsing the banks themselves.
right.
but if the UN has anything to say about it, there WILL be worldwide starvation and hunger.
http://farmprogress.com/blogs-report-blames-ag-environmental-woes-6962
I can synopsize the UN report included in article.
“America is greedy, selfish and how dare they (we)supply the world and the country with so much food when they (we) are monopolizing the world’s Phosphate supplies that are contaminating the water and air with greenhouse gas emissions(that don’t exist). We must ensure that Phosphate will be sustainable – in other words that there is enough for the future, because there will never be innovation on better ag developments ever. (sustainable is something that can never be achieved because no one KNOWS how much of a resource will be needed in the future, or IF a resource source will be discovered elsewhere)
We MUST have a global committee that decides how to regulate the Phosphate dispersal in the world! it’s just not FAIR!”
I say (we) because a Virginia based company helped create this POS report. Everyone knows the UN is a bunch of commies, but the amount of communists masquarading as watermelons in THIS country truly astounds me.
sorryi meant the price will be at “less then cost, or at break even”
inputs are up significantly – seed price, fertilizer (tied to oil price) fuel,pesticides, repairs, taxes, etc.
Prep please, but this is happening because there ARE TOO MANY PEOPLE on this planet!!! there is supposed to be a BALANCE amongst all the species…an ecological balance that keeps the flow moving. the same as within the body. the body is supposed to have a balance to it of nutrition, peace, and motion, in order to operate optimally.
be assertive people!! educate your mind!
the practice principle: http://rathbonezvizionz.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/the-practice-perspective/
prep all you want people! but can you all not see that THERE ARE TOO MANY PEOPLE ON ATHIS PLANET!! there is supposed to be a balance of ALL creatures here on this wonderful planet, not one species dominating. Just like with the body, as it is supposed to have a balance of nutrition, peace, and exercise, in order for it to operate optimally. Use your minds, decelop the discipline to unlearn the materialistic things that are ruining this world, nature, and only further the disruption of all species and balance! save the BEES!
The practice perspective! http://rathbonezvizionz.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/the-practice-perspective/
I live upstate NY and the dandelions are in full bloom as well as the apple trees and I only see carpenter/bumble bees, not a honey bee to be seen.
Raise the honey bee survival rate 30% per year.Trim the goddamn honey do list 30% per year.
Plarvo,
I run a lot of cross-country, and years ago I would often have bees bouncing off my body as I ran. In the mid-90s this happened every day. I came up on some hives put on public land by somebody one time and tried to do the “Idgy” thing from Fried Green Tomatoes; I reached in a hive and just left my hand in the slot. The bees crawled all over me, but not in such great numbers as in the movie.
I used to actually smell the honey when I was running through the woods. A couple of times I tried to find the bee tree by smell. One time I found it close to my parents’ house in the trunk of a tree right at ground level.
We had to have hives removed from my house twice. The honey produced was attracting rats and mice and roaches. Bees were everywhere in them days!
I noticed their numbers decreasing about ten years ago (in Texas).
These days I hardly see any honey-bees.
Been noticing the decline of bees myself over the past few years here in SoCal. It’s been declining noticeably over the past few years. Last year, in fact, my young apple tree produced only ONE apple(!) and my six bell pepper plants in my veggie garden resulted in only ONE pepper(!) Most of my garden gave very little produce.
Last Autumn, I put a full-size wooden rain barrel (recycled oak wine barrel bought from a winery) in my yard as a decorative item. The only opening is a 2″ hole in the top where the plug used to be, so evaporation is minimal, even in my desert-like neighborhood. I filled it with water, and the bees soon found it. Now that the weather’s warming up, there are lots of bees constantly drinking from it all day long, and I’ve counted at least 20 apples growing on that same little tree nearby. I might even consider starting a small hive of my own to augment the local bee population.
If you don’t want to be a bee keeper and get the honey but still want more abundant crops try Mason Bees also called Blue Orchard Bees. They are good polinators and live in small nests of tubes. Once a year you clean that box that houses the tubes and that is all.
Sounds terrifying.
Mark: Try that in Arizona and you will experience a very painful death as ALL honey bees in the Arizona Wild have been Africanized. In fact you would be lucky to get within a 1/4 mile of the hive without being attacked.
Bees fly at 12 miles an hour. Try to sustain 12 miles an hour in the Arizona desert, up and down a wash or humping a hill. Not gonna happen.
Be careful folks.
Hello all,
This bee thing is kind of my thing, hence the name BigB. I wrote a blurb here about two months ago regarding this or maybe it was an email to some one, I don’t remember so I will do so again.
I as a bee keeper of 19 plus years can tell you that at least here in Northern California I know of very few people who privately raises bees as a hobby who has experienced this phenomena. I have worked at the California State Fair at the bee exhibition and have not heard of few people having this problem as well.
I am in contact with other bee keepers across the nation and they too claim to not have any major problems. Sure colonies will abandon a hive for various reasons. Just had it happen to me within the last couple of months. 5 days later they were back. Figured it out that the neighbors smoke from their chimney was drifting towards the hive. The queen figured there was a fire and hollered to the hive, using pheromones, to abandon ship. Wind direction changed and they came back. There are many reasons why they will leave a hive but they will almost always come back or another hive will move in within days. “Almost always” as what I have seen that if say the hive is moved too close to a building that has been sprayed by a commercial pest company they will leave and not come back
I am not going to go into this real deep as most people get bored with my factoids on bee keeping and the amazing facts of what they do for us and the myriad of uses of what they produce.
So here is my take on what Mac is referring to. There are bee companies, most of them which are based out of The Dakotas and Minnesota. What these companies do is take their hives on the road following the crops across the country. The farmers rent these hives. Unlike the olden days where almost all farmers or one of their neighbors had a bee hive that did the pollinating for that general area. A bee hive will range as much as five miles in a 360 degree circumference.
The decrease in small and home farms there has been a decrease in private hives as well. Agriculture has become a corporate endeavor. The government has punished the small farmers so much and rewarded with tax incentives big corporations. There is no incentive to be a small farmer unless say you are a prepper like us or a specialized organic farmer selling for the most part at Wednesday night open air markets and such.
So for the most part where you are seeing this colony collapse syndrome is with the big companies that transport these bees from crop to crop following the seasons and various crops across the country. These hives are rentals and may be placed through out the year in 6 different location’s before returning to MN. or the Dakotas for the winter. A bee hive size is proportional to its size and the amount of bees needed to keep the hive alive. During the winter months only a 100 bees in the hive and at its height of the season as many as 35,000 bees.
My theory is that by constantly moving these bees as many as 6 or even 7 times counting the move to its home base in one year they get stressed. Like any other life form stress is not healthy. Even more so in a colony where each bee is dependent on the others for survival. This stress leaves them subject to illness’s, mites, and various pesticides that a permanent, stay in place colony does not have to deal with. In addition as with anything in life they are able to adapt to and combat any of these maladies to a certain extent. I can believe the 15% Mac quotes for a die off on backyard bee keepers. Mostly thru ineptness. Where as travelling hives have no chance to adapt and thrive leaving them more susceptible to a die off.
Now the question begs to be asked what can be done to combat this problem. Start a hive and put it in your backyard. You can buy one on Craigslist from a local bee keeper for any where of $200.00 on up. Or you can locate a bee store of which there is surprising very few or buy thru an internet a hive and the bees to populate it for about $350.00 total or more depending on what you want or need. Buy a book on the subject of bee keeping and follow a few basics and voila you have honey and bees wax for ever. It really is a fun and very interesting hobby. The more you learn the more amazed at how these creatures impact your world in so many ways.
If you need help in getting started or have questions please feel free to contact me at cmdr dot amvets1@gmail dot com
BigB
Howdy BigB!
Many Thanks Friend…the extent of what I know’Bee-wise’ is patheitcally limited…but I DO know that without them we’re ‘toast’. That said, I AM glad to hear theat, in fact, this appear to be effectively confined to thoe Bee’s which are being regularly trasported from place to place; to be frank, were that a ‘broader’ phenoeana I woulf be sh_t-scared Brother. I was one of those who years ago tead the book “Earth Abides” wherein a bologic plague wept over the Earth which had the effect of cafing almodst all those things related to ‘grass’ to die off….once the author had fully laid forth his case, you realized that sucha thing wold be an ELE (Extinction Level Event) for most of the life on this planet.
I HOLD that your ‘Little Freinds’ are similarly as important to Humanity at large and I GET VERY nervous when I hear of anyhting which impairs them broadly. Many Thanks for the write-up BigUn…it IS appreciated Friend!! 🙂
JOG
Big B is correct. Its mainly the Aavorra Mite that kills the commercial pollination bees. Many things will cause bees to swarm. One fact is the honey bee is not native to The USA.Honey Bee,s where imported by the europeans. I raise cattle& hay and there arent hardly any bees around here. Yet the grass yields havent suffered.Down on my river botton there isnt a single bee the dragon fly,s eat them and the hay crop was good even with the drought. There was plenty of grass for million,s of buffalo before white men or honeybees. The fact is that for every action there is a equal & opposite reaction. So for every environmental altering thing that the planet & humans do there will be an equal number of positive as well as negative outcomes. Its all a wash Even Steven. So why do the greenies insist everything will turn out to be a worst case doom & gloom outcome? it goes back to the Basic Fact Humans cant make something out of nothing & also cant make something into nothing. Everything on the planet is a natural thing and was, will and alway,s be here in some form, some way,some manner in someplace.
we need bees for FLOWERING plant pollination, not grasses. Pollination of flowering plants produces fruit, vegetables, nuts and berries…grasses do not.
Elementary school kids understand this. Unfortunately, they also understand hunger.
It’s all about BALANCE, my friend…if we balance stupidity with wisdom, we might all survive. Thanks for proving this point.
I have been growing food for over 40 years and local wild bee populations are down in the past 10 years. They types and numbers have decreased in my gardens. In spring when the apple trees were in bloom the trees would hum they were so filled with bees. Now I stand and watch and look for a bee working the blooms. If it is sunny and warm I might find 2-3 per tree.
So my experience is with wild populations, not managed, and they are down.
They moved out. It’s against the law for them to have stingers….
{The bee population has been diminishing at an astounding 30% per year over the last decade}
Uh-Huh…now, really. Why do I store food??
Four Steps to Help Protect the Bees
If you would like to learn more about the economic, political and ecological implications of the worldwide disappearance of the honeybee, check out the documentary film “Vanishing of the Bees”.
If you’d like to get involved, here are four actions you can take to help preserve and protect our honeybees:
1.Support organic farmers and shop at local farmer’s markets as often as possible. You can “vote with your fork” three times a day. (When you buy organic, you are making a statement by saying “no” to GMOs and toxic pesticides!)
2.Cut the use of toxic chemicals in your house and on your lawn, and use only organic, all-natural forms of pest control.
3.Better yet, get rid of your lawn altogether and plant a garden or other natural habitat. Lawns offer very little benefit for the environment. Both flower and vegetable gardens provide excellent natural honeybee habitats.
4.Become an amateur beekeeper. Having a hive in your garden requires only about an hour of your time per week, benefits your local ecosystem, and you can enjoy your own honey!
mercola dot com
That’s great advise Daisy. I just became a beekeeper about a month ago and it’s one of my better decisions!!! I have about a dozen fruit trees, any recommendations on bug spray for them. Someone told me to take jalopeno peppers, juice them with water and spray. Think this would hurt the bees?
good luck with the bee keeping , i planted a small orchard a few years ago and have often thought about keeping bees. i even took a class , but havent acted upon it .maybe i should .
and no jalapenos will not harm bees , i have used this on small vegie plots , it washes away with the rain or a heavy dew . but it does work .
i have had a nieghbor spray my trees at half strenghth and it seems to be working so well he is going to try it in his commercial operation. it dont seem to bother the bees here , there are lots of them , so i guess it must be safe .but no chem solutions work for everything else on my farm .
Don’t spray anything before or during bloom after that the bee’s are not interested in the fruit trees and you can apply fungacide and insecticide.
Good luck with you bee’s,
Dennis
I use food grade DE (Diatomaceous Earth), in a pantyhose, sprinkle on leaves/fruit/garden.
One year I was too sick to spray my apple and peach trees. Had the biggest crop ever, and have not sprayed since. I make applesauce, and pies so don’t need perfect apples. Had a few worms, but not terrible. The peaches were fine.
My dad keeps bees, lost half his colonies, just like the article said. Scary.
More to help the bees:
Plant and maintain bee attracting flowers in your vegetable garden: Borage, cosmos, marjoram,foxglove, lupine, etc.
I plant a plethora, I mean absolute excess flowers among my vegetables, with two bonuses: 1)gives bees more toxin free food choice, and 2)I get bigger vegetables due to increased pollination.
If we give the bees more good options for nectar and pollen, I hope to help some.
One thing about going to the local farmers market, there’s no guarantee that just because it is at the farmers market that it’s organic, they (probably) use gmo seed like all the rest, just be careful and take nothing for granted.
Good Lord, Jay-Jay…. You scared the crap out of me! I saw those numbers and just HAD to go out and check my bees. Ran outside past the chickens so fast, they were cluckin’ and ducking for cover. Yeah, they’re still there… WHEW! Funny though, last year ALL 4 hives were abandoned as if one of them heard Obama say there were FREE apartments available…. guess ‘bama was wrong, cuz they’re back this year. Besides, I don’t make them pay rent or anything… oh, I get it!– they heard something about a phone maybe?
“Cluckin’ and Duckin'” — that pretty much describes the obummer administration to a ‘T’.
So the bees don’t get it?
There was a documentary on this bee problem. Apparently they’ve identified some Colony Collapse Syndrome that links back to time-delayed, persistent pesticides used on crops.
I don’t think they bothered to fix it.
Maybe we could coerce a bunch of hummingbirds into pollinating everything.
@ Selkirk…..And I saw a documentary once ,that the die-off was dew to having the bee’s pollinating the same type of crop over & over. It caused them to be anemic ?? I know I would bee…..oops!….mm~
Could be part of nature’s plan to thin the human herd.
My feeling is that it is tied to the wide use of BT as a pesticide for organic producers and the fact that the BT gene is bred into GMO corn and soy crops,
The bees collect pollen, corn, zucchini, soybeans, tomatoes,
Lots of people spray Dipel on their crops to control all sorts of grubs and caterpillars, if the BT is present and the bees pick it up if even inadvertently it goes back to the hive and is deposited with the pollen and gets ingested by the larval bees that also by the way i believe make honey when they ingest the pollen, the dipel or bt no matter how it gets there will eventually kill the larval bees, hence the break down of the colony
I think you’re right K.
Look…..
http://worldtruth.tv/usda-admits-exterminating-birds-crops-and-bees/
That pesticide is banned throughout europe, but is still in use here,
The BT is sold as an organic approved pesticide to control stuff like cabbage moth, diamond back moth, etc, it is also bred into corn to control the corn earworm,
Here on maui monsanto produces the majority of their seed corn crop, anyone wha has bees anywhere near the monsanto fields has either lost their hives or had them severely compromised, the neonicotinoids are not as widely used over here,
And certainly not anywhere near where the bee colonies have disappeared from, however, the BT corn and use of BT are quite high wherever there are bee problems.
UH and HDOA and USDA doesnt even listen and outright dismisses this,
To me its a no brainer, just look at what is going on, anywho, just an observation, i noticed a drop in bees, farms near by grow BT sweet corn and use BT on a lot of their crops in rotation with other pesticides, but the common thread is the BT
I know that Vinegar kills weeds and grass(and anything else it touches).
Last spring when Monsanto bought Roundup, and the price increased 30%, I didn’t buy it and started using vinegar.
I also read that farmers soil has been tested in labs, and those using Roundup repeatedly shows the soil to be lacking in nutrients—yes, nutrients, which will cause a further need for fertilizers, no??
From what i have seen and the industry info i have read from various sites, the nutrient issues are more from poor practice, lots of these big farms mono crop and rarely utilize cover crops or crop rotations, and certainly don’t allow their fields to fallow, over time that adds up to poor soil quality and low nutrient levels, the roundup alone wont decrease nutrients, but if a farm relies on roundup or glyphosphate for weed control they also most likely utilize directed fertilizer that just fertilizes the crop and thats it, then if they dont use any sustainable practice for soil building they really never gain on the depletion from pulling their crops off.
Just an FYI, some of the LANDOWNERS are cash renting to the highest bidder. The rates around here are from 200 to 500 an acre. The folks that are paying the high ticket rents don’t have much choice but to cut the cost of their inputs. Sucks to have banks and big city managers in charge of the land. The lower cash rents are from landlords who are retired farmers or their children who are more connected to the land. No responsible farmer is raping the land and putting nothing back. What kind of a dumbass shoots himself in the foot?
We rotate, keep soil fertility high, and raise non GMO hard endo corn and non Round-up seed beans. Most farmers in our area are good guys.
Interesting that the organic practices may be causing such trouble.
Not so much organic practice as a biological pesticide that is labled as organic,
Pyrethrin is an organic aproved pesticide too, says right on the bottle to not use when bees are present or may come in contact with the solution, the BT is the one that is in a grey area,
Pyrethrin is a pesticide commonly used in flea remedies for pets, especially cats, because they don’t tolerate permethrin.
I think europe is also having problems with bee die off.
Thank you for mentioning the neonicotinoids, I was surprised that comments from bee-keepers hadn’t mentioned it.
This is what happens when enviro-coms run amok with politically motivated and shoddy toxicology to limit or ban effective synthetic pesticides, while failing to honestly and adequately evaluate the cost, effectiveness, safety, and impact of “organic” substitutes … as if they must be “safe” because they’re “natural”.
God we so deserve this. As a society I mean. If this is the kind of shit we’re going to pull.
cooking mom,
I had not heard of this, from the URL you posted, but it makes sense.
“Imidacloprid, one of the neonicotinoid family of pesticides introduced over the past 15 years, is likely to be responsible for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), the recently observed phenomenon in which bees abandon their hives en masse, according to the study by scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health in the United States.”
Read it and weep, from Wikipedia:
“Recent research suggests that widespread agricultural use of imidacloprid and other pesticides may be contributing to honey bee colony collapse disorder, the decline of honey bee colonies in Europe and North America observed since 2006.[7][8][9] As a result, several countries have restricted use of imidacloprid and other neonicotinoids.[7] In January 2013, the European Food Safety Authority stated that neonicotinoids pose an unacceptably high risk to bees, and that the industry-sponsored science upon which regulatory agencies’ claims of safety have relied on may be flawed, or even deceptive.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imidacloprid
@KULA: You have hit it in my thinking. GMO (Monsanto) control the food you control the people. Would be interesting to see if maybe some other countries have a problem with the bee kill off, while other do not, and who they are (China?). All a side; this is a very dangerous devolvement to the human race. No bees little to no food. How do you say; you can’t grow your own?
Keep the FAITH
Watchman
In my opinion, the spraying that occurs whenever we are outdoors is part of the problem. When was the last time you sent your kids out to play without bug spray or sun screen spray. It is a no brainer, not to mention the citronella candles, the insecticide used without thought around the house so that people can enjoy the outdoors free of bugs.
Spoiled, selfish, inconsiderate and thoughtless human behavior will be the downfall of this society. The human race will be extinct one day, even if you prepare for every catastrophic event that you could think of, something will get you.
Find homemade remedies for bug control, something that is environmentally save, grow flowers that bees love, teach your kids to be as concerned with the bees and wildlife as they are with their electronic toys.
We have been screwing up royally since time began and now the monster we created, has grown bigger than we ever imagined and there is no way to restrain or contain it. God gave man free will, therefore man will reap what he has sown.
Guess why gardens are surrounded with Marigolds??
JayJay,
I thought it was to kill the nematodes.
What we need are realy tiny land mines.
I know the answer to this one. Slugs and snails.
BigB
Marigold repels insects.
I believe that the collapse of the bee colonies parallels the introduction of GMO crops rather well. It is a known fact that these frankenfoods are avoided by livestock, causing all kinds of allergic reactions in humans, and creating obesity on a scale not seen before. One more thing to thank Monsanto for.
Go and look at the website http://www.policeone.com and read the comments the pigs leave at the bottom about us. Talking about “have a plan to kill everyone you meet.” Expressing rage that “subjects”, yes, they actually call you that, won’t obey all their “verbal commands.” “Projecting their authority” with “a gleam of the eye that says killer, polished shoes, and a fit body.” Expressing rage that anyone would refuse to be IDed.
Buy up all the ammo you can. Hopefully the shortage will result in natural selection against these murderous monsters. Still support your local law enforcement? These pigs are thugs and criminals.
Eisen,
Why in the world would I want to go on that site and read all that bull..
What’s the matter with you? It’s a beautiful day everywhere, go outside, do something productive with yourself.
Enjoy beauty, spend time with family, loved ones and embrace life.
Tomorrow is promised to no one.
It’s illegal to ride my skateboard on a public sidewalk so I might as well sulk in here.
LAYOFF eisen word has it hes obamas twin brother
Eisen. Writing comments on the site pretending to be a cop. You are too transparent. After writing the bs you then want us to look at it? You are a joke.
It seems at these numbers we should already bee seeing a drop in crops. Has this been the case? Or is there a critical point that will need to be reached to actually affect crop yields?
You make a good point — is it possible we’re already seeing this? Prices for food are rising. Monetary expansion is a likely culprit, but I can’t help but think other factors may be involved.
I don’t think there is a specific point where we go from food to no-food in overnight…. A slow decline is more like it…. Lose a billion bees, and subsequently lose “X” amount of food availability…. This is, of course, just theoretical.
I suspect that it is “transportation” that is masking the issue… Just look how far most food travels before it arrives on your plate. While the dollar pays for transportation, the food will keep arriving. Those that can least afford to pay for the transportation will be the first to suffer.
I recently read that they invented Robobees to fix this very problem.
Rodster
Maybe they could invent Robopoliticians to fix our
countries problems, or is that what we already have.
It seems like they’re programmed for our destruction.
Hell I would like a few Robopoliticians. Give them a set of rules (the Constitution) and let them clean house. Kinda like Judge Dredd.
ROFL, too true 🙂
Rodster,
And Robo-BrainSuck(tm), with stink detector and Atomic Cerebro-Vacuum capability. It smells a politician and sucks out all them non-functional neurons.
so that’s why if you sit near a congressman, you can hear the pitch of the wind change as they turn their head…
I wouldn’t be surprised or rule out GMO crops.
That and the hard core pesticides. I recall reading that GMO companies say it’s not the GMO’s, so it can’t be that! ha!
GMO’s are engineered to make the plant toxic to insects like the Root Worm. It would seem to me that they would not be able to make just the root of the plant toxic, thus potentially killing the good bugs.
Monsanto and the like are trying to control the seed market by having patents on all the genetically modified seeds. You can no longer plant out of your bin. They will ask where you got the seed. If you get caught there are big fines. They are seed terrorists.
They are more than seed terrorists. They are bastards and are part of the Govt/NWO cabal. This is why we need a complete global economic collapse to put these bastards out of business along with their corrupt politician buddies. 😈
“UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development is the action plan to inventory and control all land, all water, all minerals, ALL PLANTS, all animals, all construction, all means of production, all information, all energy, and all human beings in the world.”
…AND WE MUST FIGHT IT WITH EVERYTHING WE’VE GOT, TO THE DEATH.
Rodster,
You reminded me of a Monte Python bit:
“But for the lack of any untoward circumstances for this young secretary to notice and the total non-involvement of Mr. Mellish in anything illegal, the full weight of the law would have ensured that Ralph Aldous Mellish would have ended up like all who challenge the fundamental laws of our society: in an iron coffin with spikes on the inside!”
That’s what politicians need: an iron coffin with spikes on the inside. Either that or, at least, to be hung upside down in leg irons in solitary. Surrounded by Acme Auto-Floggers, the only flagellation tool made with real titanium piano wire!
…kind of like a robo-car wash for people?
Yah, and the Supreme Court says that they can patent their seeds and sue any farmer, for damages, that dares use some of the seed from their own crops for a second planting. Not to mention Congress, who passes a law holding Monsanto harmless for any harm to humans or animals arising from genetic manipulation of crops. Lovely country Fascist America.
I also read a legislation that farmers that have crop damage from Monsanto sprayed crops next to theirs can sue for damages.
in addition to that, if a monsanto crop CONTAMINATES THE FARMER’S CROP next door, monsanto sues the farmer for having their patented crop without payment.
MONSANTO MUST DIE…OR WE WILL.
EPA Slapped with Lawsuit over Ongoing Bee Deaths
Lawsuit Maintains the Link Between Neonicotinoids and Bee Die Off Is ‘Crystal Clear’
“Neonicotinoid pesticides are a newer class of chemicals that are applied to seeds before planting. This allows the pesticide to be taken up through the plant’s vascular system as it grows, where it is expressed in the pollen and nectar.
These insecticides are highly toxic to bees because they are systemic, water soluble, and pervasive. They get into the soil and groundwater where they can accumulate and remain for many years and present long-term toxicity to the hive as well as to other species, such as songbirds.
Neonicotinoids affect insects’ central nervous systems in ways that are cumulative and irreversible. Even minute amounts can have profound effects over time.
The disappearance of bee colonies began accelerating in the United States shortly after the EPA allowed these new insecticides on the market in the mid-2000s. The lawsuit alleges that the EPA allowed the neonicotinoids to remain on the market despite clear warning signs of a problem.”
The European Food Safety Authority has ruled Neonicotinoids ‘unacceptable’, since serious risks to bees have already been established.
Ignoring all data, the EPA says they are ‘ok’ to use in the U.S.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/05/07/neonicotinoids-affect-bees.aspx?e_cid=20130512IRG_SNL_MS_1&utm_source=snl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=ms1&utm_campaign=20130512IRG
The EPA sucks
Most of the pesticides that are legal here have long ago been banned in Europe
Same thing with GMO crops, its big business lobbying TPTB and getting stuff passed regardless of scientific proof it is detrimental.
The whole USDA FDA EPA cabal is a crock of shit criminal bullshit mafia that will be the death of us.
Interesting….the Goldfinches that we have had at our place for 20 years….they all left last fall (some usually winter here – NC US) and I have not seen a single one this year…..
Just think about all the great stuff that has been banned in the name of progress, global warming, or save the animal. The reason for the bans on products like DDT and Freon were lies. DDT is cheap to make, safe and effective. Freon was 99 cents a pound, but some stupid story about how it blows holes in the ozone and causes global warming got it banned. Freon in heavier than air, sinks to the ground. Now you pay 50 dollars a pound for C..! All lies in the name of $$$$. Someone in the GOV/BANKSTERS made a fortune by banning this stuff and buying a stake in the company making the new stuff or going to work for said corporation after leaving office.
Freon was banned right at the time DuPont’s patent expired. It would have been even cheaper once the generics hit the market. Never had it explained to me how 95% of the freon used in the world was used in the northern hemisphere, and the hole in the ozone was in the southern hemisphere.
Monstersanto already has this covered. They have been developing crops that normally need pollination from an outside source and modifying them to be self pollinating. The destruction of bees only strengthens their case for these type of crops. They create the problem and the solution and clueless people are none the wiser…
THAT, my friend, could easily give them the food monopoly they so greatly desire.
I submit that “One in every three bites [of food consumed in the U.S.]” is going directly into a fatass bastard that doesn’t need it. Diet time, people.
I never liked bees anyway. They sting and it hurts.
Just kidding. I hope they get their asses in gear and start Darwining, cuz humans sure as hell aren’t going to change.
How to determine whether you have a mental illness–
Walk into a psychiatrists’ office. You are mentally ill if you have any of the following:
Medical insurance
Medicare
Medicaid
Diagnosis made using DSM V
I’m a fan and advocate for ODD–“Oppositional Defiant Disorder”. I say we need to infect as many sheeple with it as possible and direct their attention to Washington DC!
It’s really hard to say why this is occurring. I remember talking about this on here last summer. I actually went out and counted the honeybees on the clover in my yard at the time and there were plenty. However, like Plarvo said, I was out this morning and the Azaleas in my yard are in full bloom and only bumble bees were collecting pollen. I will have to check later this spring. There is little usage of Roundup ready or BT seeds here…mostly Amish farming. BTW wasps, bumblebees and even butterflies will pollinate plants. If worse comes to worse, you will have to hand pollinate your crops.
I think overall more people should use less chemicals in the yard. Maybe it would help a little. I have plenty of clover. My neighbors hate me. But I think it looks good. Flowers everywhere. Sure it is not wonderfully homogenous but it’s green and thick. People in the 50’s used to seed it in the yard as a nitrogen source.
Remember that New World plants, such as corn and tomatoes, some beans and some squash are wind pollinated. And pumpkins are often pollinated by a caterpillar whose name I don’t recall.
I took a great beekeeping class from a nearby club a couple years ago and they were talking about the high collapse rate then. I decided to wait until the loss rate went down. I guess I’ll keep waiting.
Robo-Bees!
Genetically enhanced bees?
bee drones! TPTB are on it!
OHalfrican Bees brought to you by the Obomination.
Food shortages are already going on…just a matter of time to come to a table infront of you
Soylent green, anybody?
FDR frequently used the IRS to intimidate and supress political opponents.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schechter_Poultry_Corp._v._United_States
This was the case that led to most of the New Deal being labeled unconstitutional. FDR then tried to intimidate the Supreme Court Justices.
Whie I’ve always thought it would be near impossible to take 7 billion down to 500 million through means like war and disease…
Biosphere collapse like this? Yeah. That’ll do it all right. That will do it.
Sickening.
@ JRS, yes we have talked about the declining bee population before. While chemical/plant pollution is certainly suspect, the primary culprit was deemed the cell phone/towers. The frequency disrutps the bees natural navigation. Apparently it would cost to much to change the freaks at this point, cheaper to just let the bees die, and then the crops, and then…………. A perfect plan by the TPTB, with bees and honey tucked away in their bunkers.
Wait a sec if that’s the problem… how much exposure can they take before they die? What happens if you put the bee farms in faraday cages or… something…?
http://www.wect.com/story/20310937/sc-woman-arrested-after-chase-through-brunswick-county
“What is the emergency?”
More of this sovereign citizen bull shit eisen?
your getting to more of a total fucking wack job day by day
I am looking out my family room window now and I can see a cell phone tower. It was installed after I bought my house. From time to time I get bad headaches which go away after I drive out of my neighborhood. My wife thinks it is all my imagination. I don’t think so. You can find info on the web about this.
A house here built very close to the tower keeps changing ownership. I haven’t had a chance to talk to the people that have lived in that house but I suspect they were suffering headaches.
Cell towers could very well be the problem.
Next up GMO wheat
http://www.naturalnews.com/037170_GM_wheat_liver_failure_GMO.html
Some areas in China have resorted to hand pollinating crops due to lack of bees
http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/5193-Decline-of-bees-forces-China-s-apple-farmers-to-pollinate-by-hand
Bee decline is a significant problem, I’ve been keeping bees with varying levels of success for 4 years.
Thought I’d point out that the quote from Bret Adee in the Eating Well article was written in 2009, referring to the 2008 season.
Regards.
I have long suspected that it is probably our over use of pesticides. They don’t just kill the bad bugs. Where I live, there are hundreds of exterminators on the road everyday going house to house spraying the lawns. People seem to forget that we do depend on a lot of these bugs to sustain life. You don’t see any bees around anymore and you can walk around a neighborhood and see large palmento bugs laying dead everywhere. It sort of reminds me of when I purched a bug zapper years ago to get rid of the mosquitos. I killed the mosquitos, but there were a lot more benefitial bugs laying under than mosquitos. You can’t store enough food to last a lifetime, you need to be able to grow food and we may not be able to, at this rate. On a lighter side, every morning there was a huge fat toad sitting under that bug zapper have a nice fried breakfast. He learned real fast how to get free handouts.
He wasn’t getting hand-outs—he was just dumpster diving…salvaging/foraging if you will.
Nothing wrong with that.
He’d make a good prepper.
Honey Bees are not native to North America. They were brought here by European Settlers. So the environment can continue without Honey Bees (there are other pollinators out there such as butterflies for example). However if the Honey Bees are dying, one might ask if the other pollinators might also be sharing the same fate.
The Honey Bee die off is thought to be related to the use of systemic pesticides (Bayer is one big name that is known to produce these kinds of pesticides) that are able infuse themeselves into the bodies of the plants themselves. Therefore when the Bee eats the pollen or another insect eats the plant, then they injest pesticide and thereby die.
If indeed this is true, then we must opppose the use of such pesticides as it may result in the destruction of our pollinating insects along with the pest insects
That is like here in the islands, bees were introduced,
Most of the indiginous species of plants are pollinated by moths or birds, now the also get pollinated by bees but that was not always the case
The ecosystem in North America may be able to survive without them, but it probably won’t be able to feed 315MM people.
Okay, we’re running out of bees.
Solution:
Assign the illegal immigrants currently collecting welfare (in all its many forms) the job of wandering the farms and hand-pollinating plants.
If Big O has his way, there should be more than enough to handle it.
I used to keep bees, but stopped about 10 years ago.
BT and other pesticides may contribute, but the main problem I ran into was a couple of different IMPORTED mites….the one that gets in their respiratory system was especially bad. I’d lose whole colonies over the winter, when no pesticides were being sprayed anywhere. The mites would weaken the bees to the point they would die, not from the mite itself, but from secondary causes.
It was very discouraging to go into fall with a nice, full colony, then open the hive in late winter to check on them to find they had all died.
And bees are expensive now…..I think I saw a 3lb package w/queen was over 100 bucks.
Husband got laid off today. Him and 109 of his best friends – due to ‘sequestration’.
Oh yeah – it’s not far off.
To be honest, I’d say it’s here already. Have a beer. It’s like watching a train wreck in slo-mo.
I know I don’t comment much but you guys are my touch-stones. What a day…
Sorry to hear that. Time to start a home business of some sort maybe.
Prayers for you and your family Nautigal . On the plus side your preps will sure come in handy. We are prepared for all type events. Good luck.
Nautigal , what Contract company or agency did he work for, lots of contracts were I work are not being renewed for the next fiscal year. DOD seems to be heavily hit , even the Feds are not safe two actually got laid off something unheard of a few years ago and they were with DHS!
Hopefully things work out for you.
There is a “Bad Moon Raising”
Semper Fi 8541
Defense is about 20% of the budget, but will take 50% of the reduction in spending. .gov has sent e-mails among the paper pushers directing them to make it as painful as possible.
Nautigal: I feel your pain, hang in there. Good luck to you and your family.
@Nautigal,
That blows. Thought about bee keeping? Doesn’t take any room and bees wax is very expensive. Also honey can be sold locally. Bee factoid #1: In fact, a table spoon of honey a day from local honey fights off most airborne allergies.
BigB
Honey in this area of Ky is 2 lbs. for $10.
I harvest about 30 lbs. of honey and 10 lbs. of wax twice a year from my old hive. New hive, when I do the transfer, should produce double that.
BigB
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/05/16/obama-i-have-complete-confidence-in-holder/
BWAHAHAHAHAHA thats a knee slapper
those two marines got the hardest jobs, holding those umbrellas.
John 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is still day: the night cometh, when no man can work. can it be the same for our little honey bee friends. Verse 5 As long as Im in the world, I am the light of the world. Genesis 6:3 And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man,
I may not make my living as a farmer, but I am one. This is serious. My own hive collapsed.. 3 times. Everyone who realizes the seriousness of this should try to attract Mason Bees. There are several types native to the US and as far as I know, they do the exact same job. They do not live in hives, nor make honey.. but neither do they sting unless seriously provoked. Do a web search on them and you can find out how to attract them by making easy homes for them ( use 5/16 drill bit and basically drill a bunch of holes in some untreated wood ). I plan to put a bunch out..
They drill their own holes. That’s why I wish they would leave my yard alone. There are piles of sawdust all around in my greenhouse, and that was all treated lumber.
I’m building a barn the damn things are attacking it before it’s built. Screw them.
Howdy ‘A’,
How goes it my ‘bookish’ Friend…fiven ALL that I have seen of your postings in time I sure wish I could tak eyou with me when and wgere I am foing *sigh* such a HELP you would be!! 🙂
Umm, I have NO idea if this is relevant or not…but here in Old Mo. we have ‘borer bees’ that do EXACTLY what you are talking about…and YES, they are pesky critters! Aslo, as far as I know, they also DO NOT produce Honey…a seemingly they are NOT ‘colony type’ creatures. BigB is the ‘BMOC’ here so to speak, on all such as those little guys, I wonder if he might ‘chime in’ here?
JOG
Well, I never realized that they were pests.. my house and all outbuildings are concrete.. maybe that’s why I never knew that.. BUT, they ARE great pollinators.. maybe if they were provided good nesting locations with pre-drilled holes; perhaps, they would not be boring into your barns, etc. so much ? Just a thought.. pollinators of any sort are welcome at my place..
As far as I know about Mason Bees they are like bumblebees. Mason Bees have small colonies consisting of a very few bees. The difference is they dig a hole in wood to make a hive but they only produce enough honey for the hive which unlike honey bees dies off during the winter with only the queen surviving till the next spring when the cycle starts all over again. Bumblebees are the same only they live in a hole in the ground.
BigB
Howdy, Watchman. No, I never nheard of that in wallyworld, but nothing surprises me out here anymore. braveheart
Hey buddy you hang tuff, the jungle looks to get even more dangerous in the near future. I got your back and you got mine.
Keep the FAITH
Watchman
Howdy Y’all,
FWIW, perhap a week or slightly more ago I was over at the Popular Science web-site and they offered a slightly simpler, though facinating explanantion for at last SOME of the problem as it has been seen thus far. To wit; the practice of harvesting Honey from Bee hives is age-old, certainly, but as it happens, today with the rampant use of pesticides and also the practice of ‘marginal harvseting’, of taking a proportionally larger than normal amount od the Honey therefrom along with attempting to replace a portion of the Bee’s diet with simple, sugary liquids, apparently leaves the Bee’s far more prone to the ravages of both chemical’s AND disease as well.
Apparently, the complex structure of the chemistry of Honey is – naturally – ideally suited to promote the Bee’s ability to tolerate the effects of toxins in thier environment, without which a progression of debilitation occurs. It is implied that the Bee’s creation of Honey from thier local environmant effectively ‘talior’s’ it’s individual chemistry to provide them with an strongly enhanced ability to fend off disease as well…
This MAY dove-tail with the observation that one is better served buying locally produced Honey from the perspective of ‘allergy reductiion’…again, that process thereby ‘tailor’s’ or customizes’s the produced substance to the local envoronment….the article occured within the last 8-10 days so it’s not too far back in the que, I’m sure. I did NOT save tha link though and so am unable to forward it here…
JOG
Makes sense, most of the data on hive die off or lowered production is from folks in the Apiary trade,
sorta like us
JOG can live on a Mcdonalds krispycreme diet
BUT
He most likely wont be real healthy.
Evening Kula-Bro!
What’s up in thre Island’s today Brother?
Eeeekkkk!! MsDonald’s and KispyKreme…I’d say hmmm, lets’ see force equals mass times aceelertion multiplied for the 4 dimensional charecter of space/time…Yup, EUREKA! I have it …you’d live approximately 27 days till the morgure would be a comin’ to get ya!! 😉 🙂
Truly though the little fella’s have to HAVE some small ability to adapt but perchance it is also the case that even THAT ha limits? Witness that many People in recent years translocate themselves across vast stretches of the world and OFTEN suffer rather badly when thier bodies effectively REFUSE to adapt to the local flora..I know personally of many several people who have moved to Missouri and having gotten here became and STAYED miserable until they again moved ‘elsewhere’,
beleive me, I’m NO bona-fide expert on BigB’s lil freinds…I just find them fascinatiing!!…and having trhe mind of a scientists I naturally ‘think’ when something so important to us ALL goes ‘wrong’
…THIS ONE scares JOG, take my word for it…them lil guys are something which we !CANNOT! live without….a loss there would likely mean conseuqences SO bad that I don’t even want to contemplate such…and I’m rather good at doing just that…starvation is the WORST way I can think of to go out of this life…*Shudder*
Till later Island-Brother!!!…Hey, does “Aloha’ work as BOTH “Hi and Good-Bye”…just curious here…I think I hear something like that long ago…maybe…maybe not…dunno???…
JOG
Possible Repost…
Evening Kula-Bro!
What’s up in thre Island’s today Brother?
Eeeekkkk!! MsDonald’s and KispyKreme…I’d say hmmm, lets’ see force equals mass times aceelertion multiplied for the 4 dimensional charecter of space/time…Yup, EUREKA! I have it …you’d live approximately 27 days till the morgure would be a comin’ to get ya!! 😉 🙂
Truly though the little fella’s have to HAVE some small ability to adapt but perchance it is also the case that even THAT ha limits? Witness that many People in recent years translocate themselves across vast stretches of the world and OFTEN suffer rather badly when thier bodies effectively REFUSE to adapt to the local flora..I know personally of many several people who have moved to Missouri and having gotten here became and STAYED miserable until they again moved ‘elsewhere’,
beleive me, I’m NO bona-fide expert on BigB’s lil freinds…I just find them fascinatiing!!…and having trhe mind of a scientists I naturally ‘think’ when something so important to us ALL goes ‘wrong’
…THIS ONE scares JOG, take my word for it…them lil guys are something which we !CANNOT! live without….a loss there would likely mean conseuqences SO bad that I don’t even want to contemplate such…and I’m rather good at doing just that…starvation is the WORST way I can think of to go out of this life…*Shudder*
Till later Island-Brother!!!…Hey, does “Aloha’ work as BOTH “Hi and Good-Bye”…just curious here…I think I hear something like that long ago…maybe…maybe not…dunno???…
JOG
@JOG
Plus they transport them all over the country. Even if they leave the honey, it’s not going to be suited to every environment they put the bees in.
This doesn’t explain Ouches problems, unless the bees were already compromised when he got them.
There’s alot of air pollutants maybe it’s that as stewerts of the earth we suck.
Peace.
Howdy ed!
BigB, who is an authority on Bee’s by virtue of having a couple of decades of practice at that, has ‘wieghed in’ above near to the page-top. In essence, he indicates that those hives which are NOT being used commercially, ie, being transported over and over are yet doing fine, to his knowledge. You might to take a peek at his nice, long post above Brother! As to oUCH’s problem, I don’t know..the post isn’t very specific…I AM ALWAY very concerned about our ‘little freinds’ though and as I have remarked here before, “There are STILL Mystery’s in the World”, things that we yet know little of…Science know’s much..but mowhere NEAR ALL!, to be sure…
Have a good one Brother!
JOG
Hey Jog, here is the article you referenced:
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-04/honey-could-boost-bees-own-immunity-so-maybe-we-shouldnt-take-all-it-them
BigB
A lawyer and a senior citizen are sitting next to each other on a long flight.
The lawyer is thinking that seniors are so dumb that he could get one over on them easily.
So, the lawyer asks if the senior would like to play a fun game.
The senior is tired and just wants to take a nap, so he politely declines and tries to catch a few winks.
The lawyer persists, saying that the game is a lot of fun….”I ask you a question, and if you don’t know the answer, you pay me only $5.00.
Then you ask me one, and if I don’t know the answer, I will pay you $500.00,” he says.
This catches the senior’s attention and, to keep the lawyer quiet, he agrees to play the game.
The lawyer asks the first question. “What’s the distance from the Earth to the Moon?”
The senior doesn’t say a word, but reaches into his pocket, pulls out a five-dollar bill, and hands it to the lawyer.
Now, it’s the senior’s turn. He asks the lawyer, “What goes up a hill with three legs, and comes down with four?”
The lawyer uses his laptop to search all references he can find on the Net.
He sends E-mails to all the smart friends he knows; all to no avail. After an hour of searching, he finally gives up..
He wakes the senior and hands him $500.00. The senior pockets the $500.00 and goes right back to sleep.
The lawyer is going nuts not knowing the answer. He wakes the senior up and asks, “Well, so what goes up a hill with three legs and comes down with four?”
The senior reaches into his pocket, hands the lawyer $5.00, and goes back to sleep.
Keep the FAITH
Watchman
Love it
Don’t know anything about bees, but sure as hell gas has gone up to $4.29 in the upper Midwest, which in the long run will impact the price of everything else.
Seems like the only thing not in short supply is paper/fiat money. Maybe we can grind it up and feed it to zee bees….?
No need to worry.
Ben Shalom Bernanke will simply print some bees and drop them from his helicopter.
These numbers are staggering…
Has anyone asked monsanto if they have ANY knowledge of the reason…
Maybe it will take a congressional investigation…
Sorry…lost my head for a second…never you mind… errrrr
The wife and I picked a 5 gallon bucket of morels today. Yum! Yum! Yum!
I picked a five gallon bucket of ticks looking for Morels today.
Pollinate by hand everything you can. We eat the male flowers of most of our garden plants and pollinate by hand using a small artist paint brush. Only takes about 30 minutes each morning. You have to do this early in the morning when both flowers are open. Also, bumble bees don’t make honey but they pollinate just like regular bees. I have recently noticed a decline in the bumble bee population as well. I have seen a lot of honey bees this spring but have not seen ANY bumble bees this year.
no food… no worry.
just put out a free food sign…and wait. ha
Gimme my babyback babyback. Ribs
Bebbe back beebe back
Get in my belly!
I just went and bought a shitload of honey on Amazon.
Local non-commercialized would be the best option but it’s not always the most available option.
Honey keeps forever without any special requirements. You have to heat it up and add some water after it crystallizes but it’ll be perfectly okay.
You can also buy crystallized honey powder for a low weight high calorie option.
We love the stuff and many many 5 gallon buckets are in our various storage preps.
Those who participate in politics still end up being ruled by their inferiors. But they still retain their dignity. They do so by refusing to confer legitimacy on the act of using violence against innocents.
Keep the FAITH
Watchman
@Mac
This is a good article. Of all the articles I have read this is a definite show stopper and IS happening right now. If the bee population gets too low people worldwide will starve. Think of chaos this would cause. Damn.
Peace.
Howdy, DK, I’m just now getting home and catching your comment. Would be nice if we had another year. A person can buy a helluva lot of preps in 1 year’s time. Nautigal, sorry to hear about your situation. My best wishes to you and yours. You did exactly right to prep. hang tough and keep the faith. braveheart
Watchman, I’m still on razor’s edge going back to Election Day. I’ve never been on razor’s edge for this long in my life. Things never got near this bad during the Clinton era. At least then we still had a decent economy. But SOMETHING is just around the corner. I can feel it. braveheart
BH: I know it, same same here. The beast is out there lurking and it’s HUNGY. My gut tells me we are going to have more with LE and the Military than we thought.
Prep and hang TUFF. See you on the other side.
Keep the FAITH
Watchman
On target article Mac .
But the answers as to why are many .
And most are well known to most long term, many years of experience like my brother . The last of five generations of beekeepers in my family line .
After reading all the comments, many of the comments here are correct .
Yes, the red mites kill whole colonies .
Mite strips are standard, these days it seems for the folks like my brother who WAS making a fulltime living off of just under 500 hives .
Cell phone towers do affect bees . Bees navigate by frequency and direction .
Move a beehive a couple of feet over on a warm day .
The bees flying back will not find the hive . Most will die . Some will join another hive . A few might make it back to the correct one .
Pesticides are deadly to bees, as well as many other flying, pollinating insects such as butterflies .
And honeybees are not native to North America . But there are five other species of bee like natives that can take their place .
My brother always insists it’s the widespread use of pesticides used on the factory farmers out there that put him out of business and made him into a scrap metal recycler .
Colony collapse hit him too many times in the past ten years .
And those same pesticides are equally responsible for killing or reducing many insects such as the native specie bees and butterflies .
Don’t have a ready link, but I do recall reading an article about the decline in Monarch butterflies . Seems as though they feed on corn silk nectar . And with the BT white corn grown for white corn to produce fast food taco shells, The declining Monarch butterfly population started at the same time this corn was introduced .
Great article Mac and thanks much .
Bees are near and dear to my heart .
And saddens me to think they might not be around for my grandchildrens grandchildren .
take care
Mission
Gotta quick qestion for anyone out there. I have a 27,000 gal above ground pool. Lets say, for the sake of conversation that the Sh!t does hit the fan by way of EMP, NATURAL DISASTER or what have you, could I use my chlorinated pool water as drinking, potable or bathing water and if so what do I do or is it a bad Idea , sorry for dumb ass questions but if you can help, bless you !
With an emp, no power?? That means no purifying and filtering.
The water will be green in a few weeks, maybe even days depending on your weather and location.
Berkey?? I have one…and will trade food for water from the California nuts and raisins with a small pool that think they will have drinkable water in a disaster.
Not gonna happen with all the polutants in the air.
I had an inground and was amazed at the water’s clearness when the cover was removed in the spring–but that was highly treated with the closing of the pool.
Thanx JJ !
Mother Earth bats last. We should have been her stewards.
Pesticides are truly a major cause of bees immune systems being compromised but the other beneficial insects. Very few people know that one of the most prolific pollinators are moths. People only see the butterflies during the day, but if you sit out after dark you will see moths swarming flowers. Another insect that people hate, but actually have some value with pollinating are FLIES.
Also bats are another source, as there are many bats that make their living licking up nectar and pollen, thus helping pollinate flowers and eat harmful insects. Bats still are something that I would never get around because of the rabies factor. Some bats actually can survive rabies.
People can with the time and patience pollinate flowers themselves using a small paintbrush. This is especially easier with citrus trees because you just have to pollinate each individual flower. You can do this with vegeatables and other fruits with the paintbrush on a not too windy day. You basically want to gently touch the stigma, or the upper part of the flower that looks like a tiny stick with a bell shape usually. A major tine consumer montonous pain, but you can do what the bees do. Many people with indoor houseplants and trees, or trees in greenhouses do this self pollinating and it works.
I guess that is what it is about survival, adapting and learning to do what others do when those others are not around anymore, like bees. By the way, there was another earthquake on a plate boundary, the West Chile Rise that is the Nazca plate. In the past this has lead to major earthquakes in the same areas as the several other areas yesterday that went off; west China, Central America, Vanuatu to Fiji, and Alaska. A bad earthquake is coming, this is almost certain now. Very, very likely between now and May 30 or May 31.
Howdy BI!
What up with the Seismic today Friend? Thanks for the return post earlier, that “Horn of Africa” thing is WAY wierd….things just don’t much happen there…. Incidentally, I HATE the NEW and IMPROVED USGS ‘interface’ …YECHHH!!!
I had it down to the point where I could get EVERYTHING I needed in about 15 seconds, and NOW it takes MINUTES to ‘get’ much of any real ‘feel’ for things; how about you?…do you LIKE it or NO? Just curious here Friend…
JOG
http://worldtruth.tv/usda-admits-exterminating-birds-crops-and-bees/ Good source information in this article.
… the killing off of the AmeriKan Bee’s is a deliberate planned campaign by Monsanto .
they are falsely by deceit creating a new market for their products by destroying the natural environment and bee’s .
causing consumers YOU to be further dependent upon monsanto and its monsanto controled created frankenstein gmo poisoned products to survive on a polluted poisoned dying earth .
its deliberate industrial genocide by monsanto profit by destruction of our natural environments .
… and no one can stop them .
;0p
This spring I enrolled in our state’s Master Beekeeper program, with the hope of putting in hives to help pollinate our home orchard, garden, and berries. I was under the impression that beekeeping was an “add-on” to gardening, but have since been overwhelmed and impressed by the fact that it is livestock management. Complicated, amazing creatures for pollination and honey.
I’m halfway through the course, and my husband and sons are totally against the bee thing…they think I might as well raise rattlesnakes and scorpions if I have bees on the property. Sigh. Hopefully by next spring they will change their minds. My mentor for the class is one of the owners of a commercial bee pollination farm, they take 2500 hives to California in early spring for almond pollination, then travel back through OR and WA pollinating various crops. They are incredible managers and did not have measurable losses over this winter…very careful on varrora mite control, disease control, supplemental feeding, replacing queens, etc even though their hives travel all over the west coast. Fascinating subject!
Howdy Hopenjoy!
FASCINATING Indeed!…Your ‘state’ has a “Master Beekeepers Program”! As I HAVE reminded others here before, ‘it’s NOT polite, here at the site to ask people questions that relate to thier peronal details, including thier location’ but if you would favor me here, which state is that? I never knew that ANY State did so…it IS news to me! You are NOT under any compulsion to answer this question for me..but I AM fascinated by the little fella’s and were it the case that I could find somesuuch near me I’d jump on it in a flash! Thanks in advance, either way M’am!
Oh, I almost forfot my maners here…I DON’T recognize you monicker here…are you new? If so, my Thanks for that bit of info…very MUCH! Failing all else I might be able to ‘ferret-out’ something via the I-Net…and of course, “Be Welcome here…and Well-Met!” 🙂
JOG
Many states have Master Beekeeping programs. Texas, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Oregon, Ohio, North Carolina to name a few. Many State Universities have Master Beekeeping programs. Various beekeeper associations…
Just another nail in the coffin.
Lets see, how many nails we got NOW?
There is no prepping available for the loss of our pollinators. If we lose our bees, it is an extinction event, simple as that. It will be Mother Nature’s bell signaling that the match is over, and we lost. It is truly truly tragic, what we have done to our Earth and what we continue to do. The Earth has seen numerous extinction events over her 4+ billion years, but none that I know of – until now — caused by the very life she had nurtured.
(I know some of you Christians will be offended by this post. Go ahead and down arrow all you’d like, but save your breath, because I’m not going to convince you, and you’re not going to convince me.)
I have not read all the comments here, so don’t know if someone already posted this. When the food shortages happen in a few years because of our bees being killed off (yes it is a plan) just to starve 90% of useless eaters. Well my hope is before we all die out, we find every last “elite’s” hidey hole, we weld those fuckers in, and bulldoze over their air intakes so they die too.
The irony is that I am highly allergic to these animals (they can actually kill me) yet I rely on them to provide day-to-day assurance of sustenance. And they have a most delicious by-product. And boundless beauty is facilitated by their labor.
We saw a yokel spraying indiscriminately the other day, apparently to kill wasps. Rather than attack the wasp nest, he figured he would just coat the entire area around our town homes with chemical pesticides. Not surprisingly I found a couple of dead bees on the sidewalk later. There may be other bigger reasons why bees are dying in droves, but this sort of stupidity (or laziness) doesn’t help. Bah! Now I’m all upset again. Where’s my beating stick? I’m a-coming for ya Hunter Joe!