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Tue Apr 10, 2007 7:30 am  |
"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man," -Albert Einstein.
It seems like no one knows for certain what is killing off honey bees but they are dying and I keep hearing and reading about it.
Some of the articles below have people guessing it is a mite or the weather causing the problem when most likely it is due to a chemical/pesticide or problems raised from genetically modified food (IMO anyone could have seen there where going to be problems caused by GM food).
"A study at the University of Jena from 2001 to 2004 showed that toxins from a genetically modified maize variant designed to repel insects, when combined with a parasite, resulted in a "significantly stronger decline in the number of bees" than normal.
According to Hans-Hinrich Kaatz, a professor at the University of Halle in eastern Germany and the director of the study, the bacterial toxin in the genetically modified corn may have "altered the surface of the bee's intestines, sufficiently weakening the bees to allow the parasites to gain entry -- or perhaps it was the other way around. We don't know.""
I didn't post all the links because there are so many, but if you do a search I guarantee you'll find more.
http://www.thetimesonline.com/articles/2007/04/07/updates/breaking_news/doc46167add8cafc393728577.txt
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07098/775501-58.stm
http://www.tricities.com/tristate/tri/news.apx.-content-articles-TRI-2007-04-08-0016.html
http://www.hutchnews.com/news/regional/stories/bees040807.shtml
I'm usually not as good as I should be and contact people about issues but I've emailed Peta and I'm going to be doing a lot more emailing today. This issue keeps popping up and I can't ignore it any longer.
This link has a list of Environmental Groups in different countries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_environmental_organizations#United_States |
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28 Fair skin, brown hair, blue eyes & acne prone combo skin |
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Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:10 am |
This was the article I was originally trying to find:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070407/ts_alt_afp/sciencenaturebeesus_070407020928
"The fact that other bees or parasites seem to shun the emptied hives raises suspicions that some kind of toxin or chemical is keeping the insects away, Cox-Foster said." |
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28 Fair skin, brown hair, blue eyes & acne prone combo skin |
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Wed Apr 11, 2007 6:00 pm |
Last year on the news - the nz bee people said the same thing. A parasite was killing the bees and honey wasps or something. And a bee from another country was taking over the hives.
So in nz they started spraying the hives to try and control and kill the parasites.....
It is a problem we should be worried about; in nz it have killed quite alot of honey bees.
Our nation is all about argiculture and exporting our farm based products. |
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Live life to the full! |
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Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:50 am |
| Sundew wrote: |
| "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man," -Albert Einstein. |
I'm worried about the loss of bees but I was relieved to see that there are other methods of pollination. If there is a toxin or other reason for the loss of the bee population I hope they find it soon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollination |
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Thu Apr 12, 2007 9:12 am |
My dad's a beekeeper and he and his bee association believe that it's because a lot of commercial beekeeper's use banned chemicals and antibiotics in their hives without telling anyone. They do this because it's cheapest way to prevent hive illness, but the bees just can't tolerate the toxic overload of the banned chemicals. One Bee operation he's aware of has been shut down by the Canadian government because a surprise inspection was done and all these contraband chemicals and antibiotics were found in the hive and in the honey.
When the bees can't tolerate it anymore, the hive either dies or the bees leave to become wild and set up a hive on their own.... |
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oily tzone;fair; mild roseacea;PCOS symptoms-hirsutism,occasional cystic acne. Mid 30's-light-med brown hair, light brown eyes |
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Fri Apr 13, 2007 8:55 am |
Rufus, I read up on alternative forms of pollination and nothing is as effective and affordable as bee pollination, specially when it comes to food crops.
Rosyface, I think it is so amazing that your dad is a beekeeper! Does he believe that there are so many people using banned chemicals that it could cause "bee numbers on parts of the east coast and in Texas have fallen by more than 70 percent, while California has seen colonies drop by 30 to 60 percent." (taken from the yahoo article linked above)? It would be great to hear more from an experience beekeeper's perspective!  |
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28 Fair skin, brown hair, blue eyes & acne prone combo skin |
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Fri Apr 13, 2007 9:08 am |
| Quote: |
| could cause "bee numbers on parts of the east coast and in Texas have fallen by more than 70 percent, while California has seen colonies drop by 30 to 60 percent." |
yes, they discussed this issue at their last meeting and because of the competition to keep honey producing costs low against keeping retail prices for honey high, many commercial operations are unwilling to go to the expense of treating their hives in the more expensive, non-toxic way that is "approved" by the bee associations, so they acquire the "unapproved" toxic chemicals and antibiotics and use them without the knowledge or approval of the the inspectors. It is more cost effective in the short-term, but they are reaping the results of years of sneaking around and doing things the easy way instead of the right way.
Here in Canada, Bee operations can be inspected by the government at any time and will immediately be shut down if there is any hint of dangerous chemicals or medications not approved for use, so most small operations like my dads are very careful to operate completely under the law and they are not having the same issues with their hives. The bees are not being poisoned so they are not over-stressed and therefore are not dying nor are they "disappearing" from the hives.
Bees are not stupid, if you treat them well, they will reward you well...and vice versa.... |
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oily tzone;fair; mild roseacea;PCOS symptoms-hirsutism,occasional cystic acne. Mid 30's-light-med brown hair, light brown eyes |
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Mon Apr 16, 2007 12:15 am |
| Sundew wrote: |
| Rufus, I read up on alternative forms of pollination and nothing is as effective and affordable as bee pollination, specially when it comes to food crops. |
Oh, I agree but just didn't know the other types of pollination. |
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Mon Apr 16, 2007 1:19 am |
| rosyface wrote: |
| Bees are not stupid, if you treat them well, they will reward you well...and vice versa.... |
So in short, bees are like husbands 
I somehow remember reading something about bad bees taking over from honey bees and the honey bees dying off. I will certainly be more alert to things on this topic - and use of illegal chemicals is something I will pay closer attention to. How can one guarantee that ones honey is natural/organic? |
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SKIN: combination, reactive to climate changes and extremely fair. "Women complain about premenstrual syndrome, but I think of it as the only time of the month that I can be myself." --Roseanne |
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Mon Apr 16, 2007 4:23 pm |
| I just heard about bees on tonight's news. They are trying to say that cell phones are the cause of the decreasing bee population. I guess it's the radiation that the phones emit. The bees can't communicate to each other. |
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Tue Apr 17, 2007 5:26 am |
| The only way i can think of is to try to develop a relationship with a small local bee operator who may let you tour his facilities and let you see for yourself...many small bee keepers are happy for their customers to show an interest in the origins of the product. My Dad sells his honey only through his own business from home and through a local grocery store that he personally supplies and a local farmers market that he also supplies....one little thing to look for on the label is "unpasteurized" honey is always the extracted filtered uncooked natural honey. If the label says pasteurized, the honey has been heated or cooked to a high temperature and the flavour and enzymes and vitamins are killed. Therefore you get, coloured sugar, nothing else. |
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oily tzone;fair; mild roseacea;PCOS symptoms-hirsutism,occasional cystic acne. Mid 30's-light-med brown hair, light brown eyes |
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