Case in point I had a woman tell me how "cool" it was that I was keeping bees because they were an endangered specie. Ahhh what? When I told her that I didn't think they were endangered she exclaimed that she used to see bees everywhere when she was young and now she never sees them.
I looked down at the grass we were standing on and asked her if she was a bee just what was there here to attract her to this very spot? I then pointed to the next yard over, which looked exactly like the one we were standing in and pointed out that yard was a barren wasteland to bees as well.
Her response was that no one wanted their yard full of weeds and then mentioned there were roses and other flowers around for them to feed off of. She couldn't understand that bees require acres and acres of flowers to support their hives and not just flowers she thought were pretty either in their neat rows and mulched edges. They require yards full of dandelions and clover, entire fields of nectar producing plants.
This is the ultimate doom of a mob rule democracy, we allow those with absolutely no knowledge or experience to have a voice based on emotion and feelings alone that effect us all, usually in the worst way possible.
Of course I could be guilty of this in a way myself. From my particular point of view bees are no where near endangered. At one time they seemed kinda rare around here it is true but in a few short years my bee keeping efforts have created bee colonies everywhere locally. Even after this last Winter of decline swarms were showing up that I know did not come from my hives directly. One swarm that got away five years ago may have created 100's of feral colonies out there for all I know by now. Maybe it is not the same in other areas of the country but I find it hard to believe that the bees are endangered with the results I saw. My experience tells me what is endangered is habitat the bees will use and understanding of what is needed more than anything else.
What's truly amazing though is all the so called concern about it melts to nothing when you explain what can be done to correct their local problem. As with most liberals and their ideas they want the emotion of being outraged and the feeling they are making a difference but somebody else better pay the price and do the work. The liberals will be happy to cheerlead however and vote you other peoples money.
Would these same people be all happy when a bee keeper places a few hives behind their house? I doubt it. Will they allow a colony to live in their roof? Again not likely and I bet 99% of them would eradicate the colony once they saw the bill for safely removing them as well. And rightly so from my point of view however it does kinda seem a bit hypocritical for them doesn't it?
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
Misinformation is alive and well in the world. I learned long ago that most folks misunderstand what is printed in the newspaper or hear on the radio if they are even paying attention at all. My wife proves it all the time.
ReplyDeleteIIRC bees are important in the food chain, Yes??
Rob - Ya I believe most of them read in one of the soft liberal eco-papers about bees dying out and just kept going with it never really giving it any real thought.
Deletegood post and wonderful analogy. I see lots and lots of bee's here so I find it difficult to believe they are going extinct.
ReplyDeleteEveryone is an authority until it impacts them directly. Then they don't want to get involved. seen it time and time again..
JuGM - Exactly.
DeleteMuch to the chagrin of husband and the neighborhood, I sowed clover in our lawn in my Historic Neighborhood yard. Now, 33 years later, I have more clover than grass, it appears. I wanted my children to grow up with clover under their feet and to know how it feels to be stung by a bee...lol.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I am a liberal, very much so, that does not believe the way you think liberals think.
The right-wing liberal city council said I could not have bees or chickens. Since I already had the chickens, they did nothing to me.
PP - Why I know you have some Conservative values on an individual and specific level, your overall political view is Liberal and honestly exactly as I described really. Your support for the Femocrat/Liberal/Progressives is in reality doing just the same thing only on a massive social scale.
DeleteMost liberals cannot see the trees because of the forest whereas you cannot see the forest because of the trees.
There are a number of Liberals like you out there. They are really what I call the old school Liberals and really have no malicious intent but as convenient supporters of the other kind of Liberal do cause some damage.
Why I am quite sure you will never agree with me and will continue to see the obvious outcome of full blown Liberalism and Feminism as more "Local Right Wing good old boys". The simple truth is that soft Liberalism is what let the big government cat out of the bag and resulted in what we have today.
Lastly you say they will not let you have bees or chickens, but they are right wing?
I ask you this. What group wants to limit ownership of an item but can't do it so they grandfather in stuff and hope it will die?
Sounds alot like Liberal gun control tactics to me.
Pioneer: it may be a regional think, but on the East Coast, I know far more liberals who are into the urban-chicken, urban-bee think.
DeleteA lot of it comes from the left-leaning sustainability movement.
In general it does not matter if you are liberal or conservative, if the "establishment" views your activities with suspicion, they will do their best to disallow it. I promise you, you would be dismayed at what the local "conservative" Republicans around here do, versus the rhetoric.
Russ - You will notice I never mentioned parties per se except to lump the Femocrats with the others. There are plenty of Republican Liberals who are just as bad as the Democrat ones but they all have their basis of power behind what the Liberals let out. Big Government and the diminishing of individual rights. I know several Republicans who claim to be Conservative and are the exact opposite. I even saw a Democrat proclaim he was a Tea Partier too. They will sell themselves however they can.
DeleteYet the attacks on our Constitutional rights almost always seem to come from one corner exclusively.
And yes I know the "Green" Movement does create a cross over of Liberals with sustainable values. I am married to one :)
I have heard a lot on the radio about bees dieing off. They say it might be some kind of mite, and on and on. There used to be an old man here who kept bees, and I bought honey from him in gallon bottles. But he died, and the bee hives were taken away though I don't know by whom or why. I wish somebody here still kept bees, I can't really afford to spent ten dollars on a tiny little jar of honey at the grocery store.
ReplyDeleteHF - Yes the mites can weaken the hive to the point of dying and it is one theory as of why CCD happens. Yet if you study bees you find out that the mites prefer the larger drone males over the smaller females and the mites became a serious issue about the time many bee keepers started using larger comb cells to produce larger bees. They forced the bees to stop using the 4.9mm cells by introducing 5.2mm foundation.
DeleteAlso taking too much honey like the large producers do and force feeding sugar syrup causes chemical balance issues inside the hive and again makes the mites more of a problem.
Are these the real issue? Maybe, Maybe not. But yet many who have no clue will eagerly vote to limit our rights to try an experiment even though they have no knowledge of the problem.
That's all my post was really about :)
I think the fireflys (aka lightning bugs) are also endangered. Don't see nearly as many of them around either. My guess would be habitat and pesticides.
ReplyDeleteRuss - I was reading about the FFs in Mo. Not too long ago and they say they are in decline as well but I cannot remember exactly what they said the problem was. My guess would be as you said because my experience with them over the years has been they really like deep, thick hardwood forests.
DeleteThe fireflies are safe. They are all with me. There are a ton of them here.
DeleteMy first glimpse of a carpenter bee was at my daughters house. I'd never heard of the. This bee flew up to me head on, stopped and was looking at me. It turned sideways and hovered. Then it flew away. I assume it's a relative of the honey bee?
ReplyDeleteeileen - The carpenter bees are a form of a stingless bee that is native to the Americas I believe. Some Asian-Indian tribes did keep them down in Central and South America I think.
DeleteI don't think they are closely related to honey bees though since honey bees were only in Europe, Africa and Asia originally.
I found a honey bee yesterday...I'm gonna keep her. She's tucked away in a match box. Waiting on honey. Should I water her?
ReplyDeleteStephen - No they only use water to cool the hive. You should set her free and if she comes back she is yours forever. If not. Track her down and destroy her hive :)
DeleteRead an interesting study on CCD a few weeks ago, though I can't remember where. The gist of it was that honey bee populations have been steadily increasing along with bee polinated crop yeilds; and if there is a collapse in bee populations, it will be reflected in bee polinated crop yeilds. Made sense to me.
ReplyDeleteIt also got me to thinking about population density. While the study cited poor management and didn't mention population density; ridiculous population densities at feedlots, chicken coops, etc. create ideal conditions for the spread of diseases. Why would industrial aperies be any different?
Best,
Dan
Dan - You are right. The mites and other diseases are actually spread by the drones. Drones will visit the other hives nearby and frequently migrate from hive to hive. The workers will also infiltrate neighboring hives but not as often as drones will. Also you will get drift of workers but yes by and large if you have hives together they will spread disease.
DeleteIt becomes more of a problem when you are also taking their natural food and giving them sugar syrup. As far as population density since bees have no real forage barriers it takes a huge number of hives in one place to over crowd the entire range. My guess is that my hives individually do not even use 1% of their possible range when foraging.