Sunday, August 25, 2013

Sunday Reading Part 2 - More on Bees





If you read my earlier post you are now ready for part II. If you haven't read the earlier post I would suggest you scroll down and do so.

I have mentioned bee keepers using larger cell sizes in an attempt to create larger "drone" sized worker bees and how many theorize that was the major cause of the mite explosion along with reducing swarming which eliminated the cycle break in mite breeding. There are a few other peculiarities of modern day bee keeping that add to the general problem.

Cheap energy has effected bees as much as it has our own lives. 100 years ago if an almond farmer benefited from bees he had to establish his own colonies. Today large operations truck bees all over the country.  Of course this is going to have the effect of spreading traits to areas they may not have managed to get to under normal situations. I would also suggest that it may have in fact spread traits that while not totally "africanized" might contain some element of that DNA. Africanized bees reportedly do not over Winter well but I imagine just as with humans there are plenty of in between pairings that may not carry all the genes good or bad. A queen in Michigan may well have Africanized traits but doesn't test as being completely Africanized in a lab.

This might also explain why bees in general seem to be getting more defensive even in areas that have not been officially Africanized yet.

The same factors have created a situation where it is cheaper to buy processed sugar to replace honey taken in larger amounts than the bees can afford to lose. Without their natural food bees maybe able to survive on processed sugar but they will not be as strong or healthy. Yet many large operations will take all the honey and then fit the hives with huge feeders to keep the bees alive. Well you can only do that so much before it begins to catch up with you.

It is interesting that the states with less migratory bee industry are also those least effected by CCD. It could be a simple numbers game but even in looking at percentages the states with less migratory mono-cultures seem to fare better.

Also these areas of huge mono-cultural plantings run the risk of spreading insecticides to the hives. I know locally I have lost bees to crop spraying, I have seen it happen. As I write this my neighbor has his big sprayer truck parked across the road with a tanker ready to spray his bean field. Since we are not in a mono-culture however I will not lose as many bees. So many of my girls are out in the pastures hitting the first of the goldenrod now or in the food plots on the sunflowers. If all they had to work were beans they would be in trouble.

A local bee keeper who's father ran over 1000 hives a few decades ago has spent three years trying to get his bee keeping business started. I talked to him four years ago when he was laying out all these grand plans and immediately pissed him off when I told him it wouldn't work. Last I heard just this weekend after his third failed year and some 60 or more thousand bucks he is in debt for he has given up. It just is not possible for small operations to keep that many bees alive under the new normal. Extra costs of medicating and checking hives add too much and requires much more overhead in expenses and in employees.

As these traits continue small local bee keepers will fill the niche. Farmers who used to rely on renting bees from large operations will once again need to begin keeping their own hives and local genetics will once again be free to deal with local problems and conditions not intermixed in such a way as to be a detriment to their survival.

As I said in part 1 the bees problems these days are merely a mirror of our own.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!


10 comments:

  1. The Europeans banned the pesticide in question. It will be interesting to see if that has an effect.

    But I am sure that you are right. It is a complex problem, and I doubt there are simple explanations, or solutions.

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    1. Yes some European countries did but I have read a few reports that show that CCD was reported before that particular pesticide was used in those areas.

      I don't think anyone really knows yet but I will admit what I have read does make it clear the Narcinogens (or whatever that pesticide type is called) is a very bad character.

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  2. Sounds like its time to go back to the future, Page 1, chapter 1, of book 1.

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    1. Rob - I think we will go back there eventually one way or another.

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  3. That's depressing. I haven't read a blog that had good news in a long time. Maybe you should do a post about how the bees are all recovering and there is nothing to worry about. I mean, telling people lies to make them feel better works for the government, so .....

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    1. Harry - Well really there is good news here. There are many many bee keepers who see things the way I wrote here. My perspective isn't really mine I was lead there by better bee keepers than me. There is a future it just isn't what the large scale migratory bee keepers think it is.

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  4. Actually, I don't see things as all bleak- in part because there are still healthy populations in different places in the US. Yes, things could take a turn for the worse, but there is still enough wild culture left to maintain the species. It just won't be at the levels we expect. One thing I am very curious about is the prevalence of wild bees outside the realm of commercial farming and beekeeping. Are the wild bees dying off at the same level as domesticated bees? Looking at it in this light makes me wonder if the reason we notice colony collapse is because it mostly happens in the most visible hives; especially considering the assertion that altering the breed during domestication may have an effect on CCD.

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    1. Wolfman - That is exactly my point. I believe there are plenty of feral hives out there. The kept hives are dying which is making a noticeable impact in the numbers but the feral colonies are adapting. I know I catch feral swarms in my traps and know of a few feral colonies that are still going after years.

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  5. Do you think it could be largly due to overcrouding? i mean if crops that require pollinators have doubled in the last 50 years, wouldn't it seem likely that pollinators have doubled too?

    Best,
    Dan

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    1. Dan - I am not sure. I know that it takes a lot of hives to over crowd an area. The bees never seem to get all the nectar they could around here anyway but maybe.

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