BeanMan
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Honey bee pouplation are on the upswing
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WVHUNTER
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Probably a pretty good article concerning colony collapse. Bee keepers have always lost hives and had to replace them.
It doesn't address the situation with mites that started showing up about 1987. Commercial bee keepers have learned to deal with them but about all wild bees have died out and won't be back due to the mites.
It doesn't address the situation with mites that started showing up about 1987. Commercial bee keepers have learned to deal with them but about all wild bees have died out and won't be back due to the mites.
BeanMan
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LAST EDITED ON Aug-16-15 AT 07:34PM (MST)[p]What effects? Very minimal and overblown by people who don't know better. Australia is the second biggest user of Neonics and they don't have Colony Collapse disorder. Of course they don't have Varroa mites, Tracheal mites, or Nosema either which ought to be a red flag for some people.
There is no question that native pollinator populations are down and there are probably a whole bunch of things which affect them including modern farming practices.
People forget that North America pollinated quite well before the European colonist introduced honey bees.
Neonics are overused no question. When I ordered corn seed I couldn't find any that was treated without a neonic. Since I rotate crops and plant into warm soil I have no need for them and would like to make that choice. Also the corn I chose came only with three stacked GMO traits, two of which I also don't need since I only use Roundup ready corn and don't need liberty link and BT corn.
There is no question that native pollinator populations are down and there are probably a whole bunch of things which affect them including modern farming practices.
People forget that North America pollinated quite well before the European colonist introduced honey bees.
Neonics are overused no question. When I ordered corn seed I couldn't find any that was treated without a neonic. Since I rotate crops and plant into warm soil I have no need for them and would like to make that choice. Also the corn I chose came only with three stacked GMO traits, two of which I also don't need since I only use Roundup ready corn and don't need liberty link and BT corn.
elkassassin
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Can somebody get me a Count on how many Road-Kill Bee's there are each year?
Go Ahead!
Make Me take it down!
Go Ahead!
Make Me take it down!
BeanMan
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DW,
It will be interesting to see how the "big experiment" going on in France works out. They banned neonics with only a few exceptions (non flowering plant use). It is supposed to be a two year ban so if their bee problems resolve themselves then we all have got some re-thinking to do. I'm betting it won't make much difference. Time will tell. I could be wrong too.
It will be interesting to see how the "big experiment" going on in France works out. They banned neonics with only a few exceptions (non flowering plant use). It is supposed to be a two year ban so if their bee problems resolve themselves then we all have got some re-thinking to do. I'm betting it won't make much difference. Time will tell. I could be wrong too.
I read a couple years back the eu banned them as well, but haven't found any info as to what the result has been. I read a guy in "the fence post" (weekly farm/ranch paper) regularly, who's kept bees for 50 odd years and is a big wheel in the colorado beekeepers association. He seems to think colony collapse took off about the time they came out. Whatevers causein it, hope they figure it out and can reverse it soon.
BeanMan
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It's pretty clear that the main factors are arthropod mite pests and neonics, especially when you look at Australia.
Since national honey bee numbers are on the upswing it would seem that better hive management has reversed CCD to a degree.
I thought this paper on Imidacloprid was pretty informative. Testing finds >6-.2 ppb's in some ground water which is a very small amount. The idea of sub lethal does affecting insects and by extent birds seems to have some low potential. I wish I could buy corn seed (and other crop seeds, we don't use it on dry beans) that is not treated with it since in most cases I don't need it. That is big money driven.
http://www.cdpr.ca.gov/docs/emon/pubs/fatememo/Imidclprdfate2.pdf
Since national honey bee numbers are on the upswing it would seem that better hive management has reversed CCD to a degree.
I thought this paper on Imidacloprid was pretty informative. Testing finds >6-.2 ppb's in some ground water which is a very small amount. The idea of sub lethal does affecting insects and by extent birds seems to have some low potential. I wish I could buy corn seed (and other crop seeds, we don't use it on dry beans) that is not treated with it since in most cases I don't need it. That is big money driven.
http://www.cdpr.ca.gov/docs/emon/pubs/fatememo/Imidclprdfate2.pdf
