Royal Pains: Why Queen Honeybees Are Living Shorter, Less Productive Lives

[1Worldwatcher]

As a member that knows we have some "REAL" Green thumb's among us, I thought this pertinent to share as a point of great concern for a number of years over the debacle with bee population's and the decline there of healthy migratory pollination that seems to stagger the out right vital food supplies we all love and enjoy.

As I was reading this article with great attention, it seem's as if we may be going down another road of DNA or Pesticide, Herbicidal control efforts by actually taking bee population's that are nursed from one area of the country, and then transferred to another for acquisition of another colony miles away may be a very bad idea for all bee hive producer's and Fruit/AG grower's globally.

I am not sure what to make of these facts being the answer for the problem, but I am sure that if we don't do something about this apparent issue, we are going to eventually go down a very dark road with these event's.



More Image Life line pictures available at provided website.

SkyOtter, Zorgon and the rest of you Green Thumber's may want too chime in on this as a feasible answer to the problem's with the dying Bee Population's we have experienced as far back as the 1890's as issuance to be dealt with.

So far, U.S. beekeepers have replaced the hives they've lost, so the nation is not running out of bees. However, starting new hives is costly and difficult and stresses bees. Experts worry that if honeybees' troubles continue, one day there won't be enough bees to pollinate foods such as almonds, apples, broccoli and even lettuce.

As colony collapse disorder cases have declined, researchers have turned to try and understand the more common causes of ill health in bees. Some of the most recent research examines what may be affecting queen bees—and how to breed more robust ones.

Royal Pains: Why Queen Honeybees Are Living Shorter, Less Productive Lives
Scientific American Francie Diep 2 hours ago 16/09/13

Very interesting read for sure.

1WW

[sky otter]

1ww
i'll check it out later today
the moving of bees to polinat crops has been going on for a long time
but i will read before any comments

thanks

[Somamech]

Ok found one Paper from 2009 regarding what was mentioned in that article,

Synergistic interactions between in-hive miticides in Apis mellifera.

Abstract

The varroa mite, Varroa destructor Anderson & Trueman, is a devastating pest of honey bees, Apis mellifera L., that has been primarily controlled over the last 15 yr with two in-hive miticides: the organophosphate coumaphos (Checkmite+), and the pyrethroid tau-fluvalinate (Apistan). Both coumaphos and tau-fluvalinate are lipophilic compounds that are absorbed by the wax component of the hive, where they are stable and have the potential to build up over repeated treatments such that bees could be exposed to both compounds simultaneously. Although these compounds were chosen as in-hive miticides due to their low toxicity to honey bees, that low toxicity depends, at least in part, on rapid detoxification mediated by cytochrome P450 monooxygenase enzymes (P450s). In this laboratory study, we observed a large increase in the toxicity of tau-fluvalinate to 3-d-old bees that had been treated previously with coumaphos, and a moderate increase in the toxicity of coumpahos in bees treated previously with tau-fluvalinate. The observed synergism may result from competition between miticides for access to detoxicative P450s. These results suggest that honey bee mortality may occur with the application of otherwise sublethal doses of miticide when tau-fluvalinate and coumaphos are simultaneously present in the hive.

SOURCE:


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19449624

[Somamech]

It would be very interesting to see whether the claimed reduction of vitamin/mineral qualilty of fruit and vegetables over the last 50 odd years correlates to Bee's. 

[burntheships]

Thanks for the article 1WW. 

Trouble has hit with the Almond crops already in California,
I read earlier this year farmers were hard pressed to even
find enough bees to bring in, thereby affecting the yeilds.

The honeybees are sure taking a hit, what with all of the
GMO crops that sometimes have pesticides triple stacked,
there is no escaping the "Neonics" pesticides that wipe
out the bees.

A large concern, perhaps just as large is the dying
bumblebee populations in The U.S. also.

Here where I am on our few acres we do not use pesticides
that will hurt the bees, or the butterflies. As I water my
gardens I see them buzz around, so many different kinds
of bumblebees it is really amazing. Some are really small
bees! At the same time, I have Monarch butterflies also,
they seem to love it here, and it is a wonder to watch them
fly about.

I hope to find time to post some pics, I even have a video
of the bees buzzing my oregano blooms. 

[Somamech]

O yeah sorry for not thanking you 1ww for a good topic to ponder mate

Apart from Monsanto really going about the wrong way of Agriculture which is something I feel very strongly about, your post got me to thinking about how human health for the most part is going down the drain and it made me wonder if there is a correlation to Bee Health.  Obviously I have been down this route before inside my head, but like anyone I have a million topics in my head and they get forgoten !

The idea goes like this "If we are eating crap, what else is eating crap?"

The other day I heard a report on the radion regarding how China of all place's is now leading the race to becoming 100% diabetic...

Like always i am not sure if this link will be able to be viewed outside of an Oz ip... ie Geo-Blocked.

Obesity and diabetes hit young Chinese

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-24/obesity-diabetes-china/4125964

Obesity produces diabetes epidemic in India

India is bracing for a massive surge in type 2 diabetes, with credible estimates putting the number of sufferers in the next 20 years at more than 100 million.

It is a frightening phenomenon that threatens to overwhelm the country's health system, according to a leading diabetes specialist in India.

Between them, India and China now have more than half of the world's type 2 diabetics.

Dr Ranjan Yajnik, the director of the diabetes unit at King Edward Memorial Hospital in Pune says India's struggle with diabetes is one of the largest epidemics the world has ever seen.

Dr Yajnik says the rapid rise of diabetes is mostly in the developing world.

"Populations which have faced under-nutrition for a long time are now exposed to the over-nutrition of the modern world through globalisation, westernisation," he said.

SOURCE:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-23/obesity-produces-diabetes-epidemic-in-india/4148616


I wont comment too much on the last article, as from what I read in the article I think the guy is way off the mark in his gentic evaluation of people and fat on their stomach. 

How does this connect with Bee's ?  My kick about thought is that if Humans are out of whack, the WHOLE ancilliary system's will also be totally whack ?  IE if we are eating crap, along with little care to eating crap, then our ancillirary system of bee's are also eating crap. 

CRAP 

[Somamech]

Just found this from a site called HortScience in regards to quality of Fruit and Veg.  WIll have to save this one for a rainy day to read over

Declining Fruit and Vegetable Nutrient Composition: What Is the Evidence?

SOURCE:

http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/44/1/15.full

[Amaterasu]

Obesity and diabetes hit young Chinese

Wonder if the Chinese are eating high fructose corn syrup...  Those are PRECISELY the issues seen when They tested rats at Princeton.  Gave calorie equivalent food to two groups - one with sugar, the other with HFCS.  In the end, the rats on sugar were basically healthy, though some were a little plump.

The rats on HFCS?  100% were obese.  That's ALL of them.  Most were developing diabetes. A fair number were developing cardiovascular issues, too.

[Somamech]

Wonder if the Chinese are eating high fructose corn syrup...  Those are PRECISELY the issues seen when They tested rats at Princeton.  Gave calorie equivalent food to two groups - one with sugar, the other with HFCS.  In the end, the rats on sugar were basically healthy, though some were a little plump.

The rats on HFCS?  100% were obese.  That's ALL of them.  Most were developing diabetes. A fair number were developing cardiovascular issues, too.

Thats well interesting Amy!

As we know Corn seem's to be run via THAT Company of oddballs.  It would stand to reason enough to at least ponder whether their Sugar aint the right sugar so to speak.

High Fructose Corn Syrup.   

Why I am looking like this >>>     I can now see why Diabete's/Sugar is blamed on Fructose. 

What are Bee's eating ?

[robomont]

well how about this.the beekeepers supply  a molaases type crap to the bees in the winter because they rob the hives of there honey.these bees i talk of are trucked from up north to overwinter down here in texas.then these week sickly bees are breeding with our wild ones which are also feeding on this sugar crap.thus all are being polluted.then the mites finish them off.if the mites dont get them then the nico finish them off.
i bet that molasses stuff is high fructose.

[burntheships]

What are Bee's eating ?

This is one of the huge problems, the beekeepers
are actually using High Fructose Corn Syrup,
and its all GMO. 

[sky otter]

i think robo nailed it

the bees need to hibernate thur most of the cold and they hundle together  around the queen
so they need a lot of bees and they use most of the stored honey to survive..
if they don't have enough or it's funny stuff.. they starve or get very sick and
are then suceptable to whatever is out there

then you have the weather.. if it's raining they can't get out and they consume more food
and don't feed the brood as much
so then there are less bees to gather pollen ..i can't remember the life span for a worker bee but i don't think it's very long

if it's hot and dry and they can't find water i or have to fly further for it that takes the time away from production.. another stress factor

if they don't have enough room to reproduce workers or enough honey to support the hive


then add to that with the other stresses like gmo flower crops, lawn spraying and farm pesticide
use
the poor things don't stand a chance

buty most things in nature can handle adversity if we humans just get the blank out of the way



a bear finished off our last hive a few years ago after they had almost recovered from the mites
so when we were lucky enough to get a swarm this spring we were amazed and how strong the
hive was even with a lot of rain... in four weeks  hubby added a second brood and then in another 3 weeks a super..right now he is thinking of adding another super for the fall weeds - mostly
goldenrod
we won't take any honey this year so that the hive can stay strong and hopefully make it to spring and enlarge
they are very gentle bees but really really busy.. it's a good thing

[robomont]

you are so lucky.i dont know alot about bees but i would think that one super of honey would feed them and the other could be for yall.plus if anybody is allergic to goldenrod then you got some easy money selling to them.one super is forty pounds.of honey.

[sky otter]

Robo
we are lucky and happy with it.. but since there are so many stresses on the bees
we aren't taking any honey this fall..
the bottom two chambers are a mix of brood and honey
then hubby put a queen excluder before the top super...
it's beautiful..white and clean they are working so hard
but with so much brood in the bottom they may need all of it thru the winter
and we don't want to loose them
sooooooooo

come late spring .. if there are a lot of flowers and they are doing well
THEN we will harvest some..i can't wait..raw honey is wonderous