[indigo girl]

No honey, no problem? It's a bigger issue than that.

We will have to pollinate some crops by hand if the problem continues this spring. This can be done with a feather or cotton swabs but it is labor intensive. If this does not get solved soon and continues on a national level, then there will be shortages of certain foods.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articl...bees07-ON.html

[kitty29]

Thanks for the article; I had heard something on the news but didn't get to see it.

[indigo girl]

Mystery bee disappearances, where are they going? This is sounding like the twilight zone. Are we talking another dimension here or what? How can thousands of bees just disappear? To where?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...0223-bees.html
<snip>
"There were no dead bees, no bees on the ground, just empty boxes."
<snip>

[Myxel67]

On NPR yesterday, they mentioned possibility of some kind of immunodeficiency disorder. Another article stated that the few dead bees they found still in the hives had fungus in the tracheas.

It is a big deal since the honeybees are needed to pollinate nut trees, fruits and vegetables. Particularly in danger now is the Calfornia almond crop.

[indigo girl]

http://news.independent.co.uk/enviro...cle2314202.ece

I did not realize the hugh numbers, and that they were flying off to die.
This is very disturbing.

<snip>
Millions of bees are abandoning their hives and flying off to die (they cannot survive as a colony without the queen, who is always left behind).
<snip>

[CHATSDALE]

this is horrible...sometimes the biggest things depend on the smallest things to survive
i didn't get to read the articles: are the africian bees dying also?

[indigo girl]

Originally Posted by CHATSDALE

this is horrible...sometimes the biggest things depend on the smallest things to survive
i didn't get to read the articles: are the africian bees dying also?

I have no info on the africanized bees just on the beneficial bees that are used to pollinate so many of our fruits, veggies and nuts.

[sanctuary]

And the world goes round and round, and we are all a part of the circle. This could actually be the canary in the mine, and we do not know it yet. ...But I've seen hives (in Mexico) that died off of some illness, and they were in the hive. We opened it up because it was so quiet. My dad did not let us eat the honey because he did not know what killed the bees. But all their little bodies were there.
Fearful stuff.

[CHATSDALE]

that canary in the mine bit is something that scares me witless

[sanctuary]

Originally Posted by CHATSDALE

that canary in the mine bit is something that scares me witless

Me too.