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#174728 - 03/14/08 12:46 PM honey bee safari
BranShea Offline
Pooh-Bah


Registered: 06/23/06
Posts: 2086
Loc: Netherlands, the Hague
Today 's news paper item about vanishing honeybees here coincided with the first sunny calm day and my big flowering boxwood shrub was buzzing with pollen loaded bees. Lovely sound.
Are they the new backyard immigrants?
I heard and read that in California the same mysterious disappearing is going on.
Rumours are running that cellphones are to blame.(???)
Wild story?

N.Y. Times

I caught what may be the last lot of a disappearing species with
my pocket camera. Hard to get.Busy like bees.

bee on boxwood
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#174733 - 03/14/08 03:26 PM Re: honey bee safari [Re: BranShea]
latishya Online content
member


Registered: 11/24/07
Posts: 140
If the bees are ever "vanished", then the species doing the disappearing would the one wielding the cameras. Four years is a common estimate. And good riddance I say.
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#174734 - 03/14/08 04:32 PM Re: honey bee safari [Re: latishya]
BranShea Offline
Pooh-Bah


Registered: 06/23/06
Posts: 2086
Loc: Netherlands, the Hague
Good riddance of who? The bees or the ones wielding the cameras?
(I suppose it would be both)
You mean we got four more years to go, Latishya ? (estimated)
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#174737 - 03/14/08 04:59 PM Re: honey bee safari [Re: BranShea]
latishya Online content
member


Registered: 11/24/07
Posts: 140
 Originally Posted By: BranShea
Good riddance of who? The bees or the ones wielding the cameras?
(I suppose it would be both)
You mean we got four more years to go, Latishya ? (estimated)


If honeybees become extinct, then 4 years seems to be a fairly common estimate of the time it will take us to follow suit.
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#174764 - 03/15/08 04:21 PM Re: honey bee safari [Re: latishya]
BranShea Offline
Pooh-Bah


Registered: 06/23/06
Posts: 2086
Loc: Netherlands, the Hague
Comparing the Times article (2007) and yesterday's report over here of bees missing running up to 30% , while a 10 to 15% is rated as normal and that this 30% loss also occurred 6 years ago it might be just a fluctuation thing.
Or would bees have taken a giant step for beekind and are choosing to return to the wild?
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#174775 - 03/16/08 12:39 AM Re: honey bee safari [Re: BranShea]
The Pook Offline
old hand


Registered: 02/20/08
Posts: 707
Loc: Tasmania
This may be a bit of a "bee-t up" by the media, the actual figures and their interpretation is disputed, but there is a serious depletion of honey bees in north america. It's thought to be at least partly because of a mite that affects the bees, coupled with the practice of the bee industry in north america of no longer using local bees but shipping bees all over the country to pollinate their little hearts out (literally!) - they may be overstressed by this process and it affects their immunity. At least that's one theory. It almost certainly has nothing to do with mobile phone towers, that just smacks of silly conspiracy theory.
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#174786 - 03/16/08 04:48 PM Re: honey bee safari [Re: The Pook]
Faldage Offline
Carpal Tunnel


Registered: 12/01/00
Posts: 11591
 Originally Posted By: The Pook
the practice of the bee industry in north america of no longer using local bees but shipping bees all over the country to pollinate their little hearts out (literally!) -


It would also tend to spread any local problem around. Send some infected bees from New York state and from North Dakota down to Alabama in the winter and any mites from NYS find themselves some nice fresh ND bees and go back with them.
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#174797 - 03/17/08 07:43 AM Re: honey bee safari [Re: Faldage]
BranShea Offline
Pooh-Bah


Registered: 06/23/06
Posts: 2086
Loc: Netherlands, the Hague
I have this fancy the bees have taken a giant step for beekind and refuse to be fed on sugar no more and move to hiding places, pollinating whatever flower has their free passion.
(fed up with almond nectar--- \:\) or greenhouse choices).
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#174798 - 03/17/08 08:41 AM Re: honey bee safari [Re: BranShea]
etaoin Offline
Carpal Tunnel


Registered: 06/24/02
Posts: 6097
Loc: Vermont
well, here's a few million...
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#174808 - 03/17/08 12:30 PM Re: honey bee safari [Re: etaoin]
BranShea Offline
Pooh-Bah


Registered: 06/23/06
Posts: 2086
Loc: Netherlands, the Hague
See what a few millions of bees can achieve when they agree to all put their weight to the same side of the crates. :-)

Came across this verb on reading the article:

['to assist in the bee wrangling.']

1. To quarrel noisily, angrily or disruptively: "The bar keeper threw them out, but they continued to wrangle on down the street.".
2. Herd and care for; "wrangle horses".

What strange contradictory two meanings.
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