America suddenly has a record number of bees. What happened to colony collapse?

[former9thward]

Where in the unholy heck did all these bees come from?!

After almost two decades of relentless colony collapse coverage and years of grieving suspiciously clean windshields, we were stunned to run the numbers on the new Census of Agriculture (otherwise known as that wonderful time every five years where the government counts all the llamas): America’s honeybee population has rocketed to an all-time high.

We’ve added almost a million bee colonies in the past five years. We now have 3.8 million, the census shows. Since 2007, the first census after alarming bee die-offs began in 2006, the honeybee has been the fastest-growing livestock segment in the country! And that doesn’t count feral honeybees, which may outnumber their captive cousins several times over.

Much of the explosion of small producers came in just one state: Texas. The Lone Star State has gone from having the sixth-most bee operations in the country to being so far ahead of anyone else that it out-bees the bottom 21 states combined.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/03/29/bees-boom-colony-collapse/

[Leghorn21]

1. Oh what glorious news on a cloudy Monday morning!!

Thanks for posting, former!!

[TheBlackAdder]

30. My one daughter started keeping bees semi-pro. Apparently, a bunch of hobbyists are starting to do it too.

[Leghorn21]

37. Please thank her for helping save the planet, TBAdder!!

[Mad_Machine76]

2. Life

......uh....finds a way

[Clash City Rocker]

26. Everyone read that in Jeff Goldblum's voice, right?

I assume it wasn’t just me.

[Mad_Machine76]

34. I hope so

[Aristus]

64. Totally.

I didn't even have to go back and re-read it in his voice. As soon as I saw the post, his voice jumped right into my head to read it properly first time out.

[Mossfern]

3. Could this be a result of the

increasing amount of pollinator gardens and native plants that people are growing?

[Takket]

6. I think they linked collapse to pesticides too. Maybe farmers stopped using some of them?

[maxsolomon]

25. I think roundup use has fallen

Just anecdotally.

[Martin68]

45. Roundup/glyphosate isn't an insecticide, it's an herbicide. Nicotinoid insecticides were believed to be one of the main

culprits implicated in insect population reductions. I do not believe glyphosate use in the U.S. has decreased.

Use of Deadly Pesticides Remains Unchecked in U.S., Despite Devastating Impact on Birds and Other Wildlife
"A review of the past decade of research on neonicotinoid pesticides revealed mounting evidence of danger to birds and little change in use or regulation in the U.S."
July 11, 2023 · American Bird Conservancy
https://abcbirds.org/news/2023-neonic-report/

[TxGuitar]

49. We're doing our part in our backyard

Transforming it from grass (St Augustine, awful stuff) to clover and ground cover and planting as many native bee friendly plants as we can. Mexican heather, Texas lantana, some sort of lavender (which I don't think is native but bees absolutely love it; you could hear the buzzing from our lavender patch from 10 feet away sometimes), and a few others that I don't remember the names of, but our backyard buzzes! Also very welcoming to birds and butterflies. It's a great way to do your yard.

[Habitation]

66. Get a Melochia tomentosa

Or several. They are incredible. They attract solitary bees and get covered in them year round.

[OnDoutside]

4. Don't say they're coming over the Southern border too ? 😮

😂😂😂😂😳

[Wonder Why]

11. Oh no! Migrant bees polluting the genuine American ones? The horror of it! Build a 1000 ft tall wall to keep 'em out.

[OnDoutside]

13. I dare not check RW news !

[Mossfern]

50. Just a quick note here

Native bees are not honey bees.


on edit: That means that Republicans are exacerbating the alien problem by eating honey.

[CaptainTruth]

20. Fox will be abuzz about the "Southern Sting"

And of course it will bee bad for Biden.

[WinstonSmith4740]

29. Not only are they coming over the Southern Border...

James Comer will be calling for hearings any day now, because he found IRREFUTABLE PROOF that Biden's open border policy is causing it all!!! And here's that proof!!

[OnDoutside]

31. Very good !

😂.

[Ping Tung]

47. The USA will no longer accept non-Aryan bees. Alien bee traffickers are ungodly

and unpatriotic and REAL patriots (identifiable by cute red caps and golden sneakers) should turn in the culprits immediately.

[sop]

51. Bee Caravans!

Oh, the horror!

[Thunderbeast]

58. Polluting the pure Murcan honey!

[JoseBalow]

65. What's worse is that they are AFRICANIZED!!1!

[Takket]

5. That's great news!!! Since we depend on these little guys for food.

[usaf-vet]

9. And don't forget LIFE! No bees, no pollination, no fruit, no animals...... you should get the point!

[getagrip_already]

7. Honey Bees are managed by bee keepers...

There is nothing sudden about it.

They are not in imminent danger of collapse, although they are under constant pressure from parasites, pollution, toxins, and disease, with new threats on the horizon worse than any ever seen before. They were never in imminent danger of extinction, just economic distress.

Wild pollinators are fairing far worse.

Honey bees themselves have the super power of rapid reproduction. You think rabbits reproduce quickly, you ain't seen nuttin, honey.

Given the right resources and weather, you can split one colony into six, and then split each of those hives into two in one season. That's rare, and takes a lot of effort, but smaller splits are common, and drive the industry.

So while losses of 50% or more over a season and winter are common, the bees prolific breeding abilities make up for it.

So yeah, losses are horrific. Colony collapse is still a thing. That is true. But the industry is staying up with them. So far.

[Sky Jewels]

24. Yes, my daughter the ecologist taught me that

bumble bees are the truly key player when it comes to bees and pollination. They are struggling.

[usonian]

8. See also:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1127173192

[hatrack]

10. Survey covers apiaries, commercial operations

Nothing re. wild colonies, since that's not what USDA is tracking. Trust me, Colony Collapse is alive and well (I've been keeping bees for about 20 years)

[Think. Again.]

12. I believe the article is discussing....

...raised Honeybees, bee colonies that are "farmed".

Apparently, the causes of the colony collapse we've suffered in bee farms have been figured out and controlled, so the bee growers are back to healthy populations.

But I don't think this helps with the slower decline we're seeing in naturalized (or " feral&quot bee popluations which are still being severely affected by pesticides and other pollinator challenges.

[getagrip_already]

28. not so much controlled as outpaced....

As an industry, beekeepers have simply been able been able to breed their way past their losses.

Honey Bees are prolific breeders. It's part of their genetics.

But we have a couple of train wrecks coming at us. Tropilaelaps mites are the biggest threat coming at us. They make varoa mites look like slugs in comparison. They are fast, they are deadly, and they are resistant to current mite treatments.

The european honeybee has no resistance to them, and there are no natural predators in america. They will be a high speed shit show when they arrive.

[hatrack]

54. As if varroa, small hive beetle and giant Asian hornets weren't enough . . . .

Good thing that the arrival of myriad invasive species made possible by globalization was made worth it by all the cheap imported shit that we keep on buying and throwing out and buying and throwing out and buying and throwing out . . .

[Rebl2]

14. Last summer

we had so many honey bees very interested in our hummingbird feeders and flowers. It was to the point we just had to go inside a few times because they wouldn’t leave us alone. We have a shop that sells honey (and everything bee related ) less than five miles away from us that have many hives. We went around Christmas time to the shop and in speaking with them we learned bees will travel up to five miles. I think it was possible it was their bees, or maybe a natural hive in the woods across the street from us. Who knows where they came from, but I am happy they are thriving in my area.

[getagrip_already]

32. if you want a fun hobby, you can actually find their hive by following them....

It's a multistep process, but basically you build a trap with a food source like sugar water. you wait for the bees to establish where it is, then you watch the direction they fly off in. then, you trap some of the workers, and move the trap in the direction they were flying and repeat the process. The workers who were trapped will re-locate themselves to the new spot before leaving and bring new bees back.

Then you repeat the process moving the trap closer and closer until you find the hive.

Old timers used to do this to find feral hives in the forest. Now people do it for other reasons, but it still works.

There are books on it. I just cant remember their names.

[Rebl2]

38. Actually I

am kind of scared of bees-I know it’s silly, but am happy to see them again! My husband when he was much younger (he’s in his seventies) took classes on bee keeping. I don’t believe he ever kept bees though, but he was interested in learning about it. It was a local bee keeper that offered the classes. Not the same people I was speaking of earlier.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

15. In some areas, honeybees are crowding out other native bees, to the detriment of the plants those native bees pollinate.

[Ponietz]

16. All signs still point to a continuing decline and disappearance of wild bees

[getagrip_already]

33. not entirely....

Honey bees and other pollinators are not always competitive for food sources. Their probosci are different lengths in many cases so they can't feed from the same flowers.

The key to a healthy environment is a variety of plants, not a restriction on pollinators. More pollinators actually create more flowering plants. That's where next years flowers will come from.

Don't think that reducing honey bee populations will help bumbles. It won't.

[NickB79]

59. Plants pollinated by non-native honeybees are less likely to survive

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2379877-plants-pollinated-by-non-native-honeybees-are-less-likely-to-survive/

Offspring of plants that were pollinated by native pollinators were two to five times more evolutionarily fit – more likely to survive and reproduce – than those from honeybee-pollinated plants.

The team’s field observations revealed that honeybees visited multiple flowers on the same plant twice as often as other pollinators did. So, the bees could be forcing the plants to self-pollinate at higher rates, leading to inbred offspring.

It appears that, even with ample flowers to go around, honeybees still cause ecological damage.

[getagrip_already]

60. but if not visited by honey bees, would they be visited by any polinator?

That is what they are not saying. Is a 25% chance better than a zero percent chance?

Honey bees don't drive off other pollinators. They don't starve them out.

Pollinators are under pressure for a variety of reasons, but they don't have the advantage of bee keepers to manage their stocks and their health.

Nobody is monitoring them closely and noticing when pesticides cause a sudden die off. Scientists aren't doing long term studies on the health impacts of specific classes of pesticides, like they are for honey bees which does benefit wild pollinators by extension).

There are some practices in bee keeping which need evolution. Migratory bee keeping is a huge issue. But honey bee impact on wild pollinators is not that great an issue.

[slightlv]

17. I consider this good news...

and the fact that wild honeybees seem to be on the upswing for some reason, as well... we know pesticide use hasn't gone down, so maybe they've evolved some protection or something. I know nothing about bees, except that we need them so bad for life, itself.

Maybe the Mother has found a way around us in this era we're screwing up so roundly. It bodes well for the planet and at least some of the inhabitants, if so. We, on the other hand, are our own worst enemy.

I'd like to take this as an omen of better times coming... of maybe our many million crises in this world... especially one named *rump and his followers... being on the downhill slide. I'd like to hope for a little while, anyway...

[Botany]

18. Our native bees are still under great threat. Protect them you also protect the European honey bees too.

Rusty Patched Bumblebee…. Highly threatened

https://www.xerces.org/publications/books/attracting-native-pollinators

[sybylla]

19. "Feral bees"? WTF are they talking about?

There are many species of native bee populations.

There are honey bees that escape to the wild.

Great effing journalism, there.

[hatrack]

56. Technically, they are feral. European honeybees are nonnative livestock, essentially.

When they swam and escape, they're feral - a domesticated species now living in the wild.

[Fullduplexxx]

21. Yea aha suck it Monsanto

[jaxexpat]

22. Interesting to see this today.

I've lived at my current domicile since 2004 and up until last Saturday had seen, maybe, 3 honeybees that entire time. Saturday the wife and I noticed a buzzing noise reminiscent of childhood and bee stings on bare feet. Sure enough, the wildflowers alongside the walk had a dozen or so of the little pollen junkies flying all around them. Coincidence? I think not.

I suspect that the agricultural pesticide business has been at it again, engineering selective anti-pest chemicals that have less or no effect on honeybees and their foot stinging "war on children". Doubtless, the dreaded world drowning in honey, bee-pocalypse is upon us. As Mr. Gleason would say, "how sweet it is".

[PlutosHeart]

23. Not to be depressing but

I often see an uptick in numbers of creatures just before a huge plunge. Hope that is not the case here.

[Jilly_in_VA]

27. All I know

is that I'm seeing them earlier here in NW VA.
About 5 years ago we had an infestation of them under our deck and quite a few got into my studio, rendering it unusable. I called all over looking for a beekeeper to come get them, without any luck. We had to resort to an exterminator, which made me feel horrible. Now there's a guy about a mile down the road who has beehives.

[bluesbassman]

35. Strictly anecdotal but I spent a couple hours at meadery last weekend.

The proprietors started out as bee keepers and the meadery was an offshoot of that enterprise, and they continue to raise bees and harvest all of their own honey for meade production along with general honey sales. At one point in our discussion I asked them about hive health and they both indicated it was not a problem at all.

[doc03]

36. We have been hearing about the declining bee

population for years. Many people went into bee keeping to help and now it is a bad thing.

[Elessar Zappa]

39. Where does the article say it's a bad thing?

[doc03]

55. It is behind a pay wall couldn't read it all nt

[JT45242]

40. Declining in Iowa...where they are is important not just the quantity

Totals are not as important as distribution.

Have a friend who works in the agriculture industry developing seeds. They have had problems with not enough pollinators in Iowa.

Heard the same thing from the local apple orchard folks.

[Renew Deal]

41. Bee orgies

Obviously

[getagrip_already]

43. you laugh... but it's girls gone wild every spring

A queen will mate only once in her life during a short window, but will do so with up to 25 drones.

She will fly out of her colony as a virgin accompanied by workers who will guide her part of the way to what's called a drone congregation area. It's an area in the sky, maybe 1500 feet up, that drones pick for whatever reason to collect and hang out.

The queens will find that location and their pheromones will attract males that are most dissimilar in genetics to them to mate in flight. The males will die in the process.

The queen, laden with the sperm of her conquests in a special sack called a spermatheca, will return to her colony and begin to lay eggs using the stored sperm for the rest of her life. Once that sperm runs out, she can only produce male eggs (drones), and the colony would die if they didn't replace her ahead of time.

The drones can only stay aloft for about 30 minutes in the dcg's, which are typically a long flight away from their colony's. They will make multiple flights in a day, arriving near death back at a colony begging for food, in order to turn around and head out again. They are far from the lazy bastards they are made out to be.

They are single minded sex missiles. They don't even have stingers to defend themselves. Once the season is over, the workers will drive them out of the colony to die a heartless death in the weeds. They can't feed themselves or collect their own food. Such is the life of a sex missile. Succeed and die, or fail and die.

[Ohioboy]

42. My wife and I keep bees and have noticed this

We have had great success the last few winters keeping our bees alive. Unfortunately, I think it's due to climate change. Our winters are not as severe as they used to be in Ohio.

[dickthegrouch]

44. Can we cover the TX governor's mansion in honey? /nt

[mike_c]

46. introduced honey bee populations have always fluctuated naturally...

...in response to culture conditions, genetics, predators, disease, and parasites. It really wasn't ever clear whether CCD is a thing, or just the confluence of some particularly bad years for normal mortality conditions.

[Kaleva]

48. Honeybees are not native and compete with native species

One of my goals is to improve the habitat on my property for the native species. Such as the bumblebee, leaf cutter and Mason bees

"Native bees are the primary insect pollinator of agricultural plants in most of the country. Crops that they pollinate include squash, tomatoes, cherries, blueberries, and cranberries. Native bees were here long before European honeybees were brought to the country by settlers (honeybees are not native to North America). Honeybees are key to a few crops such as almonds and lemons, but native bees like the blue orchard bees are better and more efficient pollinators of many crops, including those plants that evolved in the Americas. Native bees are estimated to pollinate 80 percent of flowering plants around the world."

https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/how-many-species-native-bees-are-united-states

[SWBTATTReg]

52. Bee-autiful News!!

As for my part, in helping to preserve these tiny workers, I refused to take out my Golden Rod (spreads like crap) and other flowers since the bees (and all other sorts of flying critters) love these flowers, millions of them come to my Golden Rod, and I could just stand there, and watch forever. And they're not nervous w/ me standing right there too. They'll just buzz around me and proceed on to the next flower grouping.

One of these days, I'll set up my camera, and just record the comings and goings for at least an hour or so. One could just sit there, just lost in thought, watching all of the activities.

[louis-t]

53. One other thing comes to mind....

The collapse of family farms. Tsf's tariff war caused farmers to lose customers in droves. Less farming equals less pesticide use. Or it could just be a cyclical trend. What do I know?

[Zeitghost]

63. There are fewer farms and farmers

But they are larger, so the same or more acreage is being farmed.

When small farmers sell out, larger farmers are almost always the buyers.

[NickB79]

57. Honeybees are livestock, not wildlife. Non-native, invasive species in most of the world

They're the insect equivalent of allowing goats to graze native landscapes, to the detriment of native insect pollinators.

The only reason people care about honeybees so much is that they're part of a cog in the industrial food industry. We use them to pollinate vast fields of fruit trees (also non-native) because we've wiped out the native wildflowers and habitat.

Honeybees are good for humans and our agricultural systems. Outside of their native range in Europe, they're not good for the environment. We need them to create our food, just like we need pigs, cattle, and chickens.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-problem-with-honey-bees/

https://www.nwf.org/Home/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2021/June-July/Gardening/Honey-Bees

https://e360.yale.edu/features/will-putting-honey-bees-on-public-lands-threaten-native-bees

[MagickMuffin]

61. I had a colony of feral honeybees, I called the BeeCharmer

Here is what she the BeeCharmer told me about feral honeybees and honeybees in general.

Honeybees have raider bees which will fly in a 10 mile radius to rob other honeybees honey. If someone humanoid has poisoned the honeybees the raider bees will carry that poison with them which will kill off the other hives.

The BeeCharmer took our honeybees with her, gave me a jar of honey which was really good.

[TexasDem69]

62. We've lived in the Fort Worth TX area for a few years

And there is a holly bush outside the front window and I’ve noticed tons and tons of honey bees on it this year. Way more than past years. So at least anecdotally this story sounds right.

A bit off topic, but about 5 years ago when we lived in Arlington VA we put the fake spiderwebs on some bushes for Halloween and a lot of bumblebees were trapped and died. That was a lesson learned—please don’t use those on anything that’s going to attract bees.

[ecstatic]

67. They're back with a vengeance outside my house

Huge and strong. They knock against my window for some reason. I'm surprised they can take the hit.