Organic Beekeepers Reporting Zero Losses

[Celebration]

http://groovygreen.com/groove/?p=1388

With all the frightening news over bee losses throughout the world, it appears that one tiny minor piece of information was overlooked: the losses are occurring in colonies besieged with chemicals and artificial additives. Organic bees are fairing quite nicely, thank you. From the article,

“‘I’m on an organic beekeeping list of about 1,000 people, mostly Americans, and no one in the organic beekeeping world, including commercial beekeepers, is reporting colony collapse on this list,’ said Sharon Labchuck. ‘The problem with the big commercial guys is that they put pesticides in their hives to fumigate for varroa mites, and they feed antibiotics to the bees. They also haul the hives by truck all over the place to make more money with pollination services, which stresses the colonies.’”

In our efforts to make larger bees that are resistant to more predators or diseases — have we crossed the line in how far we could go? As the article states, “Who should be surprised that the major media reports forget to tell us that the dying bees are actually hyper-bred varieties that we coax into a larger than normal body size? It sounds just like the beef industry. And, have we here a solution to the vanishing bee problem? Is it one that the CCD Working Group, or indeed, the scientific world at large, will support? Will media coverage affect government action in dealing with this issue?”

[evlbstrd]

1. Some things you just shouldn't fuck with.

Genetic modification, at it's current knowledge level, is one of them.
Haven't these people read sci-fi, or have they read too much of it?

[patrice]

2. Thanks! This is cheering news.

BTW, at the grocery store, if there's an organic choice on the shelf, I buy it.

[Mind_your_head]

3. Yeah, sure.....

:eyes:

This is a propaganda piece obviously.

What beekeeper in their right mind wouldn't be worried about the decimation of the bee colony's even if at the moment it didn't affect them?

Another lie story.

[lazer47]

4. I agree with you.

[Celebration]

5. Ummm

Who isn't worried? I agree that anyone, beekeeper or not, would be worried about the decimation of the bee colonies.

But what in the article says people are not worried?

[Mind_your_head]

6. The title of the OP for starters....

Organic Beekeepers Reporting Zero Losses

(ZERO losses = No problem)

DUH! DUH! DUH!

[Trillo]

7. Are you claiming that the crux of the story,

that there is no colony collapse for organically husbanded bees, is false?

[Celebration]

11. "New Zealand Reporting Zero Bee Losses"

If that were the title of an article, would you conclude that New Zealand didn't care about our loss of bees?

It seems to me that when everyone is trying to guess the reason that honeybees are dying, that some place or method that they are *not* dying is relevant to trying to discern the reason for their losses.

In other words, it is a piece of the puzzle.

[Trillo]

8. Link please.

I've seen plenty of bees, just today, on my 'red apple', an iceplant like ground cover. I see them every sunny day I walk out there.

So, I'm wondering where the colony collapse is occurring.

[NickB79]

9. Are they honeybees, or native bees?

The native bees in N. America aren't in decline, only the imported European honeybees that are used to pollinate commercially grown vegetables.

[Celebration]

10. Organic honeybees

Here is more--

http://www.informationliberation.com/index.php?id=21912

This change from fighting the mites is mostly because I've gone to natural sized cells. In case you weren't aware, and I wasn't for a long time, the foundation in common usage results in much larger bees than what you would find in a natural hive. I've measured sections of natural worker brood comb that are 4.6mm in diameter. What most people use for worker brood is foundation that is 5.4mm in diameter. If you translate that into three dimensions instead of one, it produces a bee that is about half as large again as is natural. By letting the bees build natural sized cells, I have virtually eliminated my Varroa and Tracheal mite problems. One cause of this is shorter capping times by one day, and shorter post-capping times by one day. This means less Varroa get into the cells, and less Varroa reproduce in the cells.

Who should be surprised that the major media reports forget to tell us that the dying bees are actually hyper-bred varieties that we coax into a larger than normal body size? It sounds just like the beef industry. And, have we here a solution to the vanishing bee problem? Is it one that the CCD Working Group, or indeed, the scientific world at large, will support? Will media coverage affect government action in dealing with this issue?

These are important questions to ask. It is not an uncommonly held opinion that, although this new pattern of bee colony collapse seems to have struck from out of the blue (which suggests a triggering agent), it is likely that some biological limit in the bees has been crossed. There is no shortage of evidence that we have been fast approaching this limit for some time.

We've been pushing them too hard, Dr. Peter Kevan, an associate professor of environmental biology at the University of Guelph in Ontario, told the CBC. And we're starving them out by feeding them artificially and moving them great distances. Given the stress commercial bees are under, Kevan suggests CCD might be caused by parasitic mites, or long cold winters, or long wet springs, or pesticides, or genetically modified crops. Maybe it's all of the above...

[Recursion]

14. I'm not sure what you're saying

I didn't get any sense that organic beekeepers weren't worried, just that they aren't seeing colonies collapse?

:shrug:

Do you know of organic colony collapses that the article doesn't know about?

[TheWraith]

18. I tend to agree with you.

This article is basically a puff piece which insinuates that being "organic" is what protects bees, whereas they ignore the fact that these small independent growers probably have far fewer risk factors: smaller hives, meaning less chance of disease spreading; not trucking the colonies all over the country to pollinate crops; and not being in contact with other large bee colonies, minimizing the ability of mites to spread. It's not reasoned, it's just a self-promotion.

Personally, though, I'm not that worried about the bee thing: I think it's not nearly as apocalyptic as some people try to make it seem.

[FloridaJudy]

12. Has anyone surveyed amateur beekeepers?

The folks who keep a back-yard hive or two for the fun of it? A few of my neighbors did this in Berkeley back in the early seventies. I would expect these bees would be less subject to heavy pesticide/antibiotic use, and they definitely are not being hauled around. If the pet bees are doing just fine, then maybe something about commercial practices is stressing the bees to death.

If amateurs are noticing an increase in colony collapse, then I'd be very, very worried.

[progressoid]

13. It's obvious that these organic bees use land-lines and not cell phones.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

K&R in the hopes that it's true.

[PBS Poll-435]

20. You're just trying to win a DUZY!

:-)

[bvar22]

15. Ours are doing well.....so far.

We are not certified organic, but we do practice organic methods.
We are many miles from any industry, population centers, cell phones, agri-business, GM crops, or commercial honey enterprises (West Central Arkansas).

Our colonies are new this year, but so far, so good. The bees seem happy, and are going about their business making honey, pollinating our gardens, fruit trees, wild flowers, and making more bees.
We are planning on adding 4 more colonies next spring.

We aren't wringing our hands with worry, but we do keep up with the news on CCD and watch our colonies closely.

[progressoid]

21. Very cool!

That you in that pic?

[bvar22]

16. delete

:dunce:

[earth mom]

17. Proves once again that you don't mess with Mother Nature!

When will those idiots learn?!

Probably never-because their greed outweighs their common sense! :argh:

[never cry wolf]

19. Does anyone know why commercial beekeepers want larger bees?

Obviously, one would think that a larger bee will produce more honey than a smaller one, bee for bee but wouldn't overall production be the same with more, smaller natural sized bees? It would seem to me that 12,000 natural sized bees would produce the same as 10,000 bees that are 20% larger and would do a better, more thorough job in pollenation.

:shrug:

[eridani]

22. I've been skipping all the bee threads until now

Too damned depressing. But now we have a clue about how to procede from here--excellent news!