Bee's making a recovery?

What is it? It looks like a normal bee to me.

reply to post by VitalOverdose


It's an africanized honey bee also known as a killer bee.

Horrible little things that kill without prejudice. Any person or creature unlucky enough to step on one (when you step on a killer bee or even stir one up they release a pheromone that calls the hive to action) or disturb a hive will feel the wrath of these death bees.

This should about sum it up.

Like some others have said, we're toast without them. It's a pretty sad state of affairs that there aren't enough wild bees to keep agriculture going. And there's no doubt in my mind that we'll mess them up somehow if they all become domesticated. -You'll have to buy genetically manipulated bees from Monsanto.

Anyhoo, scientists in India announced yesterday that cell phones really do harm bees in a big way. I know they do some good but man I hate those things.

www.google.com...

reply to post by DaMod


that second video has a realistic re-enactment.

I wonder what killer bee honey tastes like?


[edit on 1-9-2009 by VitalOverdose]

reply to post by VitalOverdose


$8.00 for 12 ounces

Killer Bee Honey is a wildflower honey produced by the Africanized Bees of Brazil. Therefore, the flavor varies a bit from year to year, but tends to be a nice natural caramel taste. This rich taste makes it suitable for everything from baking to teas and brewing!

Source

However they are no longer just in Brazil. Unfortunately they have moved as far north as Utah... That's only one state down from me.


[edit on 1-9-2009 by DaMod]

Here's some pics I snapped the other day of Australian honey bees in action on an Echium plant. This plant's nectar draws them in 100s at a time.






[edit on 23/9/2009 by Pilgrum]

OP, I LOVE your pictures, very very cool! A and S&F to you there!!

It's interesting what Phage said about managed hives.. May really be onto something there.. (Star!)

When I started out beekeeping, we used very strict hive methods, really quite intensive, and wondered why the bees weren't as healthy as expected. We were using very conventional methods, used the world over, but something wasn't right with then.

So, for the past couple of years, we've been using experimental hives first set out by Abbe Warre, which mimic a treetrunk, like the bees would use in a wild colony. Almost immediately, the bees are a lot happier, they're less stingy, more productive and we don't need to mess up the nest anywhere near as much as we had to before! It's a great method! Warre Hive Linky

But, on a commercial level, it's pretty unviable and impractical, so unfortunately, the use of conventional hives, coupled with intensive breeding practices, are causing a decline in the bee numbers! It's sad but true.

If anyone has any questions about bees or keeping, feel free to ask! I'd be more than happy to answer anything you'd throw at me! Just your friendly neighbourhood beekeeper!!



[edit on 23/9/2009 by purehughness]

reply to post by VitalOverdose


Gosh I sure hope they make a come back!!

I just spoke (and I mean 20 minutes ago) to a lady in California who has a huge colony in her wall she wants someone to come and take..... she says there honey bee's.
Told her there has got to be someone down there in California who would like a healthy colony of honey bee's? I would but I am in Oregon.
So keep your eye out in craigslist if your in California. She said she will put the add out soon.....

We are farm land here, with hundreds of acres planted the bigger farmers are bringing in colonies. This is the only way we have been seeing them for the last couple of years in our gardens (gardens, more then one).
Otherwise ants, other species of bee's, other insects have been pollinating for us..... a real shame!!
Honey bee's produce honey, I love honey!! Honey bee's on a big scale will be just devastating to us all if they get wiped out!!

I seen where in some country they are hand pollinating, what a lot of work!! Why not just let nature do it?? We have to quit spraying all these chemicals and altering nature..... try to control nature and nature will make you sorry.

Great post!!

Originally posted by Phage
Apparently, the problem is with "managed" hives, not wild hives.

I think you're spot on with that one.

In the last 5 years I've had 2 hives in my roof from wild honey bees and today I noticed some new activity up there.

The first one was removed by the local fire brigade for me, the second one I left because it wasn't causing any problems. I was replacing my roof at the time and when I got to the area with the hive, they swarmed and set off for pastures new.

If I get another one I'll probably leave it as long as I can although I have to render a new ridge up there soon.

I love the little critters and would never want to hurt them. Plenty of activity round here (rural France) from honey bees and bumble bees and the amazing hummingbird moths that seem to go crazy for my lavender.

bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[edit on 23/9/2009 by nerbot]

reply to post by Pilgrum


Thanks for posting your lovely pics

heres a couple of pics of a bumble bee i got the other day

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/04e40715bd7f.jpg[/atsimg]
(c) VitalGFX 2009

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/05b945c14595.jpg[/atsimg]
(c) VitalGFX 2009

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/b5dbc2198d23.jpg[/atsimg](c) VitalGFX 2009

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4a38d47a8a5b.jpg[/atsimg](c) VitalGFX 2009

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/43f450cb789d.jpg[/atsimg](c) VitalGFX 2009

[edit on 23-9-2009 by VitalOverdose]

reply to post by VitalOverdose


Amazing macro pics you have there

Must endeavour to get a pic or 2 of the local bumblebees sometime soon, clumsy yet endearing things they are.

There are 2 recent reports on this subject that I heard about in the last few months. One is a student documentary that won a contest on the C-SPAN channel and website. Here is that link:

www.c-spanarchives.org...

The other is a book just published (August 2009) that was reviewed on the Book TV channel, which is also associated with C-SPAN. The book is called Fruitless fall, and is written by a government scientist. Here is that description and a link to the video book review on Book TV:

www.booktv.org...

Here is a link to the full description of that book on Amazon website:

www.amazon.com...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253821536&sr=1-1

For the last several years, my neighborhood (mountain area near the coast) has seen many wild bees, including some bumblebees. Overall numbers are down a bit perhaps, which may be purely due to the longstanding drought here in L.A. County.

[edit on 9/24/2009 by Uphill]

[edit on 25-9-2009 by VitalOverdose]

VitalOverdose,

I recently attended an Open House at the UC Berkeley campus where an update on bee survival was given by Prof. Claire Kremen of the UC Berkeley environmental science faculty. Dr. Kremen has done some pioneering studies in Yolo County, California to identify factors that help or hurt bee survival in agriculture. For example, she finds that conventional agriculture hurts bees, because of factors such as all the plant species being in bloom for one short time interval, whereas having a variety of plants in bloom at more staggered (or ideally continuous availability of having something in bloom) intervals is a key to bee survival. Here is one free summary I found that talks about her work:

www.mofga.org...

Another factor that influences bee survival is the availability of undisturbed ground for the many wild bee species. In Yolo county, organic farms that have adjacent hilly areas which are not being cultivated had the most viable bee species that Dr. Kremen has found so far. Dr. Kremen also gave some examples of native U.S. wild species of bees, but the most vivid example was of solitary bees, which do not live in hives. Who knew? Solitary bees nest in the ground, but that ground must be undisturbed in order for the bee to survive.

Let me look for the notes I took during her speech; there were a number of other very interesting findings she reported. Possibly the online Public Library of Science has some of her studies included that can be read for free. I'll have to take a look later at PLOS for her name and see if it's there.