Do you see any bees where you live?

Upstate NY..
Yes, See quite a few Bees, Just yesterday I saw at least 6 or 7.
Big fat ones to. lol

yeah a few this morning. but i gotta admit that i see less and less bees around and that they all appear sickly or lame. something seems to be going on with them.

Originally posted by loueber
No honey bees, but MANY more fuzzy bumble bees so far this year then prior years.

Note: was reading yesterday that honey bees are not indigenous to North America. they were shipped over from Egypt years ago. Article also said that local bees do more pollinating then honey bees do... and that crops survived for thousands of years before honey bees came to america (now all honey bees coming to america are stopped at the border, frisked and groped by the TSA, and got so pissed off they refuse to be part of the Obamanation and went back home)

Untrue. Honey bees in general are native to North America and the US --- fossil record bears this out. The particular breeds we keep have been imported from Europe (and somewhat recently, Russia) because of the various characteristics that make them good for apiculture --- disease resistant, docile, productive and able to over-winter. In general all bees now come from large apiaries in the U.S. (predominantly the South).

We saw honey bees working when we had our early season warm spell up here in MA but it haas been unseasonably cool, rainy and cloudy so the bees are keeping to the hive cluster till it warms up. It's still somewhat early up here in the northeast as far as the bees go.

To the OP: Since you're a prepper and seem to be located in an advantageous area why not setup a couple hives? Lots of honey (which never goes bad and needs no preservation) and can be made into mead wine. Not to mention beeswax for candles.

Western Pa. 25 miles south of Pittsburgh.
2 acres in the country.
Average temp. last 10 days low to mid 80's.
No bee activity yet this season. Very little
activity last summer. Usually find underground
bumble bee nests when mowing but even they
have been very few.

reply to post by mwc273


Yesterday, in my yard in Gilbert, AZ, I saw at least 15 in the flowers and bushes. They seem to be alive and well in AZ.

Sadly I see bees all the time, my window is quite large and I am near the top of the house where there is a nice little nesting spot. Every time I lay down for a nap I can see those big bees and smaller ones (sorry not a person who knows a lot about them) buzzing around and building nests. I even see some near our mailboxes. Though there actually are not as many as there were in previous years though they still exist over here.

It's funny you should mention it.....We have a crazy bee infestation in February. It was abnormally warm and they came out of nowhere and kept getting into our house. They would buzz around the windows and then die there.

Now that it is officially spring, I haven't seen any honey bees, nor any wasps either, for that matter. Plenty of those carpenter bees, and the stingless bees, however.

Location: Border of west Texas / eastern New Mexico
Temperature: 99 degrees currently
Low humidity and windy

Originally posted by loueber


Note: was reading yesterday that honey bees are not indigenous to North America. they were shipped over from Egypt years ago. Article also said that local bees do more pollinating then honey bees do... and that crops survived for thousands of years before honey bees came to america

Yep, Honey Bees were brought over from europe to help pollinate fruit (mostly apple) trees. There are TONS of native pollinators out there, including ants, flies and wasps. "Conventional' monoculture farming practices pretty much require honeybees as pollinators because they kill off most of the other pollinators through their chemical and monoculture practices. So they bring in honeybees on giant flatbed trucks (Like this: www.truckaccidentlaw.org... ) to pollinate their crops.

It gets tiring to hear people repeat the misnomer that states that if the honeybees die, no food will be pollinated. It's simply not true. It CERTAINLY would impact the way we grow food in an industrial manner, but flowers would still be pollinated.

That said, your last sentence is a bit misleading. Most 'crops' we grow now were not actually present in N. America prior to Europeans arriving. And certainly they were not grown on such an industrial scale. But it's true that 'natives' to the Americas were growing a good bit of grain crops like corn with no honey bees and were doing just fine.

Originally posted by JibbyJedi
Southern NH

I have 2 apple tree/bushes in front and there were literally 100s of bees going to town on them last week. I've never seen as many bees here as I did last week. No bee problems here.

Same here (NW Missouri) though it was a couple weeks ago the trees were in flower. Large numbers of bees especially around the apple and persimon (sp) trees. Also, they were all over the flowers my wife put out. I have noticed a large incease in the carpenter bee population in my walk-ins and barns. I guess its the older wood that attracts them. The outbuildings are quite old.

Originally posted by jtma508
Honey bees in general are native to North America and the US --- fossil record bears this out. The particular breeds we keep have been imported from Europe

I would be interested to see your source on that. Because it contradicts everything I have ever read on the subject.

The honey bee is not native to North America; it was introduced from Europe for honey production in the early 1600s, Johnston said. Subspecies were introduced from Italy in 1859, and later from Spain, Portugal and elsewhere. When honey bees collected in Europe and Africa were studied, they separated genetically into four distinct groups, he said. However, the genome of U.S. bees "was a complete mix of the three different introduced European subspecies," he said.

webcache.googleusercontent.com...:hWTNq3jXTJMJ:ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm%3Fpostnum%3D1544+honey+bees+native+n+america n+fossil+record&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca&client=firefox-a
www.sciencedaily.com...

ETA: searching for your claim, I DID find this article that seems to support your claiim. Unfortunately, I cant access it (paywall)

www.sciencenews.org...

Honey bees existed at least 14 million years ago in North America, according to a fossil record recently identified by paleontologist-entomologist Michael Engle of the University of Kansas, Lawrence. The fossilized female worker bee, now at the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, was unearthed in paper shale from Stewart Valley, west-central Nevada. The geological epoch: Middle Miocene.

reply to post by stanguilles7


research.calacademy.org...

and here:

beekeepingtimes.com...&-events/on-the-research-front/47/254-new-apis-fossil-extends-honey-bee-geographic-spread-to-north-america

I'm a beekeeper myself. I keep up on these kinds of things.

edit on 4-5-2012 by jtma508 because: add'l source

Originally posted by jtma508
reply to post by stanguilles7

 

research.calacademy.org...

I'm a beekeeper myself. I keep up on these kinds of things.

Yeah, thats new info to me. Thanks so much for the link! I'd give you five starts if i could.

So, as a beekeeper, whats yr opinion on CCD? I have a beekeeping farmer friend who says he thinks its more related to changing n american climate than long-term chemical exposure

reply to post by mwc273


Date: 5/4/2012
Location: Ensenada, Mexico
Temperature: 73
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Observation: on lemon and orange trees, 10
Observation: in garden: Count - 2

I see bees everyday here, they love my fruit trees and open flowers. I live on a 1/4 acre with most of the land devoted to my small garden and fruit/nut trees.

reply to post by mwc273


Are bees normally very active in your area this time of year? I ask, because just looking at the weather for your region, you guys had consistent lows dipping down to freezing just a week ago.. That would certainly limit the amount of bees you are seeing.

there was a huge honey bee nest in a building I worked in not to long ago.... thousands of bees... then the boss sprayed bee killer and that yellow foam into the hole they were moving through...... good bye honey bees

Just the big fat territorial ones that chase you till the next county over.

South Western Ontario here and the only bees I have seen so far this year are Bumble Bees and that is it.
For the past 4 years we have had a honey bee nest under our wooden framework for our back veggie garden but not last year nor this year.

We have a fish pond and it usually attracts the bees because it is an endless water supply.

No yellow jackets at all this year and we usually have a ton of them around our yard.

Good thread and I will stay tuned to read all of the posts here, it is going to be a good read to see where and when there is a problem with the bee population.

S&F
Regards, Iwinder

West Roxbury, MA (south west Boston)
I have seen a few honey bees but it gets fewer every year over about the last 7 years or so.
We have yellow jackets, brown hornets, bumble bees and carpenter bees but even those are fewer. The only groups of bees I see are bumble bees.

Very sad and scary.

reply to post by mwc273


I was very worried about the bees not returning this year because of all the bee kill off going on but thankfully yes they are here and the numbers are at least equal to the prior 4 years I have lived here. Southern TX border area.

I have seen a bunch of wasps, I have wasps nests on either side of my balcony so they are out there all the time. I have only seen a couple honey bees though.