One-third of honeybee colonies in US died last winter: The food collapse approaches

One-third of honeybee colonies in US died last winter: The food collapse approaches

(NaturalNews) The Bee Informed Partnership (BIP) recently published preliminary data from its annual review of bee colony declines in the U.S., and the findings from this report are mind-boggling. According to the latest survey results, an astounding 31.3 percent, or roughly one-third, of all managed bee colonies in the U.S. were wiped out during the most recent 2012/2013 winter season, a rate that represents a 42 percent increase compared to the number of colonies lost during the previous 2011/2012 winter season.

According to BIP, which works in collaboration with both the Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. beekeepers on average lost more than 45 percent of their colonies during the 2012/2013 winter season, a 78.2 percent jump in losses over the previous season. And overall, more than 70 percent of respondents, most of whom were backyard beekeepers, experienced losses beyond the 15 percent "acceptable" threshold, illustrating a monumental problem not only for bee survival but also for the American food supply.

Since 2006, total bee colony losses have hovered around 30 percent, sometimes a little higher and sometimes a little lower. And the situation was believed by some to be improving when the overall percentage of colony losses declined sharply during the 2011/2012 winter season by almost 10 percent. But now that the death toll has jumped once again beyond the 30 percent mark, many are worried that this year-after-year compounded increase will very soon make it impossible for grow enough food.

I'm not sure if many people recognize this as a serious problem, yet, as this article states, these losses could spell serious Food Supply problems in the near future...

Besides the obvious chemical poisoning theories, are there any other suggestions on increasing colony sizes?

Here are some of the supporting reference articles:
beeinformed.org...
www.wired.com...

reply to post by Hx3_1963


Not sure how big of an issue this really would be.

You can certainly get other insects to do the job of the Honeybee and although they may not be as efficient I'd imagine just increasing their numbers would make-up for the Honeybee loss.

Unless they are dying to which would make this point irrelevant I suppose.

May be scare tactics looking for funding? Bees aren't the only pollinators (other insects do as well), and honeybees are just one type of bee (and often not the most efficient pollinators). I do think we should follow some of the EU's steps in pesticide limitations though.

reply to post by Hopechest


Hope... I think it is important to understand that nature requires balance. Mankind has seen many times what happens when we simply substitute one facet of nature for another. We end up with scourges such as Garlic Mustard smothering the US, Zebra Mussels trashing the Great Lakes, Asian Carp choking US waterways and countless others.

The honey bee die-off should be headline news. This will most certainly cause food shortages. Couple this with the on-going climate change and drought being experienced all over the world and we have the ingredients to fulfill a recipe for disaster.

Originally posted by kozmo
reply to post by Hopechest

 

Hope... I think it is important to understand that nature requires balance. Mankind has seen many times what happens when we simply substitute one facet of nature for another. We end up with scourges such as Garlic Mustard smothering the US, Zebra Mussels trashing the Great Lakes, Asian Carp choking US waterways and countless others.

The honey bee die-off should be headline news. This will most certainly cause food shortages. Couple this with the on-going climate change and drought being experienced all over the world and we have the ingredients to fulfill a recipe for disaster.

Well actually we substituted the Honeybee for the pollinaters that were already here. The Honeybee is not native to North America, it was brought here.

Perhaps that was the mistake in the first place.

reply to post by Hopechest


I was not aware of that! Thanks for the info... Looks like I need to do my homework.

Agreed, this really should be headline news. It was here in the UK for a while when the EU was debating banning neonicitinoid pesticides, lots of big business spokesmen telling us there was nothing to worry about, it was just a co-incidence that all of the bees were dying with high concentrations of neonicitinoids in their systems and hives.

Thankfully the ban has gone through now though. So with any luck the slide in Europe might slow a little. Though I fear the damage may already have been done.

It's worse than it seems, I'm afraid.

Dan Rather did an entire program on the subject, showing all angles of the problem (except alternate pollinators).

Almond farmers, bee breeders, and bee brokers are flipping out...u gotsta see this. (new program, from just a few months ago)

It's rather nice that they finally bother to notice. I've been off the road in produce trucking since late 2010 and among the produce and major growing areas? This was ringing alarm bells of 5-Alarm crisis a few years before that. It was a wee little problem just showing potential to become more, at that point. The growers knew what people seem to pass over there.

Bees are not "just bees". They are among a few 'index' species in the world. So termed because they stand as a look at the health of the overall ecosystem, all by themselves. Bees, Frogs and Bats are among the top index species. Oh, and among those with chronic, systemic fatal threats right now? Bees, frogs and bats.

Remove any of those three? Our life is fundamentally transformed in very negative ways ...and in time short enough to be worried about. Years, not decades ...perhaps shorter. It depends on which crashed first and how profoundly the crash within the species is, IMO. They're each capable of announcing doom on a stick though. The bees seem to be buzzing it pretty loudly, if we'll stop to listen.

Perhaps the honey bee, was an import, but the continent was not under intensive cultivation either....
The fact that we have millions upon millions of acres of foodplants to pollenate now, makes honey bees a basic part of our food chain.
Monsanto has an agenda......the loss of the worlds bees is part of that agenda.
They absolutely plan to control the worlds food souces and will stop at nothing o do so.
Why would they be developing mechanical robot bees at Monsanto?
Because they are puling off a scam that will leave them in control of pollination, as well as genetics
Might be reaching a bit hey Hope?
I dont think so anymore....its getting rather blatant.


Everybody should be raising MASON BEES
they dont make honey but they sure do pollinate the crops.....
The coccoons sleep all winter and come out in the spring ready to go to work.

In my area (western-slope colorado) the bee population is stable, even increasing. I had three semi-active hives at the end of season last year, two of which this year have already had new queens born and swarms break off. Luckily, we were able to capture the new swarms as they formed.. from three to five hives over winter. This seems to be typical in this area.

Hype? Maybe...

Hype not.
The commercial bee people with thousands of hives are the ones who are rporting these losses
Id say the smaller bee keepers are slightly better off .........though in some area maybe not....
I am sure we have a problem....but if you are locally experiencing better results then maybe theres an answer to why the others are dying off???
at least a clue maybe...............