HOW ARE THE HONEY BEES DOING THIS 2013?

As you can see from my other blog postings, I'm crazy about bees.  I love them, have no fear of them, and can go very close to them. They don't mind me at all.

Sometime after 2006, I learned that the bees (especially the domesticated ones) were dying; the syndrome was dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder.  Basically bees abandoned their  hives and some would be found dead or flying about looking confused before dropping dead. The situation has been so bad that the agricultural industry has felt the economic impact.  Many plants rely on bees for pollination.  These poor domesticated bees are shipped long distances (at times from one country to another) to pollinate huge farms, almonds, okra, onion, celery, beet. mustard, cabbage -- the list is long (click here for a list of crops pollinated by bees).


In China for instance, the population of bees has declined drastically that humans are doing the pollinating themselves (read Decline of Bees Forces China's Apple Farmers to pollinate by hand).

In recent years, people in the US have been encouraged to plant bee-friendly flowers in their garden for the wild bees; they've been discouraged from using pesticides (a big No-No as pesticides are highly suspected of causing CCD); and urban beekeeping has been encouraged.  There are beehives in the rooftops of New York and Paris.  
Unfortunately domesticated bees continue to suffer, and recent news indicate that more bees are dying (read Worst bee die-off in 40 years). 

There is strong scientific evidence that bees are dying because of neurotoxic pesticides called neonicotinoids or neonics.  Early this year, the Europeans banned the use of neonicotinoids. However the US continues to hem and haw about what the cause of the die-off. Authorities will not ban the use of neonics. They come up with many other reasons why the bees are dying. Meantime the bees in European countries (Italy, Germany, France, and others) where they have limited neonics are recovering.

So there it is.  Apparently even the birds are suffering from the use of neonics.

We -- man that is -- are just going to have to stop and think why bees, bats and birds are dying.  Aside from the scientific reason, there are deeper reasons that have to do with man's attitude toward nature and earth.

Before it's too late, we must think and act to save the world and ourselves.

Albert Einstein said, "If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live."

That's a frightening thought.

I checked my plants today and I did not find bees at all. I don't know what this means because I do usually find them on my bee-friendly flowers.

The pictures show my garden, and earlier pictures of bees in my garden.
~~~
Read my other links about Bees:

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) -
What Kind of Bees Are These? 
Honey Bees in my Chimney!
Bees in my Garden
Vanishing of the Bees
More on Bees
Bees in my Garden - Wild and Domesticated!

All for now (the jet lag is better!),

Cecilia

tags: bees, Colony Collapse Disorder, vanishing bees, bee die-off, gardening, insects, apiculture, beekeeping