What steps do we take to save the honey bee?

Answer 1

Plain not true that honey bees are responsible for such a huge amount of polination of our food supply. Most of our foot supply is either self polinated or is polinated by the wind or other insects.

The honey bee is needed in certain fruits and in cucumbers and some squashes, however, a substitute midsized bumble bee has proven to be better adapted a much less expensive in these regards also.

One must remember, that tomatoes, corn, pototoes, and about 15 other fruit and vegitable crops are are native to the Americas. And that the Americas for eons had not a single honey bee in their territory. Not one.

The europeans brought over the honey bee to produce honey about 1500 or so. These native plants are responsible for nearly 95% of the worlds food supply and do not require a single honey bee to be produce and reproduce.

What you are hearing is the old "scare headlines" simply to get one to watch the news and show interest in certain so called "hot topics" that arent really as critical or important as one would think.

Lots of people here in midwest raising bees and they are doing very well every year. Hives have been dying out since i was a kid many many years ago as my family also raised bees for honey. Bees will be around, new colonies started each and every spring by every interested beekeeper.

FEAR NOT, The honey bee will always bee around and those wild ones that die out, welll, those are really tame ones that have fled the nest. There is ZERO shortage of polinating bees as I know it and right now, the beekeepers are loading their hives with new queens and a start brood the honey and yes, the POLINATION that some are so worried about will continue on for another year this 2007 and as always, the gossip about honey bees will continue.

Answer 2

Sure a few bees die right here and there whilst the hive is opened nonetheless that is quite inappropriate. It's anticipated that approximately one hundred fifty bees are killed every time the beekeeper opens this hive. When you don't forget that within the hight of the season the colonly will have round forty,000 bees one hundred fifty right here and there may be minuscule. I've noticeable a few persons on right here declare ridiculouse matters akin to each and every iciness the beekeeper kills all hives hives or that the bees are left to starve as soon as the honey is eliminated. None of that is real in any respect, and what's laughable is how misinformed a few of these persons quite are. It's within the beekeepers exceptional curiosity to preserve the bees healthful. I preserve a couple of hives of my possess and I can inform you that the healthful hives are way more efficient than the weaker ones. If the bees think burdened over being over crowded, loss of meals, disturbance to the hive, and many others they'll stand up and depart the hive. Nothing is preserving the bees within the guy made hives and in the event that they think it wanted they'll depart or in otherwords, swarm. The bees cannot be restricted no longer can they be poorly cared for. Using any pesticide style goes to tremendously damage a complete lot extra bees than consuming honey will. Even such a lot slight pesticides, viewed reliable for animals can extensively damage the wanted honey bees. Something plenty of vegans do not point out is they depend on beekeepers simply up to anybody else does. Allmost all plants want pollination from bees and so without the beekeepers there could be a big drop in meals creation.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

Theories include environmental change-related stresses, malnutrition, unknown pathogens (i.e., disease), mites, pesticides such as neonicotinoids, genetically modified (GM) crops or electromagnetic radiation, such as cellular phone signals. The increasing use of pesticides and herbicides weakening the bees makes a very compelling case since this problem has occurred since 1896, when it was called Fall Dwindle Disease. I doubt cell towers affected those nineteenth century bees. Nor the apiaries in the west where there is little cell service.
Many of our bees may be inbred since many apiarists buy queens from a very limited number of breeders. Inbreeding would impact their ability to fight a new disease.

First preliminary December 15, 2006, report that the neonicotinoids (nicotine-based pesticides, imidacloprid) will not kill adult bees directly on flowers and plants but...
"Recent research tested crops where seed was treated with imidacloprid. The chemical was present, by systemic uptake, in corn, sunflowers and rape pollen in levels high enough to pose a threat to honey bees. Additional research has found that imidacloprid impairs the memory and brain metabolism of bees, particularly the area of the brain that is used for making new memories.

"Implication: If bees are eating fresh or stored pollen contaminated with these chemicals at low levels, the pesticides might not cause mortality, but might impact the bees' ability to learn or make memories. If this is the case, young bees leaving the hives to make orientation flights might not be able to learn the location of the hive and might not be returning, causing the colonies to dwindle and eventually die. It is also possible that this is not the sole cause of the dwindling, but one of several contributing factors."
The hives are empty of workers but not the queen or young, it is highly unusual for a social insect to leave a queen and its brood or young behind. It seems they are going out and getting lost.
Imidachloprid, when it is used to control termites, does exactly the same thing. One of the methods it uses to kill termites is that the termites feed on this material and then go out to feed and can't remember how to get home. And it also causes their immune systems to collapse, causing what would be normal organisms to become pathogenic in them (bees).
Dr. Cox-Foster has seen as many as five different viruses and unidentified fungi in the bees. She says that is two times more pathogens than she's ever seen before in honey bees. This also indicates a collapse in their immune systems.
Ironically, the neonicotinoids were originally manufactured to be less lethal. They were just used to treat seeds then. Now it is being used as a foliage spray, it's being used as a systemic, it's being combined with fungicides, which increases its efficacy. So, it's use has changed.

So the question is: What does chronic exposure to the honey bee, either as an adult, or as the bees bring the material back to the nest to store and feed to developing young bees over time - what does chronic exposure (to pesticides) do to the colony?

The next question is what about the other pollinators? What is happening to the bumble bees, hornets, wasps, butterflies, beetles, ants, hummingbirds and even bats that visit plants and collect all the sprays in agricultural use?

My position is that we need to understand more of the soil's food web. While we are learning the safest approach is to be as organic as possible.

Answer 5

Nobody's figured out yet what's causing their disappearance. I heard on the radio the other morning that they now think that our cellphones may be interfering with their ability to find their way back to their hives. That, I guess, is just one theory. They'd better figure it out soon, though. Honeybees are directly responsible for 30 percent and indirectly responsible for 60 percent of our food supply!!

Answer 6

Th biggest problem is a mite thar infestst them, all known miticides effect the bees too.

http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/beemites/

what they need are a preditary miie that they can unleash in infected hives.

Answer 7

Get rid of the pesticides we spray.

Answer 8

No chemicals.

Answer 9

get off your phone