More 'bees are dying' news from Haagen Dazs

[Paul B]

http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/17/news/companies/bees_icecream/index.htm

Premium maker Haagen-Dazs says vanishing bee colonies in the U.S. could mean fewer flavors and high prices.

 

[MasterBlaster]

"The Butterfly Affect" comes to mind.

 

[stehansen]

Bees are a huge deal around here. They have been having trouble with the trachea mite and verroa mite. A million hives are trucked into here for a month or so and then they leave. That sucks about the ice cream, I'm a big fan.

 

[Bodean]

Lots of Bee death on the footsteps of the Hives around here.

They should be jammin right now.

 

[RIVERRAT]

Bees are a huge deal around here. They have been having trouble with the trachea mite and verroa mite. A million hives are trucked into here for a month or so and then they leave.

Is this just for pollination of crops ?

 

[stehansen]

Is this just for pollination of crops ?

Yeah, mostly almonds. To be more specific almonds although they will wind pollinate are greatly helped by insect pollinatin and the added yield affords them the money with which to pay bee keepers to come in and put their bees there for a month and then they are done. I think the bee keepers get $80/hive for the month. They put the bees out usually at night while they are inactive so you just usually see the out of state bee guy's rigs at the motel in the morning. They usually have a flat bed 2 axle truck with a trailer and an articulated swinger with a forklift mast or a skidsteer to unload/load the bee hives. The other crops that use bees like melons and stuff are usually serviced by the local bee guys. Deva is right about the wild bees, there are almost none left, and the ones left are usually severely weakened by the two mites I mentioned.

 

[Frans]

Lots of Bee death on the footsteps of the Hives around here.

They should be jammin right now.

Deva, could you explain what you posted?


Sorry, but to me it reads like, confusing.....



Reminds me of extreme's posts

 

[TC3]

Is this just for pollination of crops ?

Only for the pollination of just about everything.
Bees & frogs on the decline >>> Doesn't seem like a big deal at all until it affects us humans.

 

[Bodean]

Frans,

Most white boxed hives I see in front yards used to pollinate property are littered with dead bees on the hives' front steps.

Seems these bees should be jammin with pollination right now.

Flying about working, instead they're dead.

 

[squisher]

You gots to be down with the lingo homes.

 

[Bodean]

Frans, we were, like, all there, man.

I lost your phone number.

 

[stehansen]

Frans, we were, like, all there, man.

I lost your phone number.

What's with all those little marks between the words? Man.

 

[Bodean]

Thanks, I forgot to mention that thingy, too.

to answer your question, dead bees.

 

[Cobleskill]

You guys see the quote from Einstein how long he gave the human race to suvive without honeybees? I forget how many years he gave us but not many. Anybody remember?



ow many years but notmany.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I sure have killed a lot of them over the years.

 

[RIVERRAT]

Me to. Couple of times I felt bad. Each hive in the wild seems to have it's own personality.

I have worked around a couple of hives that gave me no trouble at all. All the time running a saw & crossing their entry way.
Oh I kept my eye on them. One hand on my hitch while making sure my line stayed clear below me.
Even had the groudies roll the windows up on the trucks, so if I needed to come smoking out of the tree I had a safe place to retreat. Should they follow me.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I don't run across em near as much as I used to in the past.

 

[TC3]

Somebody mentioned to me before that if you find a large hive during a takedown to call a beekeeper & they'll gladly come gather it up ? That'd be cool if you knew someone local who could get there a.s.a.p. >>> I'd imagine that finding the queen would be their main objective ?

 

[MasterBlaster]

That would be cool, but most of the time the hive is high in the tree.

 

[squisher]

I don't think what we'd all kill working residentially or in the bush is much of a concern. Don't get me wrong I'm sure it's not helping the situation, but from what I've read about it it's more of a bee immune system problem. Sorta like AID's for bees but brought on from changes/stresses. That was my take from doing some googling.

 

[Bounce]

I remember learning about this in college. They were still trying to figure out why back then, but they knew that a couple parasites were killing mass #'s of bees. The danger is that most plants rely on bees for pollination so they can reproduce. No more bees means no more plants, which will truly suck for everyone and everything.

 

[Cobleskill]

Varoa and tracheal mites, and nosema, are the suspects along with stress, chemicals, viruses, and funguses. Nobody really is sure yet.

 

[rumination]

Theresa, I have had a beekeeper come and salvage a hive from a tree for me before. It's pretty cool.

 

[Cobleskill]

Bees are fascinating. I had a few hives in the 80's. There is a lot of knowledge required to do a good job keeping them. Rumination, did they cut the comb out and put it in a hive? That is tricky work and unpleasant, as the bees get pissed. The easy way is take the whole section of the tree with you if possible.

 

[rumination]

No, the hive was in a 2' dia hollow limb that had cracked and gotten hung up in another tree. I had no choice but to cut it free and let it fall to the ground (surrounded by bees the whole time). The beekeeper then came in and I cut the log open to expose the hive. It was pretty much a disaster zone inside so the queen was probably squished. So just to salvage things he opened up an empty hive box and put some queen pheromone inside. It was amazing to see all the bees flock to it. He said he would try to either acclimate the bees to one of his existing hives or maybe give them a new queen to start a new hive. This was on Oahu, and the Big Island next door has a huge queen bee industry so he said for him new queens were pretty easy to come by. This was all before the varroa mite hit Hawaii.