briandmyers, As a beekeeper your self, what do you make of this? Be apocolypse…, Or just something to be a bit concerned with? Also, Saydrah, have you ever heard your uncle speak of this? I recall that he is a beekeeper himself. In a situation like this, it's always nice to know what the people that are actually involved with it think.
CCD is the major problem today, and the article is correct, its cause most often seems to be varroa-related problems (worst being viruses). Feral hives are not doing well, which is a cause for concern, but I believe long-term those feral colonies will adapt and thrive again. I have no opinion on pesticides because I haven't done the research. All kinds of pesticides are bad news for bees, and many are illegal to use around bees, but those regs are seldom followed and difficult to enforce.
From the article it sounds like similar occurrences have happened throughout the past, hopefully it's only a temporary problem. Without feral hives we'd be pretty screwed, wouldn't we? That quote, whether it really is Einstein or not, is probably pretty accurate, though it may take longer than four years for the loss of bees to wipe out mankind. But perhaps not. pollination is pretty damned essential to life for us. I hope that you and your hive are doing well.
As far as I know there really has been a change in the lifetime of most beekeepers. That's what I hear from my uncle and from all the other beekeepers I know. That doesn't mean there haven't ever been other colony collapse events in history, but there have also been other volcano explosions in history and that fact wouldn't keep us from worrying about an erupting volcano in our backyards today, would it?
there have also been other volcano explosions in history and that fact wouldn't keep us from worrying about an erupting volcano in our backyards today, would it?
-No, and I wouldn't suggest otherwise. However, if it were as simple as it being a natural, cyclical event I'd feel much more at ease. It's often hard to tell where the media fear mongering and the actual data lie.