Disappearing Bees,
Honey Bees Disappearing!
What Can We Do To Stop
The Bees Disappearing?

During this time, adult bees were discovered to leave the hive for work and never return. This unusual turn of events is not only a curiosity, but also greatly impacts commercial agricultural crops that rely on the bees for pollination and the production of organic honey.

With over 100 different commercial crops relying on bees for plant pollination, congress and the United States Department of Agriculture awarded a total 14 million dollars to scientists assigned to research the cause of colony collapse disorder.

In 2008 there was a lobby in British Parliament, who to the great relief of the BBKA, who have now realised the seriousness of this and have decided to fund the research that is needed into honey bees disappearing.

Worldwide governments are now beginning to get their act together and it appears that in this instance, we are all singing from the same hymn book!

This is by far is the most serious event in the lives of the honey bee although another infection called Foulbrood has been around for over 100 years.

This has always been treated with chemical based antibiotics and our honey bees have become immune to this.

Others believe the micro-waves that are emitted from things such as mobile phones also has an impact on our little friends. This appears to be a theory that has been dis-proved.

Disappearing bees are not known to abandon colonies and surface elsewhere.

With loyalty and hard work on behalf of the colony being intrinsic to the nature of honey bees, disappearing bees means that large populations of these very necessary insects are, in fact dying.

This decreases the overall population of bees internationally and threatens the survival important food plant-based food sources.

Some professionals in beekeeping with migratory hives have reported losing up to 90 percent of their colonies due to colony collapse disorder.

So far, no concrete explanation for disappearing bees has been discovered. However, it is suspected by many that the use of chemical pesticides may be linked to colony collapse disorder.

While this may not be an exact cause, it is suspected to increase the risk of bee hives being affected by colony collapse disorder.

The increase in genetically modified crops has also been questioned as being a contributing cause of disappearing bees. However, at this time, investigating this possibility is now deemed to be a top priority by researchers.

This reason is due largely to the fact that the symptoms of colony collapse disorder do not appear to match what would be expected in genetically modified fruits and vegetables.

Imagine not having the benefits of eating honey and something as simple as an apple! Actually honey bees are almost soley responsible for almost all fruit tree pollination.

Or not to be able to eat even an ice-cream.......and what about your clothes? No jeans and even no meat!

Who wants to live on a diet of bread and rice when we don't have to! Oh yes if it wasn't for honey bees we would not have these simple pleasures we take for granted in life!

Bang would go the health benefits and the just as important medical benefits of honey. Not a good place to be.

The following is a list of characteristics that are noticeable in cases of CCD or disappearing bee syndrome:

• A sudden, intense decline of adult bees without evidence of dead bees being present in the hive

• Honey and bee bread (stored for food) not being taken by other bees

• Delayed arrival of common hive pests, such as the small hive beetle and wax moths

• Capped brood

• Remaining bees are reluctant to eat food provided for them

It appears that these types of infections affect bees in a weakened state in much the same way that opportunistic infections like pneumonia can kill a person living with the AIDS virus.

Because of this issue with beekeepers, it is not advisable that their hives be reused on new colonies. Bee Honeyomb sterilization techniques are still being investigated, but as yet there is no sure-fire way to do so.

Remembering that the cause of colony collapse disorder is still largely unknown, the best safeguard for protecting unaffected colonies is to not reuse any beekeeping equipment (always buy new) and not stack hives affected by CCD with healthy hives.

It is also important to realise how feeding honey bees is an intricate part of keeping bees.

We can play a part by more of us becoming beekeepers or even simply mowing the lawn less and of course planting more flowers to encourage the reproduction of bees. We Need to Save the Honey Bees because we all depend on them so much.

Below is a link to an excellent website which will keep you up to date with how the disappearing bees problem is being dealt with worldwide. The

Beekeepers have seen hive after hive fall prey to colony collapse disorder (CCD). Now insights from the honeybee genome could overthrow guesswork in the effort to diagnose the cause of the die-offs.

May Berenbaum at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and her colleagues looked for genetic differences between bees from US colonies that have suffered CCD and bees that were sampled before colony collapses shot up in 2006.

CCD killed off about a third of US honeybees in 2007 and 2008.

The team found 65 genes that were distinctly different in CCD bees. They also discovered unusual snippets of genetic material that are typical of infection with the RNA viruses known as picorna-like viruses.

They found no evidence to suggest that pesticides or bacterial infection are the primary cause of CCD. Berenbaum thinks picorna-like viruses may be the root cause, making the bees highly vulnerable to other viruses, pesticides and bacteria.

This could very well solve the mystery surrounding Disappearing bees. Institute of Science in Society makes for interesting reading, something we should all be aware of and perhaps take a lot more notice of before it is too late.

The latest theory which sounds very plausible concerning disappearing bees is how they are fed over the winter.

It appears that many are fed with a Corn Syrup that has been heated to such a high decree it actually becomes poisonous!

Why are we feeding Honey Bees Corn Syrup…….let them be and let them eat their own honey they have worked so hard to produce.

There will also be updates concerning this situation on my Honey Bee Blog. Please click to read on my Nav Bar and it would be great to hear from you if you have any further questions or information.

Be sure to check out my interview with Phil Chandler in our Beekeeping Forum

And read what Dr Sanford has to say. These two gentlemen are experts in the world of Honey Bees.

Back to Missing Bees from Disappearing Bees

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