Conquer Club

“‘I’m on an organic beekeeping list of about 1,000 people, mostly Americans, and no one in the organic beekeeping world, including commercial beekeepers, is reporting colony collapse on this list,’ said Sharon Labchuck. ‘The problem with the big commercial guys is that they put pesticides in their hives to fumigate for varroa mites, and they feed antibiotics to the bees. They also haul the hives by truck all over the place to make more money with pollination services, which stresses the colonies.’”

In our efforts to make larger bees that are resistant to more predators or diseases — have we crossed the line in how far we could go? As the article states, “Who should be surprised that the major media reports forget to tell us that the dying bees are actually hyper-bred varieties that we coax into a larger than normal body size? It sounds just like the beef industry. And, have we here a solution to the vanishing bee problem? Is it one that the CCD Working Group, or indeed, the scientific world at large, will support? Will media coverage affect government action in dealing with this issue?”

Or, even better: Would this current administration dare trample on the industry that has risen to supply the pesticides and inorganic alternatives to these bee keepers? Can they afford not to?

Matroshka wrote:So nobody knew why the bees were dying off? All the while pumping the hives full of pesticides, pumping the bees full of antibiotics, genetically altering the bees, and trucking them around the country?

"The problem with the big commercial guys is that they put pesticides in their hives to fumigate for varroa mites"

Matroshka wrote:

"The problem with the big commercial guys is that they put pesticides in their hives to fumigate for varroa mites"

So you're saying that the article is inaccurate? I honestly don't know anything about bees except for what I read in that article.

Juan_Bottom wrote:Hold on now, does anyone know what the requirements are to make ORGANIC honey? I bet that you cannot have bees getting pollen from non-organic sources. I'd wager that just because you don't treat your colonies with medicine that that is not enough to certify them organic.

So lets say your bees are getting into a crop field, or garden that's not certified organic. Would that negate them from being an organic hive? I know organic farmers have a rough time meeting all of the standards.

OH! And I read recently that the EPA is refusing to investigate the bee situation any further.. and aren't going to release what they have found, because it's incomplete data.

Moving hives around can indeed be stressfull on a colony. I read that as much as 60% of the commercial bee colonies in the country have failed, and the remaining 40% are constantly being rented out and moved around to make up the difference. Bees are actually used by fruit and citris growers to pollenate their crop.

And my Uncle was a beekeeper. He lost 12 hives 2 years ago and gave it up. He had 4 left last year, but only 1 this summer.

PLAYER57832 wrote:This is essentially impossible. Caging bees is not practical, and you cannot control what your neighbors do. To be organic, you cannot use pesticides on your bees directly or intentionally take them to pesticide using crops is my understanding.

PLAYER57832 wrote:Bush's favorite tactic.
But really, this is more a Dept of Agriculture issue than an EPA one. Plus, add in a few plain biologist types ..

PLAYER57832 wrote:So far, I think it is worst in the US, but does anyone know about the world situation?

One in three of honey bee colonies were lost over the last year. It is feared there is nothing to prevent a repeated loss of two billion bees this winter, leading to another spring in which there will be a reduction in these vital pollinators.

pimpdave wrote:Why would organic beekeepers even have Zeros? And how are they losing them?

Furthermore, I'm pretty sure Japan stopped manufacturing Zeros before WWII even ended, so I'm really confused here.

Well, that's our Juan!

GabonX wrote:The source is not exactly reliable. My grandfather was a bee keeper, far from being commercial, and his colony did collapse.

This is one article which contradicts thousands of others. The claim that no organic bee keeper has had problems is false.

Backglass wrote:Biased and anecdotal.

My brother-in-law is a beekeeper in Ohio and uses no pesticides or chemicals...and is still losing hives. If it were this simple, don't you think the industry would have been all over it by now especially with what is at stake?

As for transporting bees...you HAVE to transport bees due to the monoculture crop growing techniques used today. When Almond trees need pollinating for example, they only need bees for a week or two and have a beekeeper truck some in. The other 50 weeks of the year they don't need them and the bees would have nothing to eat anyway.

spurgistan wrote:Bans coming.

But seriously, everything I've ever heard about colony collapse disorder insists that no cause can be scientifically determined. If it was something as simple as pesticides, don't ya think some doc would put two and two together, there?

Frigidus wrote:

GabonX wrote:The source is not exactly reliable. My grandfather was a bee keeper, far from being commercial, and his colony did collapse.

This is one article which contradicts thousands of others. The claim that no organic bee keeper has had problems is false.

Backglass wrote:Biased and anecdotal.

My brother-in-law is a beekeeper in Ohio and uses no pesticides or chemicals...and is still losing hives. If it were this simple, don't you think the industry would have been all over it by now especially with what is at stake?

As for transporting bees...you HAVE to transport bees due to the monoculture crop growing techniques used today. When Almond trees need pollinating for example, they only need bees for a week or two and have a beekeeper truck some in. The other 50 weeks of the year they don't need them and the bees would have nothing to eat anyway.

Lol wut? Two random forum members closely related to bee farmers? Is this more common than I was aware?