WCSH6.com - Blueberry Growers Pay High Price For Bees

WCSH6.com - Blueberry Growers Pay High Price For Bees

Web Editor: Brian Yocono, Reporter

Created: 5/30/2007 5:54:09 PM

Updated: 5/30/2007 7:17:21 PM

ORLAND (NEWS CENTER) -- Colony Collapse Disease plagued the Honeybee population this spring. Now, Maine's blueberry growers are paying the price to get the bees they need to pollinate their fields.
Blueberry fields in Orland look empty now, but some of the most important work of the year is taking place. Hundreds of thousands of Honeybees are pollinating the fields.

GM Allen & Son has been growing blueberries for almost a century and has come to rely on having the bees it needs each summer.

But a disease called Bee Colony Collapse caused a severe bee shortage, driving up the price for the bees that are still around. The Allens still got their 800 hives, but paid at least an extra $20 for each one.
"Our Beekeeper, the guy we deal with, he didn't have any trouble like that, he took good care of his bees so that they didn't get infected," said Simeon Allen of GM Allen & Son. "So we felt pretty good all along and we weren't too scared about it."

The Allens have their bees trucked in from Pennsylvania. They plan to keep the hives in their fields for two more weeks.

Legislative backlash, the birds and the bees, and Wal-Mart

Wild bees are disappearing off the face of our planet, and it seems that the birds are following suit with West Nile disease. Albert Einstein said that when the bees go, we have four more years until mankind disappears.

Unless we are able to control the damage brought on by corporate greed, pollution and overuse of pesticides and unless we are able to control our lust for energy, then I see no future for mankind.

We will die out just like the dinosaurs, and it will be our own fault.

CECILIA NALL

Bees

Bees

The insects most beneficial to humans are found in the large insect order Hymenoptera. Not only are the bees and many of their relatives pollinators of flowering plants, including fruits and vegetables, but thousands of species of small wasps are parasites of other arthropods including pest insects. Without these parasites that limit the growth of insect populations, pests would overtake most crops.

The urban pests of the order Hymenoptera are the stinging insects. Although the first image to come to mind implies danger to humans, these yellowjackets, hornets, and wasps sometimes serve our interest: They feed their young largely on flies and caterpillars.

Many of these stinging insects are social. They live in colonies with a caste system or a division of labor and overlapping generations -- all offspring of one individual reproductive. Some of these colonies persist for many years (ants, honey bees) and others, like stinging wasps, start anew each year.

HONEY BEES (Apis mellifera)

The honey bee was introduced into the United States in Colonial America. Honey bees are highly social insects and communicate with each other, relaying direction and distance of nectar and pollen sources. Bees make combs of waxen cells placed side by side that provide spaces to rear young and to store honey. The bee colony lives on the stored honey throughout winters, and therefore, can persist for years.

When colony populations are high, the queen may move part of the colony to new harborage. Bees swarm at this time, usually finding hollow trees to begin their new colony, but they occasionally work their way into building wall voids.

Drones are male bees and they have no stingers. Drones do not collect food or pollen from flowers. Their sole purpose is to mate with the queen. If the colony is short on food, drones are often kicked out of the hive.

Workers, which are the smallest bees in the colony, are undeveloped females. A colony can have up to 60,000 workers. The life span of a worker bee depends upon the time of year. Her life expectancy can be as long as 35 days.

Workers feed the queen and larvae, guard the hive entrance and help to keep the hive cool by fanning their wings. Worker bees also collect nectar to make honey. In addition, honey bees produce wax comb. The comb is composed of hexagonal cells which have walls that are only 2/1000 inch thick, but support 25 times their own weight.

Honey bees' wings stroke over 11,000 times per minute, thus making their distinctive buzz.

A honey bee colony in a house wall can cause major problems. The bees can chew through the wall and fly inside. Their storage of large amounts of honey invites other bees and wasps. Their detritus (e.g., dead bees, shedded larval skins, wax caps from combs and other material) attracts beetles and moths.

When a bee colony is found in a building wall, it must be removed. Removal can be accomplished by contacting a local bee keeper in your area. Your local Agriculture Agent has names of all bee keepers close to you. Look in the blue pages of you phone book for his number.

After the colony is moved you can safely remove the nest. If the nest is not removed, the wax combs -- normally cooled by the bees -- will melt and allow honey to flow down through the walls. Honey stain can never be removed; the walls will have to be replaced. As well, the freed honey attracts robber bees and wasps. The comb wax will attract wax moths that may persist for several years.

Close up of honey bee head.

Finally, after the colony is moved the entrance hole should be caulked or repaired to prevent further bee infestation.

Cell Phone Radiation Linked to Worldwide Bee Disappearances

The disappearance of bees is a worldwide problem and researchers in Germany may have found the cause - cell phone radiation.

Scientists have discovered that bees loose their orientation when they are exposed to radiation from cell phones.  Once the bees are disorientated, they loose their way and are unable to return to their hives.  And therefore, are unable to get nutrition and eventually they die.

Beekeepers worldwide are dealing with Colony Collapse Disorder - many bees have disappeared from their hives and therefore the beekeepers’ colonies have been collapsing.

One beekeeper started out his season with 6,000 colonies and ended up with only 1,000 colonies at the end of the season.

There have been other theories as to why bees are disappearing, from toxins to global warming to pesticides.

Regardless of the reason behind Colony Collapse Disorder, consumers will most likely see a rise in food prices as bees are used to pollinate a third of the country’s crops.

Chelsea Flower Show bans 300,000 bees | Chelsea | Gardening | Telegraph

Chelsea Flower Show bans 300,000 bees

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 18/05/2007

Bees are in decline and this year's Chelsea Flower Show is full of ideas intended to make gardens a replacement for bee-friendly habitats lost from the countryside.

When it came to a show garden holding 300,000 honeybees in four hives, however, the Royal Horticultural Society was not so sure.

Though Fortnum and Mason's design for a garden with a honeybee theme was declared by the organisers one of the most original in the show's 94-year history, the bees themselves proved a sore point.

As Robert Myers, the garden's designer, began to construct his garden with a tapestry of colours and textures attractive to bees, there were furrowed brows.

Only days before the show opens, the organisers declared that bees need permission - until then they are effectively banned.

Mr Myers, who is a landscape architect, said: "We were told that we would have to get consent to have them and that if anything bad happened we would be responsible for removing the bees at very short notice. We didn't think this was possible.

''So I thought there wasn't a need to have the bees at all."

A spokesman from the Royal Horticultural Society said: "We made the decision not to have bees because we have 157,000 visitors in the week and we didn't want the bees to get infuriated with the people getting in the way of their honey.

''Bees have turned out to be quite a theme in a lot of our exhibitions this year but nobody has been given permission actually to have the insects on site. There will still be some bees at Chelsea as there will be a lot of plants to attract them."

The British Beekeepers' Association has a roof garden exhibit showing how bees can live happily in an urban setting.

The Africans are HERE!

Florida learning to deal with Africanized honey bees

The Africans are HERE!
Bees, that is!

Florida learning to deal with Africanized honey bees

May 16, 2007 8:04 AM

Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles H. Bronson has announced that public education activities are under way in the state’s effort to protect people and animals from the dangers associated with the growing population of Africanized honey bees (AHB).

AHB are the defensive cousins of European honey bees who, through Florida’s vital honey bee industry, provide pollination that result in the production of approximately one third of the food we eat.

The Department monitors over 500 AHB bait traps throughout the state. Since their initial discovery in Florida in 2002, AHB have been positively identified in over 20 Florida counties, with the majority of stinging incidents in South Florida.

“Every week, reports of possible Africanized honey bee nest sightings or stinging incidents are received by the Department,” said Bronson. “We have formed an AHB inter-agency communications group to help get the word out about things the public can do to prevent attacks. The motto of the group, Bee Aware…look, listen and run, was chosen because if people will regularly monitor their surroundings and run inside a protective structure, when threatened, they can avoid potentially dangerous, painful attacks from Africanized honey bees,” said Bronson.

The Department has been working with the University of Florida’s Institute of Food & Agriculture Sciences (UF/IFAS) on presentations to over 100 statewide organizations; exhibited information at conferences, festivals, and fairs; distributed thousands of information packets; and provided interviews to news media and interested parties on AHB — a grassroots public education effort that has resulted in reaching over 4,000,000 people.

Ongoing outreach program efforts include identifying partnering opportunities at major county events. The Department plans to reach as many people as possible in all 67 Florida counties to deliver important messages about AHB and Florida’s important beekeeping industry.

Burt's Bees lobbies for clearer guidelines on naturals

Burt's Bees lobbies for clearer guidelines on naturals

Their products are wonderful, if you haven't tried them! I hope their company will not be hurt by the honey bee crisis.

Burt's Bees lobbies for clearer guidelines on naturals

By Simon Pitman

5/16/2007 - Natural and organic personal care provider Burt's Bees says it is aiming to tackle widespread confusion over natural cosmetic products by introducing a new industry standard for the US market.

The company says it wants to establish 'a definition about what is and isn't natural' by working with both competitors and the industry as a whole in an effort to make things easier for the consumer and to clear up confusion.

The company aims to establish a definition that holds 'natural to the highest possible standards'.

Burt's Bees says that its actions have been supported by a recent consumer study, conducted by TSC, that shows just how confused consumers are regarding natural personal care products and the assumed standards for the sector.

The company is targeting the fact that in the United States there is currently no official regulation for natural or organic personal care products, leaving consumers vulnerable and the industry wide open to dubious claims.

The survey questioned in detail the general perception of natural personal care products across a wide range of US females that use natural personal care products on a regular basis.

The results of the survey threw up a number of interesting statistics, including the fact that 78 per cent of American women either thought that natural personal care products were regulated or were not sure if they were regulated.

Likewise, an overwhelming 97 per cent thought that natural personal care products should definitely be regulated.

"Since natural personal care is not currently regulated, Burts Bees is setting the natural standard to help create a universally recognized and regulated guideline to define 'natural' personal care products," a company spokesperson said.