Where have all the honeybees gone?

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Do you have wild honeybees in your area? I have not seen a honeybee in over a year now and with 50 acres of hayfield red clover in full glorious bloom, no honeybees in sight is getting scary!!! You can smell the sweet smell of clover blossoms in the air, so they surely can find it too. We have plenty of bumble bees and carpenter bees, they must be the only pollinators doing the job around here, and I wonder if they will be enough to get all the apple trees, and flowers, and garden plants pollinated on their own. Are the varoa mites still playing havoc with the honeybees? We are not anywhere near where any agricultural spraying is going on, and we farm totally organic, so pesticides are not a problem, I do not even use fly spray on the horses or flea and tick powders/sprays on the dogs (use garlic powder instead).

Anybody raise bees that has a clue?

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001

Answers

Annie, it's wonderful that you are organic and don't use sprays, but so many others do. What you probably used to see were called "feral" (or wild) honeybees, and they have nearly all been killed by chemicals sprayed on crop fields. If the spray doesn't kill them outright, it seems to weaken them so that they are more susceptible to diseases and mites. Perhaps you don't have a bee-keeper within 3- 5 miles of your place. Wouldn't it be great if YOU would start to keep bees???? If you're interested, try to read books on bees by Richard Taylor - he made me feel that I just couldn't wait to get bees! Good Luck!

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001

There are two types of mites that were accidently introduced into this country a some years ago. They have now killed off over 95% of wild bees, and a large percentage of domestice bees.

Between the trouble with mites and cheap honey from South and Central America, many bee keepers are getting out of the business.

==>paul

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001


Lots of bees and wasps at our place,but not euorpean honey bees.Native bees and small wasps are our pollinators,instead. No spraying done on our farm or most of surrounding area (mostly pastures and old fields and National Forest).Mites are the problem.Brother-in-Law back home closed down his hives.Lost most of his bees despite measures taken.

Last yrs drought then wet didn't help matters,either.Not good honey harvesting weather for the bees. Lack of pollination on many midseason crops,for us,due to too wet.Same now,as well.

Site might interest you mite control with essential oils

And bumblebee box

I'll have to look for orchard bee one. Have it listed somewhere,I guess.Build them and they will come,eventually,anyway.Took two years for mine to acquire inhabitants.

Alright Annie.Quit being such a whiney greenie weenie! You know there are plenty of bees around.You just aren't looking! You eco-wackos are always crying the sky is falling :o)

How do you like my Grumpy CS Butthead act?

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001


Gee, Sharon, I thought you were "channeling Joel" there for a minute, great impression!!!

Yes, my "treehugging" side is showing, old hippies love being green! Now, if I could quit being such a wuss about being stung, I'd keep bees myself!

We got lots of bumble bees, tons of 'em, guess it's a good thing we do, or I'd have no pollinated strawbwerries to eat everyday, would I?

We are 10 miles from the nearest farm that would even be using pesticides, boy, sure didn't know honeybees had become that rare!

Sharon, would you please quit doing the raindance thing, we are beginning to go moldy here from the incessant rain, and I am tired of re-planting the cucumbers and squash that rot in the garden, I have raised beds that are mulched heavily, they should stay warm enough, but they aren't!

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001


A little thread drift here.....Annie, I finally started my cukes, melons, squash and even sweet corn in flats in the house. Have transplanted them out in between rain storms and they are surviving.

We lost all our bees five years in a row, just too many chemical farmers around us besides the mites. We had a wild swarm move in to one of our empty hives last fall. We put some honey on from a super we had not harvested but they didn't survive the cold. We should have given them more protection.

Sharon, do you have an UNRAIN dance???? My strawberry patch is in standing water and the berries are rotting before they can ripen. Does anyone besides me wonder if our weather is broken???

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001



Diane- You asked does anyone besides me wonder if our weather is broken? I suggest you read "The end of Nature" by Bill McKibben. You might get more insite into that question than you really want though.

Sharon- You scared me there for a minute with your eco-wacko thing! By the way I made a new bumpersticker for my truck ..."GOD-the original Environmentalist". That ought to tick a few people off until they really think about it. Can't wait till the folks at church see it. Ornery aren't I?

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001


Well,I guess I did go a little overboard with my rain request,didn't I :o) We are no longer in a deficit.There will be water in the stream to test tomorrow,after all.

Good news tho,it was sunny here this evening and is supposed to be tomorrow,so that should be headed your way,Annie.Don't know about you tho Diane,looks like you might be in for the duration this summer. Hmm...edible water plants...I'm thinking.

Deb-That sticker is too true.Send us all one! It would be liked here,I think.People do listen here,even if they don't follow thru as much as we believe is needed.Guess it's because country people are for the most part,polite folks. We give you the time of day and don't kick your teeth in over any little thing. That wild ride over on CS made my hillbilly neighbors look pretty darn good in comparison! Gave me new appreciation. So,always a silver lining,huh.

And I'll have to hunt up that graph on Global temps that I'd seen.Startled was my reaction.It must be on the web somewhere.Weather is naturally erratic,of course, and we are supposed to be in a normally erratic stretch after having gone thru an abnormally consistant period, but this that I saw was way out of line.

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001


Sharon, one thing I've noticed this spring is that we haven't had the constant days of rain and mushy mushy ground. This spring and last it rains good and stops, drys up a bit, rains good and stops, every 2 or 3 days. Four years ago I remember it raining for a week straight.

Annie, I have those tiny tiny bees that come when things are in bloom, not honey bees. Our apple and peach and pear bloom way way earlier than the natural flowers come up. I never see honey bees when the fruit trees are in bloom, they come later for the flowers. My apple tree has small apples now, and the flowers that overwintered are just poking up now, and it will still be a while for the flowers to bloom. The bigger bees come here when it get hot hot outside. I saw them for a couple weeks, then they went away again cause it cooled off.

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2001


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