bon008 said:

AnneS said:

bon008 said:

Keep forgetting to mention.. 7:30 on SBS tonight there is a show about bees:

http://www.sbs.com.au/documentary/program/honeybee-blues/about/synopsis

I will have to record it cause I have to go out to a meeting tonight. I first heard about this bee problem about 2 years ago during an interview on ABC Classic radio between Margaret Throsby and some bee bloke. Potentially a huge problem. Almost more of an issue than global warming if it becomes more widespread

Absolutely… they’re sort of holding up the bottom of the food chain, aren’t they?

Sorry bon. Disappeared for a bit to do some housework; washing floors :( yuk!

Yes they are. Unless we can come up with other pollinators to do the amount of work that bees do things could get very bad. The irony of it all is that it doesn’t receive the publicity that it deserves. I think from memory bees are responsible for pollinating something like 30% of the world’s food crops. With this colony collapse disorder in the US something like 25% of bees have disappeared. Extrapolate that to the amount of food crops that won’t be fertilised and you see the size of the problem and why so many apiarists are worried

i saw it and it’s another worry.

apiarists talk about large crops of anything as tho’ it were a ‘toxic landscape’. very worrying when you then see aerial spraying just blanketing whole fields in pesticide. if i were a bee i would be worried too.

pepe said:

i saw it and it’s another worry.

apiarists talk about large crops of anything as tho’ it were a ‘toxic landscape’. very worrying when you then see aerial spraying just blanketing whole fields in pesticide. if i were a bee i would be worried too.

I live in an agricultural area and I do still keep one hive of bees as a control test if you like.

I used to have many more hives but got really freaked out about handling bees because I had one day to run four kilometres to stop five hundred bees trying to get in to each and every crevice in my armour. Simply due to the fact that I tried to reassemble a stacked hive that had been knocked down in a storm. Also I have observed some millions of bees walking at night.. in an attempt to get back the honey that was taken from them that day.

Anyway.. my test hive still thrives.. though it is getting lost in the trees.. 

roughbarked said:

pepe said:

i saw it and it’s another worry.

apiarists talk about large crops of anything as tho’ it were a ‘toxic landscape’. very worrying when you then see aerial spraying just blanketing whole fields in pesticide. if i were a bee i would be worried too.

I live in an agricultural area and I do still keep one hive of bees as a control test if you like.

I used to have many more hives but got really freaked out about handling bees because I had one day to run four kilometres to stop five hundred bees trying to get in to each and every crevice in my armour. Simply due to the fact that I tried to reassemble a stacked hive that had been knocked down in a storm. Also I have observed some millions of bees walking at night.. in an attempt to get back the honey that was taken from them that day.

Anyway.. my test hive still thrives.. though it is getting lost in the trees.. 

dunno what happened there .. but flickr wants you.. anyway go here if you only want the image. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3182/2869127674_803030bd40.jpg

pepe said:

i saw it and it’s another worry.

apiarists talk about large crops of anything as tho’ it were a ‘toxic landscape’. very worrying when you then see aerial spraying just blanketing whole fields in pesticide. if i were a bee i would be worried too.

Yep, and it drifts as well…there’s been farmers here sue other farmers for drifts of up to 40 km that have ruined sensitive crops…read $X00,000’s worth of crops….

Defoliants are the worst, in my opinion…over the years I have observed that it only takes a “puff” onto a tree, and that tree is doomed…it might take 2 years but that tree will die faster than if it’s root system was disturbed…

We have a hive of honey bees in the street tree on the verge. It’s a mature Agonis flexuosa and has lots of nice crevices for them.