Colony Colapse Disorder is going to change Spring! Accordig to the National Agricultural Law Center, "Honey bees are the most economically valuable pollinators of agricultural crops worldwide. Many scientists at universities and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) frequently assert that bee pollination is involved in about one-third of the U.S. diet, and contributes to the production of a wide range of fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, forage crops, some field crops, and other specialty crops. The monetary value of honey bees as commercial pollinators in the United States is estimated at about $15 billion annually."
Colony losses are occurring mostly because bees are failing to return to the hive (which is largely uncharacteristic of bee behavior). Do you think their cell phone providers are to blame? (Hit read more to see Ag. Chart).
Hit on chart to make it larger.
3 comments:
Your article was very interesting John Blatchford, especially:
"Biodiversity
It is important to understand how little we really know about the way complex ecosystems work. Protecting endangered species is not an altruistic venture – we are attempting to safeguard our own future. The links in the ‘web of life’ are incredibly complex, and the loss of a species can have far-reaching consequences – far beyond those predicted or anticipated. We get some idea of the complexities when we see what happens when something like the Cane Toad gets to Australia (see Cane Beetles)."
From today's NY Times:
“There are so many of our crops that require pollinators,” said Representative Dennis Cardoza, a California Democrat whose district includes that state’s central agricultural valley, and who presided last month at a Congressional hearing on the bee issue. “We need an urgent call to arms to try to ascertain what is really going on here with the bees, and bring as much science as we possibly can to bear on the problem.”
So far, colony collapse disorder has been found in 27 states, according to Bee Alert Technology Inc., a company monitoring the problem. A recent survey of 13 states by the Apiary Inspectors of America showed that 26 percent of beekeepers had lost half of their bee colonies between September and March.
Honeybees are arguably the insects that are most important to the human food chain. They are the principal pollinators of hundreds of fruits, vegetables, flowers and nuts. The number of bee colonies has been declining since the 1940s, even as the crops that rely on them, such as California almonds, have grown. In October, at about the time that beekeepers were experiencing huge bee losses, a study by the National Academy of Sciences questioned whether American agriculture was relying too heavily on one type of pollinator, the honeybee.
Had a something happen over the weekend maybe a biologist can explain, and just read this post. Past couple of years, we've had a problem with swarming bees nesting in our eaves. For the past week, I've been watching the bees that came back, but they were flying very all over the place and didn't settle.
Maybe it was just the queen bee having trouble getting comfortable, but they never did settle down and just flew off. Guess I should be glad for that.
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