The Buzz on bees

[grassfarmer]

Some developments on the bee front that don't seem
to make it to the mainstream media:

Monsanto's Mon810 corn, genetically engineered to
produce a mutant version of the insecticide Bt, has
been banned in Poland (April 2012) following protests
by beekeepers who showed the corn was killing
honeybees. Poland is the first country to formally
acknowledge the link between Monsanto's genetically
engineered corn and the Colony Collapse Disorder
(CCD) that's been devastating bees around the world.
Many analysts believe that Monsanto has known the
danger their GMOs posed to bees all along.
The biotech giant recently (Nov 2011) purchased a
CCD research firm, Beeologics, that government
agencies, including the US Department of Agriculture,
have been relying on for help unraveling the mystery
behind the disappearance of the bees.

The Monsanto press release "Monsanto is committed
to sustainable agriculture. That’s why they have
chosen to use their time, talents and resources to
contribute positively to honey bee health."

You decide what's going on here.

[kato]

Apparently the seed treatments clothianidin (Poncho) and thiamethoxam (Cruiser) carries into the corn plant as well, and is highly toxic to bees. It gets in the soil, and it gets in the plant, including the pollen.

[wilagro]

Monsanto is concerned about "sustainable profits" as much as agriculture IMHO.

[Orly]

It's becoming a major problem all over North America - we need those like buzzers!

[kato]

Exactly. We never use BT corn. The seed treatment, however, is impossible to avoid. It's literally on pretty much all commercial corn seed. Maybe other crops too? I think the only way to avoid it is to grow open pollinated stuff that's outside the big corporate world. If you can find it.

[grassfarmer]

Probably compounding the problem, even in areas
that don't necessarily grow corn - guess what modern
commercial bee keepers feed their bees instead of
honey? yep, high fructose corn syrup !!

[brian99]

It would be nice if it were that easy. Scientists have been looking for the cause to CCD for years. It is not a simple problem. Bees spend very little time in corn fields, they forage for provisions mainly on alfalfa, clover, and canola. Right now they are all over the dandylions. I'm not a Monsanto supporter, far from it. I think they are all about their own profitibility and any advertising suggesting they care about agriculture is just that.
I'm neighbours with the biggest honey bee pollinator in Canada, and corn is a very large crop here. He has not had that big of a problem with CCD.
Europe is known for reactionary policy and I think this is another chapter in a long book of trade barriers.

[kato]

True enough, but have you ever driven through Iowa? Corn. Soybeans. Nothing else. Is ccd an issue there? I don't know. I wonder if anyone has done a survey of the crops grown around the areas where colony collapse is most prevalent? It doesn't seem to be an issue around here, but then again the crops are rotated more than a lot of places in the U.S.

Anybody doing a Phd in agriculture? It would make a good thesis.

[grassfarmer]

The answer may lie in the "neonic" class of herbicides
according to the research cited in this article.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-
schiffman/the-fox-monsanto-buys-
the_b_1470878.html

[kato]

That's what I've been reading also.

Scary stuff!

[brian99]

There is extensive research going on, all initiated by CCD. Canpolin, the Canadian Pollination Initiative, out of U Guelph is doing work all across Canada. Many large brains have been tapped to try and find the cause. It's not one specific factor.

[ASRG]

I wonder?
Recently in Red Deer Alberta they found a peregrine falcon dead. She was one they had been watching, as she had mated and laid three eggs in a monitored nesting site. She was so loaded up with poisonous stuff they couldn't even figure out which poison had killed her!
Now this is a bird that is obviously eating other birds and rodents that are eating the crap we are putting on the land?
The falcon dies today.....how long until it is us? Does this raise any alarms?

[grassfarmer]

brian66, Did you read the part of the article I posted
where it said
"A third study by the Harvard School of Public Health
actually re-created colony collapse disorder in several
honeybee hives simply by administering small doses
of a popular neonic, imidacloprid."

Sure, that may not be conclusive proof that all CCD
in the world is caused by this chemical but at least
they were able to recreate the condition.
Meanwhile in the beef world UK scientists failed
spectacularly to recreate BSE to prove their "infected
feed" theory (the extensive using American embryos)
Yet this is still the officially accepted cause of BSE.

[brian99]

Sorry it took this long to reply, but Alberta is hiring a new Provincial Apiarist and I attended the hiring meeting today. Part of that process detailed new information on honey bee diseases. I'm a leafcutter bee guy, not a honey bee guy, but I can tell you what I know.
There are 27 known viruses in honey bees. Probably not that many in Canada, maybe 20-24. There are two distinct mites, as well as nosema that cause damage in honey bees. One project in Alberta is currently screening 7 viruses in honey bees that seem to correlate most strongly with CCD. Add to this the constant moving of hives, especially the furthur south you go, and then add a harsh winter. To me this sounds like a recipe for dead bees. Bees can only take so many stressors at one time.
Another research project is looking at the adverse effects of multiple chemicals. Beekeepers use pyrethroids in the hives to control mites. These are delivered at a level sublethal to the bees(pyrethroids are an class of insecticides). A tiny portion of the pyrethroid is trapped in the wax in the hive. Worker bees bring back provision for the larvae. What do farmers use in the field? Chemicals. They aren't necessarily the problem. Surfactants are added to herbicides and fungicides to cut the waxy layer on the leaf. The theory is they do the same thing in the hive, cut wax, releasing the pyrethroid.
Again, I don't think there is one definitive cause for CCD. This is a multiple vector disease brought on by multiple factors. The trick is finding the critical ones.
Most of the time I can pick out a sick calf just by walking the pen. You can't do that with a bee.

[Kathy]

My caragana trees are absolutely loaded with honey bees today. The trees are alive with a buzz and black and white dancers. We don't spray, and it does irk me considerably when a neighbor sprays his fields using a commercial plane spraying company. If there are any honey bee guys needing a safe place to put some bees, we are probably better than most locations.

The more agriculture relies upon chemicals and artificial fertilizers to survive, the more likely we will have a similar collapse in our own futures.

I absolutely dread driving anywhere when the "spraying" season starts... and in the fall when the "desiccation" season takes place.