Is there a market here in the area for..

[DanCookson]

Keep us up to speed on the Bee's Steve and when and where we can buy the honey.  My daughter loves honey.  Eats it on all breads and even puts it in her sweet corn??  Don't ask me!!!

[srkruzich]

Keep us up to speed on the Bee's Steve and when and where we can buy the honey.  My daughter loves honey.  Eats it on all breads and even puts it in her sweet corn??  Don't ask me!!!

I've ordered 4 nucs already, I'll get them in april.  We need a lot of prayers for some decent rainfall this spring. Not too much and definately not too little! 

[Warph]

Thought you'd find this interesting, Steve:


How Bee Colony Collapse Disorder works


It sounds like something out of a Science Fiction novel, but in this case we are talking about reality. For some reason, honeybees are vanishing from their hives at an alarming rate. One beekeeper lost 2,000 of his 3,000 hives this spring, and the problem has spread to 24 different states in the United States The problem is called Colony Collapse Disorder, and right now no one knows what is happening.

Here's what we do know. A typical commercial beehive is a wooden cube measuring about 20 inches by 20 inches square. Inside the hive you find a single queen bee who lays all the eggs, and perhaps 50,000 worker bees. In a healthy hive, most of those workers fly around all day collecting nectar and pollen and bringing it back to the hive. Other workers stay in the hive to take care of the queen and help raise new bees from the queen's eggs.

Once a hive is afflicted with Colony Collapse Disorder, nearly all of the worker bees fly off and die in the field. The queen and a handful of workers are left behind. Except for the remarkable lack of worker bees, the hive looks fine. There are no dead bees lying around, there is plenty of honey and pollen in the hive, and there is also plenty of brood (baby bees in different stages of development). But without workers to maintain the hive and feed the babies, the queen and the baby bees cannot survive. The hive collapses.

If you make your living as a beekeeper, Colony Collapse Disorder is obviously a huge problem. You can, in theory, go from "successful beekeeper" to "bankrupt" in just a few weeks, and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it right now. That's bad enough, but the reality is that CCD may also become a big problem for the rest of us as well. IF CCD were to kill off all the bees, there are a number of fruits and vegetables that would disappear from grocery store shelves. Almonds, for example, are a $2.5 billion industry in California, and almond growers depend on honeybees to pollinate the crop. No honeybees means no almonds. Many berries (blackberries, strawberries, etc.) need bees, as do vegetables like cucumbers and squash. And don't forget tree crops like apples, oranges and peaches. Watermelon and cantaloupes depend on bees. And cotton ... As you can see, many different crops need the bees.

So why, all of a sudden, is this happening? No one is sure, although lots of scientists are looking at the problem very intensely right now. One theory is that a new breed of nicotine-based insecticides may have something to do with it. These insecticides are systemic, meaning that the plant absorbs the insecticide through the roots and spreads it to every part of the plant. Another possibility that has been suggested is genetically modified crops. These plants have a bacteria gene inserted into the genome that produces a natural insecticide in every part of the plant. Another possibility that has been suggested is cell phone radiation. The problem with all three of these possibilities is that CCD started abruptly in the fall of 2006, and all of these things have been around for some time. Cell phones, for example, have been in use since the 1980s, and they have been widespread for a decade.

 

The other possibility is that some new kind of disease, mite or fungus is to blame. One of the very odd things about CCD is the condition of the bees left in the hive. They usually are infected with several different viruses and fungi. It looks as though the immune system of the bees is failing. If so, it might be something like AIDS in human beings, where a collapse of the human immune system leaves a person unprotected from a host of diseases. It might also be that a new bee fungus has appeared. One of the very strange things about CCD hives is that other bees leave them alone. In a normal situation, bees from other hives will fly in and rob all of the honey out of a weak hive. In CCD hives, that does not immediately happen.

 

As you can see, Colony Collapse Disorder is a complete mystery right now. It is a mystery that could, potentially, have a multi-billion dollar affect on many different crops if we don't figure it out soon.

[srkruzich]

Yeah i know.  Thats a big problem now days. I am hoping that the way i am going to raise them will make a difference in their abilities to fight it off.  I have a suspicion that its genetics involved.   You never see
feral bees with mite problems or collapse disorders.  I hope to get a few feral bees to add to my hives. 
If i do, i want to breed their genetics. 

[Teresa]

You know? I don't see hardly any honey bees anymore. As kids we used to have them thick in our yard ( always stepping on them with our bare feet and getting stung) but you hardly see them at all anymore. When I do, I always think it is good sign..

[srkruzich]

You know? I don't see hardly any honey bees anymore. As kids we used to have them thick in our yard ( always stepping on them with our bare feet and getting stung) but you hardly see them at all anymore. When I do, I always think it is good sign..

Most of the bees are killed off by folks spraying pesticides.  When chemlawn and other companies came into business they started killing off bees with their spray on the yards. 

I don't allow any chemicals on my place.  I would rather have weeds than have a chemically produced yard.
Not only that with what chemlawn uses on your yard, it can cause cancers and other ailments in your pets and family members. 

[Diane Amberg]

We have had both hive collapse and throat mite problems here. My one girlfriend finally gave up her hives but a neighbor near here is trying again. I had honey bees on my flowers last summer for the first time in a long time.

[srkruzich]

We have had both hive collapse and throat mite problems here. My one girlfriend finally gave up her hives but a neighbor near here is trying again. I had honey bees on my flowers last summer for the first time in a long time.

Diane, i ran 10 hives back in Georgia and at first i had problems iwth tracheal and varroa mites and used
the apistan and all that chemical stuff and lost them anyway.  SOoo I just cleaned my hives, ran a torch over the woodenware to kill off any chemical and pests and started over naturally. I let bees build their own comb and used powder sugar to dust off mites and a mite trap  near the entrance. 

I was successful with that.  I haven't had to deal with CCD though

[Diane Amberg]

I wish you good luck.There is always room for more good honey. yum!

[W. Gray]

I have seen one report that says the so called "killer bees" from Africa [at least their acestors were] are in Oklahoma and in one case a couple counties from the southern Kansas border.

Another report shows those bees are not yet out of Texas.


What are your thoughts on these guys?