Beekeeping tips today is about honey bee death. We have all read that insecticides and pesticides are the reason for honey bee deaths and these claims certainly do make sense. If all these reports are to be believed these "ingredients" do not even have to be sprayed upon our fields and gardens as they are now mixed up with the seeds before planting.
In parts of China the use of these pesticides we are told are responsible for their bees dying out. Very frightening implications for us all if this is proved to be the main cause for
honey bee deaths.
There is a community in Szechuan, China who are truly feeling the effects of honey bee deaths. They use every single member of their family, young and old to work like a bee all day long and now pollinate their fruit crops by hand with feather dusters.
Bees and not just honey bees will seek out their own preferences when flitting from flower to flower to collect their nectar and pollen and many of these are to be found growing wild in places like remote mountains and river banks. Are there unexplained honey bee deaths in these areas also? Nobody appears to have an answer for this.
We have had honey bee deaths on a mass scale in different parts of the world before. As an example "Isle of Wight Disease" now known as Acarine Disease was reported once to have wiped out practically every honey bee colony in Great Britain. They did recover and many bee keepers believe this will happen again.
There are those who believe that mobile phone masts are the cause, however when the world first started to go into panic mode about mass honey bee deaths in 2006 we should be aware that these masts had been around for very much longer.
This theory is a plausible cause for some as they believe the radiation emitted from these masts interfere with the bees navigational systems and they simply cannot find their way home.
Bad weather, because bees cannot fly in rain and are affected by late flowering blooms during poor weather conditions are also blamed. We have all heard stories such as "the plants are late this year". This is not new; we have good and bad weather conditions from year to year, however this could be a contributory factor for some.
And then there are reports of mass bee colonies being rented out to agricultural farmers for mass pollination purposes. The bees don't like this we are told. This could explain some of the reasons however, this is not happening everywhere and honey bee deaths are a world wide problem.
Mites and fungus of all description are contributory factors also we are told. If the latest theories are to be believed then this is the cause, they have somehow combined and caused a new and unexplained disease or virus that breaks down the bees' immune system and they die. This has been likened to the AIDS virus in humans.
Scientists all over the world are deeply involved in their own area of expertise as to the possible reasons and causes for honey bee deaths and we can only wait to see what they discover. I personally believe and I'm not alone that we have messed up our planet and our bees are just letting us know they have had enough!
Until such time as we return to basics, which will of course never happen as we advance further as a human race, there will be never ending consequences for us all. If all our bees become missing bees our quality of life will change beyond all recognition and the consequences for us all are dire.
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