4 ms·

A Bee Mogul Confronts the Crisis in His Field

48 points by iamjeff 10y ago

mmagin 10y ago
Like most articles on the subject, there's hardly any mention of whether the problem is inevitable when we try to force honeybees into the industrial monoculture model and transport them around. I live in a mild climate (SF bay area) and ever since having a fairly wide variety of flowering plants around (not decorative flowers, generally), I see honeybees all the time. As I would understand it, a lot of why honeybees have to be brought in is that you have these large-scale examples of monoculture where bees wouldn't be able to find food outside of that one time of year the crop is flowering.
- jelliclesfarm 10y ago
  I agree. It's abusive to the bees. Not just the stress of being moved about(actually those new container trailer transport systems are pretty nifty and smooth)..but the unnatural feast and famine they experience. Not to mention the fact that they can't forage or defecate while moving in the transport containers. Absolutely true that the monoculture of certain cash crops is the culprit. Everything points to an imbalance because farmers have to grow what they can sell to make a living and when so much cheap food is imported, they have to look to niche and cash crops. Example: I sell chive blossoms even though I have plenty of chive herb to sell, but there is no market as it's so much cheaper to buy from outside the country. Almond farmers have several thousands of thousands of acres in droughty California's because that's what brings in $. And the center and state enable this feeble and irrational condition of our country's food system. But here is the kicker, the generations of worker bees that follow these abused and forage deprived traveling bees with a forced eating disorder are born with mutations that it might as well be the reason for colony collapse disorder. Altho I am pretty sure that there are very many reasons. One other reason is that many California natives(California buckeye which is the first to bloom in spring can kill the bees..who will forage for whatever they can find..in the south, yellow jessamine pollen is toxic to honey bees too) are toxic to honeybees which are actually Italian or carniolians or Russian bees...firstly pollinators don't have to be honeybees..we strip all ground covers that don't allow all the wonderful little beings in our delicate ecosystem thrive..pollinators thrive if there is biodiversity. For example, I have an unruly bramble just for my hives because I also have native California buckeye trees..but the boysenberries blooms around the same time and usually the first spring forage. When we introduce an artificial environment, we can't expect the instinct of bees to 'do it's thing' ..my bees aren't native..my habitat has native trees..the solution is to introduce berries and also plant early spring blooming flowers for early forage when they swarm and even before when they are hungry. There is no one blame for this mess but ourselves. If people knew, they'd care about where and how our food is produced.
- lostlogin 10y ago
  Honey bees are a small but visible part of the problem. There are a lot of other bee species that are affected and have been basically killed off in large areas. Other species are less appreciated as they don't make harvestable honey, but they do (?did) provide a lot of pollination. Side note: I recommend bee hives. Nice and relaxing to watch, whilst simultaneously feeling very lazy. It makes mowing the lawn more exciting too, though they actually don't seem to care.
  - SmellyGeekBoy 10y ago
    > It makes mowing the lawn more exciting too, though they actually don't seem to care. Not until you find yourself crossing the flight path on a hot sunny day... I've been known to veil up to do that one part of the garden. Being stung in the eye is not an experience I'd like to repeat!
    - lostlogin 10y ago
      The alarming time for me is on a sunny day after a period of rain/wind. They seem a little shitty if they are boxed up for a long time.
- jessriedel 10y ago
  To be clear, no species of honey bee is native to North America. They were brought here by Europeans after 1600. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_bee#Origin.2C_systematics_and_distribution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_bee#Origin.2C_systematic... North American has other types of bees, but they are not nearly as suitable for industrial pollination, and to my knowledge they are not effected by colony collapse disorder. Whether the industrial monoculture model is robust, or could be improved, is certainly an interesting question, but it's not a matter of nature conservation.
  - jly 10y ago
    Native bees in North America are affected by habitat loss and pesticides. The are many species in serious jeopardy because of that, even without the negative consequences of our direct management for honey or pollination. The industrial monoculture model is certainly one contributor to this problem, so it is a matter of conservation, separately from the issues of honeybees.
    - jessriedel 10y ago
      Honeybees in North America could in principle be a canary in the coal mine for pesticide problems or other issues, but they are a bad one precisely because they are a monoculture; they are vulnerable to pathogens and toxins that natural species easily resist. Habitat loss and pesticides may be hurting native bees, but this is unrelated to honeybees. The issue is logically independent.
- stinos 10y ago
  As I would understand it, a lot of why honeybees have to be brought in is that you have these large-scale examples of monoculture where bees wouldn't be able to find food outside of that one time of year the crop is flowering. Something similar is actually mentioned in the article: When the Adees arrived in Bakersfield in 1990, there were 411,000 acres of farmland planted with almond trees, according to the Agriculture Department. Since then, the number of acres of almond trees has more than doubled, and growers have adopted techniques that are less bee-friendly. Growers previously flooded their orchards with warm water in the early spring to prevent frost from killing the buds. The water gave rise to grasses and weeds like dandelions and wild vetch between the rows of trees, giving the bees a source of pollen before the buds burst into bloom. But now, growers aim to conserve water, and because weeds and grasses can trap cool air that can lead to frost, most almond ranchers spray herbicides to keep the rows between their trees free of unwanted growth. So it's not just the monoculture aspect (e.g. even if you have a lot of trees, not all soil is covered with tree and there's a ton of room left for other species), but also that the farmers actively destroy what's no part of their monoculture.
- jly 10y ago
  I am an avid bee-centric beekeeper where we utilize treatment free methods so bees adapt to threats naturally. I can tell you that the problems with bees (introduced honeybees in North America as well as the thousands of local native species) are 100% man-made. Significant habitat loss, the treatment treadmill of modern agriculture, unnatural management practices, and pesticides all contribute. Bees adapt quickly to new threats (like Varroa) if given a chance to adjust via natural selection without our intervention. Unfortunately our agricultural and management practices prevent that and we see continuing decline. We have to wake up that industrial-scale beekeeping (and crop growing) is just not a sustainable idea.
  - tlow 10y ago
    Imagine humans were trying to build a new ecology in a dome let's just say it is on Mars. Sustainability would no longer be a hope, but a mandate, correct? Given the complexity (and constantly changing aspects) of natural ecosystems, do you think we have the capacity to build a sustainable human-crafted ecology that produces agriculture (perhaps aquaculture) that produces enough excess to sustain human life? If you don't mind sharing what you think this might look like, I'm quite curious. Thank you for the insightful comment.
    - harpiaharpyja 10y ago
      While I am not terribly knowledgeable about it I think permaculture is probably a search term you might be looking for. From what I have read, there have been some successful attempts to develop ecosystems that can sustainability produce food with minimal human intervention. Though I don't think that has been done at scale yet.
iNerdier 10y ago
My father keeps bees as a hobby and he's seen the same problems with a few hives in a city that (presumably) doesn't spray pesticides. It's a combination of many problems, not least the big one that is the varroa parasite that by sucking bee haemolymph (in much the same way fleas suck blood) can introduce disease. One thing that sticks out though, why are almond farmers spraying pesticides to control weeds rather than letting someone with cattle graze under the trees and add in the bonus of free fertiliser?
- jelliclesfarm 10y ago
  Regulations. You can't have fresh manure lying between crop rows. Cows and goats and pigs poop a lot. Many would also eat fruit from the trees. Altho re almonds, I am not sure but it could be toxic to them? The sheer logistics of running animals through thousands of acres is mind boggling. Because most of our food comes from farms that are massive. With the exception of a few commodity crops, it makes more sense to have more urban farmland within cities than having a rural vs urban area. Mostly because the population is showing no signs of reducing and the demand for housing is only going to go up. Having several hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland only concentrates pollution and stresses resources. Creates labour and wage inelasticities. Meanwhile urban areas are becoming crowded. City approves high density urban centers which instead of reducing carbon footprint(they only take into account very few parameters) actually end up increasing collective carbon footprints. We have seen this in every crowded city in the world from Shanghai to Mumbai to Paris to London. And everyone starts commuting to crowded centers making the problem worse and reducing even more farmable land. And meanwhile population keeps increasing. No one ever said that the air is pristine in high density urban central London. Ever. Smaller sized farms catering to local demand is more sustainable. But I digress. Logistics and regulations. Having said that..I speak only from what little I know about agriculture in California. Not sure about the rest of USA/world. [..]iNerdier: One thing that sticks out though, why are almond farmers spraying pesticides to control weeds rather than letting someone with cattle graze under the trees and add in the bonus of free fertiliser?[..]
- jelliclesfarm 10y ago
  Also: weeds are not always bad. Clover, dandelion, thistles..these are all considered weeds. But they are the earliest to bloom in spring and have nectar for bees to forage. After winter, when bees come out..starving and needing energy, these first sources of nectar is very important for the hive to survive and thrive. Weeds are important. They are highly resilient and they survive where they are not wanted. They have a purpose too..my other pet peeve with modern farming is the mass destruction and obesssion with weed elimination.
jelliclesfarm 10y ago
Let's also not forget that queen bees are products of artificially inseminated queen bee breeders. Because of the amount of food our expanding population needs, we are using other living beings as objects for our survival while forgetting that animals and plants are not originally designed by man but by evolutionary forces. So what we have now is really bad and incomplete and haphazard design..be it gmo food or artificially inseminated cows/sheep/bees/pets or 'sustainable hi density cities' or even our pharmaceutical and medical interventions which we have come up with as solutions for food, living and health respectively. They have regurgitated unforeseen problems and consequences for which we are scrambling for solutions because what we have done is REDESIGN of natural systems without understanding the original design of the initial templates perfected by evolution. We see quantity and celebrate it as a success. Monocropping thousands of acres of almonds in a desert = success! Artificially inseminated trucked in non native bees to pollinate above mentioned over planted almond orchards that bloom for a few weeks in a desert during a drought = we are geniuses! But bee populations are dying because of colony collapse disorder = BUT..BUT...WE DONT KNOW WHY!!! (Doh!) The way we have been running this planet gets a failing grade. Back to queen bees artificial insemination..you have to know that in nature, around spring, the queen bee will split the colony and send out a swarm with her daughter queen to form another colony. The new queen and her colony are groggy from over eating ..and they are bound to her pheromones because where the queen goes, her colony will follow. However, more queen bees are bred and purchased these days. Queen bees that are sold are themselves not artificially inseminated always but are almost always products of artificially inseminated queen bees. Why is this relevant? In nature, a queen bee gets out one fine day and goes on a mating flight..she mates with 10-15 drone bees in mid air and after mating, all the drones die. It's beautiful..there is a poem somewhere there..and less gory than the praying mantis mating ritual. The semen from the various suicidal drones are combined and when the Queen returns to her hive, she starts making her family and she never leaves the hive again because from that moment on, her only job is to make more bees and the rest of the hive works for her. In a lab, a queen bee is engulfed in CO2 and while unconscious, a mixture of semen collected from various drones and introduced into the unconscious queen bee. The head and thorax of the drone bee is crushed which causes the abs to contract...its endophallus is now partially turned inside out. Then the bee is completely crushed to collect the semen from it's now over turned endophallus. Different semen is mixed and the queen bee is artificially inseminated. In the agony and ecstasy of the suicidal drone bee, after ejaculation, his endophallus is ripped from his body and with organs damaged, he falls down. But mission accomplished because the only purpose of the drone bee is to mate with the queen. When on a beautiful crisp fall day, they leave the hive, the queen bee seeks the strongest and the best drones..10-15..so that her brood can have the best evolutionary advantage. Rather different from being raped in a lab with semen from dead and captive drone bees. Herein the bad design.. we have gmo crops, chemicals to spray on the gmo crops to keep them healthy, confused bees, gmo crop that farmers can't save seeds from..further confused bees cause the function of pollen is pollination..but most gmo are self pollinating anyways..can't save seeds..don't need pollination. Herbicides to kill weeds and weeds become resistant..but they also kill forage plants and bees themselves ..leading to CCD and hey! Now we have to artificially inseminate bees because we have to save the bees!! Save.The.Bees!!!! That rallying cry! What a tangled web we weave.. Regardless of whether gmo is 'safe or not' ..gmo disrupts natural systems and eventually, natural systems will disappear and we would have to replace it all with human design. And there is plenty of research going on.. the word research literally means that we are 'searching' for something again, yea? It is a quest for what is hidden or unknown. It does not mean that we are experts. First step is to acknowledge that natural systems are perfected by evolution and it's stability is suspect unless evolution redesigns them again. There are too many moving and inter connected parts for us to take over and imagine that improvements will result in a stable system.

48 points by iamjeff 10y ago

Like most articles on the subject, there's hardly any mention of whether the problem is inevitable when we try to force honeybees into the industrial monoculture model and transport them around. I live in a mild climate (SF bay area) and ever since having a fairly wide variety of flowering plants around (not decorative flowers, generally), I see honeybees all the time. As I would understand it, a lot of why honeybees have to be brought in is that you have these large-scale examples of monoculture where bees wouldn't be able to find food outside of that one time of year the crop is flowering.

jelliclesfarm 10y ago
I agree. It's abusive to the bees. Not just the stress of being moved about(actually those new container trailer transport systems are pretty nifty and smooth)..but the unnatural feast and famine they experience. Not to mention the fact that they can't forage or defecate while moving in the transport containers. Absolutely true that the monoculture of certain cash crops is the culprit. Everything points to an imbalance because farmers have to grow what they can sell to make a living and when so much cheap food is imported, they have to look to niche and cash crops. Example: I sell chive blossoms even though I have plenty of chive herb to sell, but there is no market as it's so much cheaper to buy from outside the country. Almond farmers have several thousands of thousands of acres in droughty California's because that's what brings in $. And the center and state enable this feeble and irrational condition of our country's food system. But here is the kicker, the generations of worker bees that follow these abused and forage deprived traveling bees with a forced eating disorder are born with mutations that it might as well be the reason for colony collapse disorder. Altho I am pretty sure that there are very many reasons. One other reason is that many California natives(California buckeye which is the first to bloom in spring can kill the bees..who will forage for whatever they can find..in the south, yellow jessamine pollen is toxic to honey bees too) are toxic to honeybees which are actually Italian or carniolians or Russian bees...firstly pollinators don't have to be honeybees..we strip all ground covers that don't allow all the wonderful little beings in our delicate ecosystem thrive..pollinators thrive if there is biodiversity. For example, I have an unruly bramble just for my hives because I also have native California buckeye trees..but the boysenberries blooms around the same time and usually the first spring forage. When we introduce an artificial environment, we can't expect the instinct of bees to 'do it's thing' ..my bees aren't native..my habitat has native trees..the solution is to introduce berries and also plant early spring blooming flowers for early forage when they swarm and even before when they are hungry. There is no one blame for this mess but ourselves. If people knew, they'd care about where and how our food is produced.
lostlogin 10y ago
Honey bees are a small but visible part of the problem. There are a lot of other bee species that are affected and have been basically killed off in large areas. Other species are less appreciated as they don't make harvestable honey, but they do (?did) provide a lot of pollination. Side note: I recommend bee hives. Nice and relaxing to watch, whilst simultaneously feeling very lazy. It makes mowing the lawn more exciting too, though they actually don't seem to care.
- SmellyGeekBoy 10y ago
  > It makes mowing the lawn more exciting too, though they actually don't seem to care. Not until you find yourself crossing the flight path on a hot sunny day... I've been known to veil up to do that one part of the garden. Being stung in the eye is not an experience I'd like to repeat!
  - lostlogin 10y ago
    The alarming time for me is on a sunny day after a period of rain/wind. They seem a little shitty if they are boxed up for a long time.
jessriedel 10y ago
To be clear, no species of honey bee is native to North America. They were brought here by Europeans after 1600. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_bee#Origin.2C_systematics_and_distribution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_bee#Origin.2C_systematic... North American has other types of bees, but they are not nearly as suitable for industrial pollination, and to my knowledge they are not effected by colony collapse disorder. Whether the industrial monoculture model is robust, or could be improved, is certainly an interesting question, but it's not a matter of nature conservation.
- jly 10y ago
  Native bees in North America are affected by habitat loss and pesticides. The are many species in serious jeopardy because of that, even without the negative consequences of our direct management for honey or pollination. The industrial monoculture model is certainly one contributor to this problem, so it is a matter of conservation, separately from the issues of honeybees.
  - jessriedel 10y ago
    Honeybees in North America could in principle be a canary in the coal mine for pesticide problems or other issues, but they are a bad one precisely because they are a monoculture; they are vulnerable to pathogens and toxins that natural species easily resist. Habitat loss and pesticides may be hurting native bees, but this is unrelated to honeybees. The issue is logically independent.
stinos 10y ago
As I would understand it, a lot of why honeybees have to be brought in is that you have these large-scale examples of monoculture where bees wouldn't be able to find food outside of that one time of year the crop is flowering. Something similar is actually mentioned in the article: When the Adees arrived in Bakersfield in 1990, there were 411,000 acres of farmland planted with almond trees, according to the Agriculture Department. Since then, the number of acres of almond trees has more than doubled, and growers have adopted techniques that are less bee-friendly. Growers previously flooded their orchards with warm water in the early spring to prevent frost from killing the buds. The water gave rise to grasses and weeds like dandelions and wild vetch between the rows of trees, giving the bees a source of pollen before the buds burst into bloom. But now, growers aim to conserve water, and because weeds and grasses can trap cool air that can lead to frost, most almond ranchers spray herbicides to keep the rows between their trees free of unwanted growth. So it's not just the monoculture aspect (e.g. even if you have a lot of trees, not all soil is covered with tree and there's a ton of room left for other species), but also that the farmers actively destroy what's no part of their monoculture.
jly 10y ago
I am an avid bee-centric beekeeper where we utilize treatment free methods so bees adapt to threats naturally. I can tell you that the problems with bees (introduced honeybees in North America as well as the thousands of local native species) are 100% man-made. Significant habitat loss, the treatment treadmill of modern agriculture, unnatural management practices, and pesticides all contribute. Bees adapt quickly to new threats (like Varroa) if given a chance to adjust via natural selection without our intervention. Unfortunately our agricultural and management practices prevent that and we see continuing decline. We have to wake up that industrial-scale beekeeping (and crop growing) is just not a sustainable idea.
- tlow 10y ago
  Imagine humans were trying to build a new ecology in a dome let's just say it is on Mars. Sustainability would no longer be a hope, but a mandate, correct? Given the complexity (and constantly changing aspects) of natural ecosystems, do you think we have the capacity to build a sustainable human-crafted ecology that produces agriculture (perhaps aquaculture) that produces enough excess to sustain human life? If you don't mind sharing what you think this might look like, I'm quite curious. Thank you for the insightful comment.
  - harpiaharpyja 10y ago
    While I am not terribly knowledgeable about it I think permaculture is probably a search term you might be looking for. From what I have read, there have been some successful attempts to develop ecosystems that can sustainability produce food with minimal human intervention. Though I don't think that has been done at scale yet.

iNerdier 10y ago

My father keeps bees as a hobby and he's seen the same problems with a few hives in a city that (presumably) doesn't spray pesticides. It's a combination of many problems, not least the big one that is the varroa parasite that by sucking bee haemolymph (in much the same way fleas suck blood) can introduce disease. One thing that sticks out though, why are almond farmers spraying pesticides to control weeds rather than letting someone with cattle graze under the trees and add in the bonus of free fertiliser?

jelliclesfarm 10y ago
Regulations. You can't have fresh manure lying between crop rows. Cows and goats and pigs poop a lot. Many would also eat fruit from the trees. Altho re almonds, I am not sure but it could be toxic to them? The sheer logistics of running animals through thousands of acres is mind boggling. Because most of our food comes from farms that are massive. With the exception of a few commodity crops, it makes more sense to have more urban farmland within cities than having a rural vs urban area. Mostly because the population is showing no signs of reducing and the demand for housing is only going to go up. Having several hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland only concentrates pollution and stresses resources. Creates labour and wage inelasticities. Meanwhile urban areas are becoming crowded. City approves high density urban centers which instead of reducing carbon footprint(they only take into account very few parameters) actually end up increasing collective carbon footprints. We have seen this in every crowded city in the world from Shanghai to Mumbai to Paris to London. And everyone starts commuting to crowded centers making the problem worse and reducing even more farmable land. And meanwhile population keeps increasing. No one ever said that the air is pristine in high density urban central London. Ever. Smaller sized farms catering to local demand is more sustainable. But I digress. Logistics and regulations. Having said that..I speak only from what little I know about agriculture in California. Not sure about the rest of USA/world. [..]iNerdier: One thing that sticks out though, why are almond farmers spraying pesticides to control weeds rather than letting someone with cattle graze under the trees and add in the bonus of free fertiliser?[..]
jelliclesfarm 10y ago
Also: weeds are not always bad. Clover, dandelion, thistles..these are all considered weeds. But they are the earliest to bloom in spring and have nectar for bees to forage. After winter, when bees come out..starving and needing energy, these first sources of nectar is very important for the hive to survive and thrive. Weeds are important. They are highly resilient and they survive where they are not wanted. They have a purpose too..my other pet peeve with modern farming is the mass destruction and obesssion with weed elimination.

jelliclesfarm 10y ago

Let's also not forget that queen bees are products of artificially inseminated queen bee breeders. Because of the amount of food our expanding population needs, we are using other living beings as objects for our survival while forgetting that animals and plants are not originally designed by man but by evolutionary forces. So what we have now is really bad and incomplete and haphazard design..be it gmo food or artificially inseminated cows/sheep/bees/pets or 'sustainable hi density cities' or even our pharmaceutical and medical interventions which we have come up with as solutions for food, living and health respectively. They have regurgitated unforeseen problems and consequences for which we are scrambling for solutions because what we have done is REDESIGN of natural systems without understanding the original design of the initial templates perfected by evolution. We see quantity and celebrate it as a success. Monocropping thousands of acres of almonds in a desert = success! Artificially inseminated trucked in non native bees to pollinate above mentioned over planted almond orchards that bloom for a few weeks in a desert during a drought = we are geniuses! But bee populations are dying because of colony collapse disorder = BUT..BUT...WE DONT KNOW WHY!!! (Doh!) The way we have been running this planet gets a failing grade. Back to queen bees artificial insemination..you have to know that in nature, around spring, the queen bee will split the colony and send out a swarm with her daughter queen to form another colony. The new queen and her colony are groggy from over eating ..and they are bound to her pheromones because where the queen goes, her colony will follow. However, more queen bees are bred and purchased these days. Queen bees that are sold are themselves not artificially inseminated always but are almost always products of artificially inseminated queen bees. Why is this relevant? In nature, a queen bee gets out one fine day and goes on a mating flight..she mates with 10-15 drone bees in mid air and after mating, all the drones die. It's beautiful..there is a poem somewhere there..and less gory than the praying mantis mating ritual. The semen from the various suicidal drones are combined and when the Queen returns to her hive, she starts making her family and she never leaves the hive again because from that moment on, her only job is to make more bees and the rest of the hive works for her. In a lab, a queen bee is engulfed in CO2 and while unconscious, a mixture of semen collected from various drones and introduced into the unconscious queen bee. The head and thorax of the drone bee is crushed which causes the abs to contract...its endophallus is now partially turned inside out. Then the bee is completely crushed to collect the semen from it's now over turned endophallus. Different semen is mixed and the queen bee is artificially inseminated. In the agony and ecstasy of the suicidal drone bee, after ejaculation, his endophallus is ripped from his body and with organs damaged, he falls down. But mission accomplished because the only purpose of the drone bee is to mate with the queen. When on a beautiful crisp fall day, they leave the hive, the queen bee seeks the strongest and the best drones..10-15..so that her brood can have the best evolutionary advantage. Rather different from being raped in a lab with semen from dead and captive drone bees. Herein the bad design.. we have gmo crops, chemicals to spray on the gmo crops to keep them healthy, confused bees, gmo crop that farmers can't save seeds from..further confused bees cause the function of pollen is pollination..but most gmo are self pollinating anyways..can't save seeds..don't need pollination. Herbicides to kill weeds and weeds become resistant..but they also kill forage plants and bees themselves ..leading to CCD and hey! Now we have to artificially inseminate bees because we have to save the bees!! Save.The.Bees!!!! That rallying cry! What a tangled web we weave.. Regardless of whether gmo is 'safe or not' ..gmo disrupts natural systems and eventually, natural systems will disappear and we would have to replace it all with human design. And there is plenty of research going on.. the word research literally means that we are 'searching' for something again, yea? It is a quest for what is hidden or unknown. It does not mean that we are experts. First step is to acknowledge that natural systems are perfected by evolution and it's stability is suspect unless evolution redesigns them again. There are too many moving and inter connected parts for us to take over and imagine that improvements will result in a stable system.