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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 monocultur

• 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.