Bee Armageddon??

[Hugh]

Hi All

Another artical about the Bees disapearing and CCD. :eek:

See what you think?

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=143737

[beeanne]

I agree with you that CCD is a scary prospect. The way bees are kept /managed in the US is very different than in the UK, and when you see the list of pressures they face it's almost more of a surprise that the current situation isn't worse.

Worker bees abandoning the hive (with brood, queen and stores left behind) or dying whilst foraging (i.e. not being able to make it back to the hive for some reason)?

[Hugh]

I went along to see the CO-OP sponsored film “The Disappearing Bees,” and the way the colonies of bees are treated over there is crazy.
300 to 400 colonies ship thousands of miles across the USA, they are filled up with sugar syrup like we would fill up a car with petrol. Fed on monoculture pollen for X number of weeks, and then shipped off again across the states to another vast field. Then at the end of a season they are left in what looked like a desert all winter with no food!!!

This hellish treatment has probably shown up CCD firstly in the States because the bees are weaker, but it points to problems with normal hives in the near future.

[GRIZZLY]

Usual OTT reporting by the Americans.Hysteria instead of cold hard reporting.The way the American commercial beekeepers treat their bees is a disgrace - I don't think the average "backyard " beekeeper in the States has so many losses if you consult their forums and are as concerned by Varroa Destructor and Nosema Cerenia as we are.I think they are as shocked as we are at the commercial "polination beekeepers " treatment of their colonies.