In the winter of 2006, a strange phenomenon fell upon honeybee hives across the country. Without a trace, millions of bees vanished from their hives, leaving billions of dollars of crops at risk and potentially threatening our food supply. The epidemic set researchers scrambling to discover why honeybees were dying in record numbers — and to stop the epidemic in its tracks before it spread further.
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This program premiered October 28, 2007.
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When I saw the title of “Silence of the Bees” reappear, I thought this would be a repeat which, however, I found surprising at the beginning of a season. I missed the first airing because of transmission troubles at my local PBS. Fortunately, by checking the web page, I found out this title is a follow-up, and not a repeat. In future, I suggest using titles like “Silence of the Bees II” to avoid this problem in the future. This episode will repeat, so I hope I can catch it then.
“Silence of the Bees” originally aired last fall. It repeated on June 15. It is not “Silence of the Bees II.”
One of the interesting quotes from this exceptional PBS program is that in terms of immediate ramifications the Bee Colony Collapse Syndrome (CCS) will be more catastrophic than Global Warming. I cannot vouch for this superlative statement, but CCS should be on your radar. The mainstream media in general has not done its job in making this environmental issue, the possible loss of bees, up-front-and-center of our attention.
The loss of bees could affect a third of the things we see growing around us and it will certainly profoundly affect our agriculture, meaning our economy, if this problem is not solved. The point that needs to be hammered on is that our government should make sure there are sufficient funds to conduct all the studies necessary to find out why bees are dying off. We cannot leave this to private industry or educational facilities. Check out “The Silence of the Bees” to get the importance of this issue—don’t wait for mainstream media to get in your face with this because they won’t get it until it’s too late.
i think we have to look to another diriction about ccs i notice when this beekeeper move his hives they are not closed very good this couse alot of loss for the bee hive population
Losing our honey bees world-wide is very, very frieghtening. Governments of the world UNITE in this fast growing and alarming honey bee problem!!!!!
I wonder if Jerry Seinfeld made “Bee Movie” because he wanted to bring the importance of the honey bees to people of all ages? I love the honey bees. It wouldn’t be summer without them in my yard or drinking nectar from my flowers. Wake up government of the United States!!!
[...] am Filed under: Life, the Universe and Everything | Tags: bees, dominion, gardening After watching this episode of Nature on PBS last night, I’m wondering if the only real hope for the honeybee [...]
Ibrahim, I can understand how you came to that conclusion, but the visuals are easy to misinterpret. The way any beekeeper moves a hive is to wait until nightfall when the bees are all inside (they only fly during the day.) Then you can block their entrance(s) and the bees cannot escape. At that point, the hive can be transported anywhere.
The video shows that a couple layers of netting are put over the hives, and any bees that are inside the netting are ones which have managed to escape, but they won’t get very far until the netting is removed.
Albert Einstein said, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.” Lets hope and pray this doesn’t happen. I’ve contacted both local and federal officials today requesting more money to research CCD as well as federal assistance for the wonderful men and women who are losing their bees to this dreadful disease.
[...] http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/silence-of-the-bees/full-episode/251/ [...]
This is an excellent programme. Sadly – although this website says that you can ’see the full video online’ it is a dead link and you cannot see any of the main episode. Can this not be restored? It is a vital issue.
your presentations are always exellent but how do I watch them here online?
[...] I was most distraught last month when I missed the re-play of PBS’s documentary entitled, “Silence of the Bees.” Thankfully they have made the full version available on their website here! Silence of the Bees [...]
This was a very interesting program. I am curious now about the fate of uncultivated bee populations, and how they differ from commercial bees. As the program states over and over, bees and other insect pollenaters are crucial to the reproduction of a vast percentage of the plant life on Earth, and therefore to the health of almost every terrestrial ecosystem. I would be interested in more information on wild bee populations and what is being done to protect them, as they must be a vital aspect in any conservation effort.
Een waardevol document waar een ieder, maar zeker alle Imkers, kennis van moeten nemen.
Jammer voor vele dat de documentaire niet ondertitelt is. De uitzending op TV wel. Toch moet je proberen een en ander goed te laten doordringen.
I’ve found it strange this year that on a number of occasions, bumble bees have flown into my porch, lay down on the carpet and died. My son had the same experience. I wonder if there could be a connection or is it just a coincidence. I’ve not known it before.
Awesome. Friggin’ bees. Remember the big Y2K scare, all the people running to the stores to stockpile canned goods and water? Just you wait, those very same people will be at the grocer buyin’ up all the honey, peanut butter, cereals, ice cream; basically everything with honey, and it’s a much longer list than you may think.
PS-
Anyone else having problems with the chapter selection box under the video player? It’s working like it’s supposed to, it’s just a stupid design; since it moves with mouse position, when you’re trying to pick some of the “middle” chapters, the thing is moving around. Ya gotta play target practice to select a chapter!
CCD is mostly hype, I know cause I make my living keeping bees and have since 1995.
The only bees disappearing is in the migratory beekeepers hives which are moved around, fed HFCS and basically are seen as disposable once they get paid 160$/hive for pollination in almonds.
I hate this movie and other pieces of media that make CCD sound like some wave of horror sweeping across the continent. Hogwash.
The reality is Hackenberg pushes his bees past the limit. He even explains how they travel 5500 miles a year! There is no mystery – just limits which have been exceeded.
I have not lost any bees, don’t move them and don’t put chemicals in my hives either. There are more beekeepers not having problems then the few who are….
I’m a commercial exterminator. I’m called in when a company finds a hive that could pose a safety hazard to its employees. I get more and more calls of this type every year.
This is just liberal media hype. Just like the killer bee invasion a few years ago. Yes, we have africanized bees up here, and yes, they are agressive. But, its nothing like the invasion they were predicting.
I wonder how much longer until some politician enacts another useless feel good law that does nothing to help the bees, and just costs the taxpayers a bunch of money. When that happens, you’ll have to let your childern be stung by bees because it will be illegal to remove them….
at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_Collapse_Disorder#Scale_of_the_disorder there is wonderfully researched and documented entry on CCD. I agree, it is hype, right along with global warming and man’s part in it. It is a grand conceit. Just another way that “The sky is falling! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” How many times does the media have to “cry wolf” before the general public gets a clue?
i’ve always been interested in beekeeping . after viewing this me and my wife thought the next logical step would be to get a hive ,and so we did now we love watching our bees, our gardens did great this year . we are very happy with our disision .hope more people do the same.
=) hi i like round grapes!
OK, I would say, Those in charge, need to push out funds to cap off this issue of loosing bees before its too late. I just like all others, Like Fruits, and more. Some say, we still have bread,, They are not thinking, about the whole issue of Bees Disapearing.. I Ask, no I Beg, those who have the power to get a cap on the issue, to have the bee population come back, It would be nice to see a PBS program in the near future, titled: Bees on a come back and more. To report, the Bee population has come back to FULL Force, and More, That would be nice,,
Scott, From Ft. Worth TX, Nature Freak here.
I know one thing, I am going to be moving to the country, I am going to devote a part of my land to Nothing but Flowers For Bees. I want to do Something, to help this issue..
I pray to our LORD Jesus, we find a way to kill the Virus that was found, if that is the entire problem, eliminated. Hopefully our Bees population can be on a Rebound.
[...] the original broadcast, no problem! You can now see the full-length video of the Nature program Silence of the Bees on the PBS website: [...]
I lovez teh beez.
I lovez teh beez 2, dey make me sad…*cry*
I am so sick of ‘holier than thou’ conservatives hype that everything is ‘media hype’ just so they can maintain the status quo and take no responsibility for what is happening the the world and others around them! Get over it!
Did you know that the world’s frogs are also dissappearing? Have you heard of the exploding frogs?
How are bees and anphibians doing in isolated areas like Cuba or North Korea?
We need a ’spell checker’ before we submit our comments (it’s embarassing). We need a translator for our non English commenters. Google used to have a nice vidio player before it aquired Utube about a year ago.
I am so glad that Nature and PBS are doing shows such as this and taken on the task of educating the public. I saw this when it first aired. It inspired me to do a series on pollinators and I hope in turn that it will become a mainstream issue. A key to solving alot of problems and educating the public about conservation, and our link to our health with that of the environment.
I thought this program was interesting and educational. My daughter and I are first year hobby bee-keepers. I am glad we are keeping bees. We started not for honey so much as for pollination; this is the first year we had more than five fruits on our various trees –the apples were astounding;we had apples! We also had a wee bit of honey. Also, our original group divided and swarmed .Not as scarey as it sounds! We improvised a second hive for the swarm.Quite a learning experience for us both. I worry,though,if our bees will carry over to next spring especially after being caught in a cloud of chemicals while walking the dog past a local farm field earlier in the summer.I was coughing, the dog was sneezing and coughing and I thought of my bees, my girl,our pets…..and is this crop-dusting plane poisening the ‘farmer’s market’ corn & veggies I’ve been buying? It’s like you can’t escape the chemicals;they are seeped into our ground water and air and even prescription drug residuals are turning up in the fish we buy. CCD? Yeah, I believe it’s real.What’s the half life on some of them?any of them chemicals? Somewhere,sometime, someone started making this (bed) coffin and now we all have to lie in it.
I know you can download the short version of of televisiontunes.com
If the bees seem to be vanishing at a higher rate from where they have been “trucked” to, maybe their “vanishing” is just because they have flown off in search for the type of pollen they last gathered from the place they were “trucked” from.
exelente el programa,soy de chile,y soy apicultor,,,chile parece estar libre de estos problemas de las abejas,les deceo suerte y trabajen en esto para solucionar este problema grave,mucha suerte y cuidemos la vida
This was a very good documentary! Very informative and beautiful. Really helped me with a paper I was writing for a college class. Thanks PBS!
Amazing doc!!!!! the problem with pesticide residue is that one bee carries it back to the hive affecting every bee it encounters including larvae
Maybe all this Genetically modified food is messing with the bees?
This is a very concern to me and others; i am doing a paper a research paper on this subject. Albert Einstein
predicted this event. that if bees disappear so will man in 4 years. Please keep me inform: what can we do to help…
Einstein did not predict this. Actually the famous quote attributed to him is incorrect. I am also a beekeeper and have a book coming out this summer on the subject. I beleive CCD is real, however not to the extent it is shown here.
Kelly- what book did you write? I greatly enjoy reading bee books; I look forward to yours.
I too am a beekeeper. I learned beekeeping in Santa Cruz, Ca. through a great, former beekeeper Ormond Aebi, who also wrote books and briefly held the world’s honey harvest record for a single hive. Wikipedia has a biography of him and a little about his beekeeping books.
Quite a worrying program but not a lot about the use of the pesticides such as the neonicotinoids and what about the corn syrup fed to bees if that comes from GM crops it will contain the BT toxin no matter what the provider of the seed says. All these pesticides have a cumulative effect and we are now, unfortunately finally paying the price, just hope my bees survive
There are so many other variables here that it’s ridiculous to take any of this lightly. Yes, the mainstream media exaggerates practically anything to make us fearful of everything around us, but that doesn’t subtract from the fact that this is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. It’s a fluctuating problem, at that – varying from year to year but progressively getting worse with the passage of time. And they’re still not sure if this virus has anything to do with CCD. And comparing this problem to global warming seems apt considering the permanent changes that will take place. People play a part in global warming, yes, but it’s also a very natural process. That doesn’t mean we can’t do something to make changes for the better. There are so many things that we can improve upon as a species and as the caretakers of this planet that it’s dumbfounding how no one really seems to be thinking about the reality of it all. We need to take responsibility for ourselves and stop pointing fingers; it’s not helping us, and it’s not going to solve any of our problems.
I am glad that the full version is now available. I had it on my DVR but my wife erased it to make room for other programs.
I too am a beekeeper and I mentor many new beekeepers and youth. I have not had a problem with CCD but I know commercial beekeepers that do from time to time. It is real but not as hyped as the media states. Once can complain about the commercial beekeepers but they have a place in ensuring that we keep food on our table. Still I feel the small beekeeper is what will save us if there is a large loss of bees. The bees kept by the average “backyard” beekeeper are not exposed to the chemicals or the stresses that commercial hives are exposed to and additionally they are not exposed to hives from all over the country that may, or may not, be infected with disease. The backyard hives are relatively isolated and therefore our backup or our insurance. Let me say thank you to all the backyard beekeepers and all of you that grow flowers and provide pollen sources for bees. Also thank you for those that refrain from using pesticides and toxic chemicals. All of you contribute to the continuing survival of bees, insects and amphibians that are so needed.
i have many bees feding on sugar water in 1 hour is this bad because they will noy pollinate flowers later in march
Maybe they are getting jacked up from being transported 5500 miles a year on a truck thourhg the interstate highway system. I dont think that is very natural.
Is this documentary in public domain? I would like to show it in my river museum to school groups.
I am writing a research paper on the decline of the honeybee and its effect on society. This has been a great resourse. I am writing this paper as part of a required senior project to graduate and the situation caught my eye. As far as the “project” part is concerned, I am not quite sure what I might be able to do to help with the whole delema. Some of the ways to “help” that I have read up on are donating to bee research, planting bee friendly plants, and notifiying the public. I was thinking about writing an article for my local paper or even posting something online. How can I better get the word out? What would be most benefical?
[...] just finished watching a poignant PBS video, Silence of the Bees, about honey bees disappearing around the world. Although I had heard about this problem, called [...]
It seems like a no-brainer that trucking honeybees by the millions across the country to serve agribusiness pollination needs is a BAD IDEA. What are beekeepers thinking? Just like the dust bowl of the 1930’s, mono-cropping and unsustainable agricultural systems have negative effects on our environment and living creatures. How do we expect honeybees to survive?
I enjoyed this program very much. I felt it was very informative and helpful in opening my mind and awareness to the reality of the ‘bee’ situation. i hope that after my career in college I am able to participate in assisting with the research in seeking a solution. Thank you PBS
The difficulties with bees are symptomatic. They’re the canary in the coal mine. New diseases come and go, but I think we’re seeing a gradual decline in the resiliency of nature.
If you do only one thing, buy local organic produce. There are apiaries that serve small local farms with pollination services, and that’s good for the farmers, the bees, and the honey.
I am not sure if the missing bee issue is something recent.
Where do we know the same scenario was not there in the past meaning 50 to 100 year before? May be it part of bee’s life cycle?
Do they have the record for 50 or 100 years prior to this so we have a good comparison chart? On what ratio the bees were missing in the past etc.
I don’t believe bees are missing. I believe they are trying to portray this as a big issue and project missing bee will stop all vegetable growth, stop the world from running… By projecting this as a big issue they can get the rest of the world’s attention. This will ultimately help the bee keepers to get research done for free sponsored by government, gives sympathy and justifies their price increase finally gives opportunity to rest of the world that they exist and educate how important bees are
The great thing about buying local honey is that it helps with allergies.
And the great thing about substituting native plants for conventional plants is that not only do they help local bees and provide variety for them but also they require less water and soil amendments.
I really don’t understand why Canadian citizens and esspecialy those living in southern Québec should be deprived of the possibility to watch PBS videos on Internet, supposely for a matter of rights.
When time comes for PBS to sollicitate contributions for some PBS stations, there does not seem to carry such limitations and some people in the Northen United states don’t seem to be shy to ask for our financial contrbution and not too unhappy to receive Canadian support!!!
P.S. We do not live in North Korea!
From Montréal…, Paul Lalonde.
Thank you!
I would submit that the reason that honeybees took such a beating the last couple of years is that in the last decade, the Africanized bee hybrids became the dominant honeybee from California to Florida. They cannot handle cold weather. When the temperature drops below 32, the hive dies. (Which is why they have not migrated any further southwards than central Argentina.) Winter 2007-8 saw a two week cold snap into the 20s down the West Coast to southern Baja and east to Texas and a similar cold snap in the Southeast. Hundreds of thousands of hives were killed off. Bees are shipped all over and this spreads the Africanized hybrids all over during the warmer months. Imagine the dismay of a Wisconsin farmer or beekeeper when the bees he bought from California or Texas die off that winter the first cold snap. Our other pollinators, such as bumblebees are in excellent shape, outside of urban areas. My garden generally has 5 species plus two tiny, 1/4″ bee species native to the Pacific NW. And a few others that I haven’t ID’d yet. Because our bees are cold adapted and the Africanized bee cannot survive here, our native colonies of honeybees are unaffected.
Why isn’t ANYONE looking into this? Admittedly, it’s more interesting if it’s varroa mites, tracheal mites, viruses or bacteria, but these have been with us for millenia. But cold, something we all take for granted and the hybrids cannot handle? Why hasn’t Canada, which locked out our bees due to the Africanized bee’s arrival in the States more than a decade ago, had the same die off, for example?
William Hunt
M.S.E.E. (cons bio)
B.S.x2
I agree with those saying it seems simple that trucking bees around the country 5,500 miles can’t be good. Buying bees from Australia, pesticides, introducing the African bees to produce on a massive scale can’t help but have negative consequences. When will man learn that smaller scale and diversity generates better crops. And we haven’t learned from the China region stuck with hand pollination?
Has anyone thought of also Chem Trails being another factor. You can stand outside and see them lining the sky with chem trails.
Overall the documentary is a wonderful work, but the background music was much too loud and often drowned out the narration. I wonder if that can be re-mixed after the fact?
This was very informative, fascinating, and sad to me. It is also a global crisis the mainstream media appears to be ignoring. Humans are a selfish, greedy, polluting bunch, and I worry for the next generations a great deal. On the other hand, the program really enlightens viewers as to just how selfless the honey bees are, sacrificing everything for the sake, health, and survival of the hive, and thereby the planet. Really made me think…Thanks to PBS for all they do.
[...] Silence the Bees was on OETA “Nature” last night. [...]
Could the decline of the bee population relate to the increased usage of genetically modified foods?
Could the bees be approaching some tragic consequences by way of this too?
It would be helpful to have follow-up information. Since this program premiered in 2007, what is happening to all those research studies now? Has there been any progress? How do we find out? It was amazing to learn of the huge commercial use of bees in feeding the world.
What can the average gardener do beyond planting bee-attracting plants? The sooner there are answers to the cause we can try finding and implementing the solutions.
Could it be the so called ‘chemtrails’ blasting barium across the planet? Barium is supposed to be poisoning the people.
I was told in the early sixties by a knowledgeable beekeeper, “Beekeeping Recedes as Civilization Advances.” Overpopulation is killing us in myriad ways. It will peak and fall! The bees will survive. Homo-sapiens? ………….. now that’s another question. Two great books for those of you who like bee literature: The Honey Spinner (Grace Pundyk) and The Honey Revolution (Dr. Ron Fessenden and Mike McInnes) Survival is now a personal matter. Forget governments. They cannot solve our problems, they have become the problem. A serious and ancient aversion exists against the bees in the halls of power worldwide. For personal survival, one MUST start thinking for oneself and ignore the culture of big business, big government, big religion and the very idea that the world can be somehow rendered clean. It will only happen at the personal level. The World Civilization has peaked out, and decline will follow. Do get your own beehive. If this is impossible, find your own local beekeeper. Quit asking him to compete with supermarket prices: his honey is probably far superior. Replace all the other sweeteners in your diet with natural honey. Replace your medicine list with products from the apiary. You will then be in a position to survive when others may fall. We as a race are more at risk than the bees. Cheers, and good luck for a bright personal future!
John
Theres no reason for this: greed and overworking the bees has led to CCD due to stess. Stress of moving them long distances, changing their locations and diets, overharvesting honey, and poisoning them with varroa mite treatments. The modern hive is not very well designed, the bees are abused and THIS is probably the most damaging issue. Further, the uncontrolled use of pesticides adds to the stress. The best solution, regardless of the cause, is:
1. Quarantine all bees interstate; do not let them cross state lines and set up enough hives in state to assure proper pollination of crops. 2. No international importation of bees without rigorous testing.
3. Instrumental insemination of superior queens from hives resistant to IAPV, varroa mites, nosema, etc. Only by selecting the resistant strains will bees best survive. We have done this historically with all domestic livestock.
4. Nutritional studies need to done so bees can be provided with a low cost diet when natural food isnt available. High fructose corn syrup and soy flour is not the answer and can be the added toxic cause of stress. A balanced diet, rich in digestable protein should be produced.
5. Global changes are here; we need to destress the bees, take half the honey, and stop interstate trucking.
The very simple answers are there; if beekeepers sit on their hands only wanting to profit without future investment; the bees will be doomed.
what a jokei like the intro sentence something about stopping it in its tracks before it spread any further. every winter even 2006-07 when the media was full of doom and gloom stories of missing bees ovwer 1 million colonies where headed west to the pot of gold in CA to pollinate almonds.
these guys could care less about anyone else, for example if there was hoof and mouth disease livestock transport acorss the nation would stop immediately
the real cause behind the losses of bees is the hige contamination issue of honeycombs that an estimated 85% of all beekeepers have created by putting fluvalinate and coumaphous into their hives to kill the varroa mites.
Maryann Frazier at Penn State analyzed combs from hives supposedly afflicated with CCD and the top 3 chemicals found in the combs were ALL beekeeper applied! The levels of these chems were on the order of 1000X higher then other chems from agriculture which is no surprise as they are applied purposely by the beelkeeper.
This story of vanishing bees is a major fraud as the true Industrial Beekeeping practices are unknown and not understood by the media and public. what a joke. don’t beleive me? google Maryann Frazier Penn State
here’s an article to get you started
http://www.biobees.com/library/pesticides_GM_threats/What_Have_Pesticides.pdf
also google coumaphos and honeybees
and
fluvalinate and honeybees
the most commonlhy used pesticdes by beekeepers.
this idea its some sort of mystery is a crock if you ask me. i’ve been a beekeeper for my whole life more then 50 years.
Re:Silence of the Bees.I live in Riverside, CA next to some orange groves.We also have a large orange tree in our backyard. Several months ago, we had dead bees in our driveway and our patio. First time in almost 20 years we have seen this. Now, we see wasps, but on bees. Could this be the reason?
one response above thinks that the loss of bees is awesome. That is very ignorant. This person is not aware that bees are the primary pollinators. If plants are not being pollinated, then we are in big trouble. We have been using too many pesticides in this country. Even butterflies, who are secondary pollinators, are disappearing. Each of us needs to do our part to bring back these insects.
an amazing production1 Do not remove from this site. Advertise it everywhere. . .Thankyou for such a wonderful explanation regarding the importance of the honeybee!
Bees are taking off huh? Do you blame them. As we are dependant on their pollenation properties (a byproduct of their necter and pollen collecting) so are they on our good judgement and stewertship. It is obvious from the reported facts that we are failing them while they have not failed us. They are allowed the luxury of suing man in a court of law for breach of contract, unspoken and unwritten it may be. We have wrongly been harvesting their resources which they expend great and costly energy into and in turn selling it at a unreasonablly low rate that can’t sustain it’s source. I for one bought two bee hives which I keep honey bees in. Keeping them up and providing for the bees is another cost of having food availible to me. It would be stupid to raise bees with an unrealistic shortsighted plan of profiting from their hard work without getting an ample return enough to provide any needed payment for supplies to care for their health, replacing the honey harvested with another food supply (simple syrup) to supplament a partial honey harvest. That’s right you idiot beekeepers, you shouldn’t take all their honey reserves!! ( I by the way leave all honey and pollen to the bee’s simply because I’m a better stewert and more informed beekeeper.) They in turn pollenate my crops and if in their best interests pollenate the crops of my customers who are paying more and more dearly for their services. In turn I take that money and buy medical products to make their life better along with costs required to evolve my care of them which includes heating and cooling their hives, designing and building robber bee safe features and providing them any additional food sources. I hope my compition loses more bees if indeed they are being mistreated by them. Mine are happy and staying put on their own free will. As a matter of fact I will soon have to expand.
A Great Presentation. As an avid Beekeeper and Gardener/Farmer I am very concerned about CCD. My site on beekeeping is here —> http://public.fotki.com/GaryGS1/family-farm/beekeeping-1/ Feel Free to have a look. Comments Welcome.
GaryGS1 in Nj=USA
Thank you for this fantastic video, which raises awareness of this huge environmental and economic issue. There is a lot we can do as individuals as well as on a larger (scientific, political) scale!
Thanks,
The Honeybee Conservancy
wws.TheHoneybeeConservancy.org
Thank you for this fantastic video, which raises awareness of this huge environmental and economic issue. There is a lot we can do as individuals as well as on a larger (scientific, political) scale!
Thanks,
The Honeybee Conservancy
http://www.TheHoneybeeConservancy.org
A basic message this and other great PBS shows gets across is that our personal actions can have huge results for good or bad. It is up to each of us to decide what we can do to make the world a better place. http://www.savehoneybees.org
In the winter of 2006, a strange phenomenon fell upon honeybee hives across the country. Without a trace, millions of bees vanished from their hives, leaving billions of dollars of crops at risk and potentially threatening our food supply. The epidemic set researchers scrambling to discover why honeybees were dying in record numbers — and to stop the epidemic in its tracks before it spread further
I am a sideliner beekeeper and I do my best to inform people of the importance of honeybees. However, there is little attention being paid to the problem of bees disappearing. I have searched everywhere that I can think of and there is no ear that will listen. If one is a cattle farmer or cotton farmer or corn or soybeans there are billions of dollars for these farmers but ask about insurance to cover lost bees or free dollars to help a person replace or get started in beekeeping and the representive of USDA will only give one a dirty look. America better wake up and understand that without the honey bee we will not have food.China and Walmart can’t solve this problem.
Bee colonies weaken due to regular application of miticides, the foraging they do in pesticide laden fields, and the fact that they are being fed unhealthy sweetened corn syrup/sugar water in place of their own healthy honey (which is taken away from them). Bee pollen is also taken from their legs. The food bees make and stock in hives is helpful in mite prevention. The pollen and nectar collected by bees contains important nutrients that keep the bees healthy. Stealing that from them and giving them fake substitutes will make them susceptible to many diseases and predators. Bees desire their deaths to cause no problem for the rest of the hive, so they fly away before dying. That is where they are going.