Re:Bees Cause Buzz In Northwest

[mcjoyous]

I couple of nights ago I caught the end of a Fox News broadcast from Spokane, Washington. From what I could gather, a large swarm of bees had gathered on the window of a downtown business. They brought in some bee keepers to capture the bees and they made note of the fact that bees were mysteriously disappearing and that if anyone found a swarm of bees they should not attempt to destroy them, but call in experts. Perhaps someone from the Spokane area would know more about it. I will do some searching and see if I can find out more.

Update: Found the story
60,000 bees swarm Spokane City Hall
There is also video and a slideshow.

 

[PopHistorian]

Maybe the bees swarmed city hall to demand their rights as citizens? Maybe swarming the White House is next on their agenda, though they'll have to be careful not to be branded as "anarchists." :)

 

[Meg]

They brought in some bee keepers to capture the bees and they made note of the fact that bees were mysteriously disappearing and that if anyone found a swarm of bees they should not attempt to destroy them, but call in experts.

Unfortunately, these folks didn't have the same awareness.hxxp://www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6277247

 

[Alana]

Unfortunately, these folks didn't have the same awareness.hxxp://www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6277247

Not only the bees are disappearing mysteriously, with consequences on all life on earth, now we kill them also! Oh ignorance :(

 

[vinny]

weird. maybe it's like a media 'counterattack' on the disappearing bees scare. like an 'anti-scare'

as in "don't worry, we FOUND the missing bees! they're all here at City Hall"

 

[Bo]

weird. maybe it's like a media 'counterattack' on the disappearing bees scare. like an 'anti-scare'

as in "don't worry, we FOUND the missing bees! they're all here at City Hall"

LOL ''They were only shopping with the whole familly, guys! ''

 

[mcjoyous]

Not only the bees are disappearing mysteriously, with consequences on all life on earth, now we kill them also!

It appears to have been good fortune in the Spokane case that one of their city workers was a bee expert and knew what to do.

On a hopeful note, it seems the organic bee keepers are not experiencing the same problems with CCD.
Apparently, these beekeepers can eliminate Varroa and Tracheal mite problems by switching to natural sized cells.

No Organic Bee Losses

"Sharon Labchuk is a longtime environmental activist and part-time organic beekeeper from Prince Edward Island. She has twice run for a seat in Ottawa's House of Commons, making strong showings around 5% for Canada's fledgling Green Party. She is also leader of the provincial wing of her party. In a widely circulated email, she wrote:

I'm on an organic beekeeping list of about 1,000 people, mostly Americans, and no one in the organic beekeeping world, including commercial beekeepers, is reporting colony collapse on this list. The problem with the big commercial guys is that they put pesticides in their hives to fumigate for varroa mites, and they feed antibiotics to the bees. They also haul the hives by truck all over the place to make more money with pollination services, which stresses the colonies.

Her email recommends a visit to the Bush Bees Web site at Here , Michael Bush felt compelled to put a message to the beekeeping world right on the top page:
Most of us beekeepers are fighting with the Varroa mites. I'm happy to say my biggest problems are things like trying to get nucs through the winter and coming up with hives that won't hurt my back from lifting or better ways to feed the bees.

...Who should be surprised that the major media reports forget to tell us that the dying bees are actually hyper-bred varieties that we coax into a larger than normal body size?"

 

[Rebel_Lion]

interesting precisions McJoyous ... another brick on the wall of shame those beekeepers (i could easy call them bee-slavery partisans) are building :

The best answer (about weither or not Einstein's quote about bees "if bees disappears , so will humanity in the 4 next years, due to pollinisation lack") probably lies in the context of which this putative quote got its early citations : a 1994 january political protest staged by European beekeepers over the issues of competition from lower priced honey imports, artificially highed prices for sugar (used as winter bee food by apicultivators) :

the beekeepers claimed that if they were forced out of business, the honey could be eradicated from Europe, since wild hives were decimated by a parasit (Varroa mite)

_http://www.snopes.com/quotes/einstein/bees.asp

Seems they allow themselves to put post mortem words in the mouth of 1 of the most famous scientist to give themselves som credit ... google Einstein + bees u got almost 1000000 results... while nobody is capable to assert einstein ever talked about bees (he was no entomologist), the closest match provided by serious sources is this quote about a beetle from 1922 referenced in "the new quotable Einstein" : ""When a blind beetle crawls over the surface of a curved branch, it doesn't notice that the track it has covered is indeed curved. I was lucky enough to notice what the beetle didn't notice."...

 

[susanmaple]

I have seen on two different occasions lately, single bees, walking on asphalt parking lots, appearing drunk or poisoned. I have wondered if I should capture them and take them to a bee hospital or something. Does anyone know what I should do if I see any more sick bees? Is anyone trying to find the vanished bees (other that the ones at the Spokane courthouse)

 

[OCKHAM]

I live here in Florida, and have seen a few bees attracted to the weeds I had not removed. They looked fine but very few of them. What I have noticed is the lack of bugs overall. It has been extremely dry here in this state, and this most likely is part of why we don't see as many. I can remember many dry April and May months here when the wasps were still very active this time of year. That is not the case this year. They just don't exist as I see no hives which are usually a great problem for the yard, as I have been stung a couple of time before by their F-15 flight tactics. The whole environment just seems to have changed more than previous years.

There are however an over abundance of lizards.