Clues in the honeybee mystery begin to come to light

The mystery of the missing honeybees is still providing new clues and insights. After the mass media rush to cover the story, more curious information has come to light. To read more of my posts on the missing honeybee mystery, click this link and you will find all of my posts which include links to news and industry websites that provide a wealth of information on this story that go far beyond what you saw on the evening news or on cable TV.

While browsing for new stories on the missing honeybee mystery I found an extremely interesting comment from a representative of the Michigan Beekeepers Association who blames the colony collapse on bee food,

“The high-fructose corn syrup these commercial guys are feeding their honeybees
is made from genetically modified corn, which is made to hurt insects."

This is quite a significant statement. We have all been reading for years about the dangers and health threat that high fructose corn syrup can be to human health. The introduction of GM corn syrup into the colony collapse mystery is quite an eye opener for me and one I had not thought of.

We need to pay a lot of attention to farmers and small agri-businessmen such as this beekeeper. Their concerns and wisdom about such things are based on real world experience and the necessity of sustaining a long and healthy means of earning a living. Big agribusiness concerns such as ConAgra and Monsanto are only concerned with the bottom line and getting away with as much as possible. If the land is left barren, they could actually care less as long as they are able to maximize their profits before the last seed goes to waste.

In this article from the St. Cloud Times in Minnesota, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul thinks the crisis is over in their state and that things have stabilized. Several comments in the article from beekeepers in Minnesota give two interesting points of view. One beekeeper said he was certain the cause of the collapse was mites, tracheal mites to be exact, while another stated that he has noticed the situation seems to have only effected commercial beekeepers and not the hobbyist. Once again, these comments concern what these beekeepers have seen in their state and do not reflect what has happened worldwide.

To add to this theory that commercial beekeepers are being hit the hardest, this article has several comments from organic beekeepers who say their colonies were not at all effected by the crisis. I think it would be very interesting to see some statistics on this once the USDA get’s through investigating it, if they will provide the public with a good scientific report without bias, I should add. If we could see a good survey of the number of hives that were effected, broken down by sector (local commercial, interstate commercial, hobbyist, etc..) and methodology of maintaining livestock (fructose corn syrup based feed, organic, etc..) we could probably see some very clear cut facts arise.

News roundup about the missing honeybees

The continuing mystery of the missing honeybees appears to be deepening based on web published news reports I’ve found this morning. The most striking of these reports is an article published in Ireland that provides a good, overall picture of this problem on a worldwide scale. According to the Mayo Advertiser of Athlone, Ireland, the problem is indeed a worldwide phenomenon and the numbers involved are staggering.

The paper reports, “A decline in bee numbers in Europe together with a 50 per cent drop in the number of managed honeybee colonies has been recognised as a global phenomenon known as the “pollination crisis”.” Until now the reports I have read focused only on the problem in America and referenced past examples of this occurring in other countries, but this article is reporting that this event is happening worldwide.

In yet another article, this time from the Hudson-Star Observer of Hudson Wisconsin, a beekeeper interviewed added this interesting observation, “The biggest beekeepers, however, take bees around the country (for a fee) and turn them loose on farmers’ fields, etc. That’s where the disappearing bees are turning up.” There are two ways you can interpret that statement but the way I am interpreting it is that the bees that are disappearing are the bees that are being taken to pollinate crops.

If the bees are disappearing when they are taken to farms to provide pollination services, this is a big smoking gun. It should certainly concern us all as to exactly why those crops are causing the disappearances. Are pesticides to blame? There have been previous colony collapses that were caused by lethal pesticides. Are genetically modified (GM) crops to blame? That angle has been getting a lot more comments from the conspiracy theory community. Environmentalists have debated at length about GM crops for well over a decade now with one processed food manufacturer that I know of (Linda McCartney Foods) banning their use in all foods made by the company.

A final and far more disturbing article comes from Infoshopnews.org. The author quotes a Penn State Extension Specialist who said:

"I’ve had several people in Washington, D. C., in the last several months telling me that honey bees are a canary for the human race. The canary is what was used in mines to see whether there was oxygen, or not enough oxygen, for the miners. If the canary fell over, why it was time to get out. And Penn State has already found it looks like the immune system has been broken down on these honey bees. So, if the immune system is broken down and this stuff is going into our food supply, how much does it take to take out humans?

You know, I hate to be pessimistic about the situation, but it just doesn’t appear good."

Later in the interview She continues:

"First of all, a third of the food supply in the United States – and actually the world – a third of the food supply is directly related to the honey bee: fruits, vegetables, nuts, just a lot of stuff that we eat, that we’re accustomed to have every day, the honey bee is directly responsible for it. And then, there is probably another 30% of what we consume that honey bees are indirectly responsible for. Take the milk we drink. The cows have to have hay. They’ve got to eat clover and alfalfa to produce milk. And if you go back and listen to what (Albert) Einstein told us – he said if the honey bees disappeared off the face of the Earth, within four years, all life would be gone. Even the wildlife depends on plants pollinated by the honey bees for berries and so on. So, it’s not just humans not being able to get apples and carrots. We’re talking about a real big, serious problem!"

For more posts on the honeybee mystery click here or click the Honeybees tag at the bottom of this posting.

More on the honeybee mystery

I've found some interesting articles online relating to missing honeybees mystery. Now that the mainstream media has milked the doom and gloom for all it's worth and moved onto a new scary plaything or two, the real journalists may get a chance to actually write insightful articles about what's going on.

Iafrica.com has some interesting pieces of info that adds to the missing bees mystery. An African bee expert, Garth Cambray, claims that, “constant inbreeding among North America’s 30 queens has weakened their genetic strength and caused them to become genetically useless.” The article states that honey prices in Africa are rising due to their stocks of honey being exported to America to overcome a shortage of 40,000 tons in the US market. This makes me wonder if the estimated loss of 25% of the North American population of honeybees can effect the price of all foods if there is a smaller crop output due to the problem? We are already seeing the increase in prices at the grocery store due to the higher fuel costs that ultimately get passed along to the consumer (us).

The York Daily Record is reporting an interesting theory that a commercial beekeeper in Franklin Township, Pennsylvania has to offer. Mike Thomas, owner of Bjorn Apiaries ponders whether or not nicotine based pesticides are at the root of the problem, "We've already been working these animals to death," he said. "But with the nicotine pesticides, the bees may finally be saying enough is enough." I tend to listen when an agricultural businessman comes up with theories. Their livelihood is centered around knowing and understanding arcane details of their trade. Spend an hour or two talking with an old farmer and you’ll understand what I mean.

I wouldn’t want to be a farmer in Georgia this year. Here it is early May and they are dealing with a severe draught with no end in sight, a late freeze which damaged crops, higher operating expenses due to the ever rising fuel costs with no peak price in sight and the possibility that their crops could be smaller because honeybees have mysteriously vanished.

News - The missing bees problem has been around for a while

(Update by the CT Blogger 5/1/2007. A new post about the missing bees mystery can be found at this link: http://theconspiratorsnest.blogspot.com/2007/05/more-on-honeybee-mystery.html)

After reading the recent theory that cell phone usage may be behind the strange news about missing honey bees I found an informative web page that has information about this very subject that dates back to 1998.

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2003/07/02/synthetic_honey_and_gmo_bees.htm

Some of the listed causes and theories of cause from prior instances of this happening worldwide are:

- A toxic seed coating agent.
- Imidaclopride.
- Insecticides containing Fipronil.
- The verroa mite.