Bee Colonies Come Back!
My earliest memory of a bee is being stung on my big toe while in the sandbox. I’m not sure how old I was or which toe was stung, but I have grown to appreciate bees since that day in the sandbox. They’re so useful it’s difficult to hold a grudge. In fact, we need them if we want to continue eating many of the foods we enjoy.
No one knows for sure yet what’s causing Colony Collapse Disorder, but the use of pesticides is suspected. Contaminated water or a new pathogen are other possibilities. It’s a mystery that started in the US and has spread to several other countries.
What’s happening? Honey bees, known for being such hard workers, are disappearing. They just simply aren’t returning to their hives. And the colony, with only a queen and a few immature workers, collapses.
To put this disorder in terms everyone (well, nearly everyone) can relate to, think of it as ice cream.
According to a recent CNN article, the bee disorder is affecting 40% of Haagen-Dazs’ 73 flavors. We need honey bees for ingredients like almonds, strawberries and cherries.
What are some things you can do that might help the bees?
• Opt for organic herbicides in your lawn and garden. (See the Nature’s Avenger post.)
• The USDA suggests avoiding the use of pesticides mid-day when honey bees are most active.
• Buy from local organic farmers.
• This might seem silly, but rent Bee Movie! No, that won’t physically assist the bees, but it might help you and your family appreciate bees a bit more. I won’t give away the plot in case you haven’t seen it.
• Eat some Vanilla Honey Bee Ice Cream from Haagen-Dazs. They’ll donate a portion of the proceeds to fund honey bee research at the University of California, Davis and Penn State University.
Are you concerned about rising food prices due to Colony Collapse Disorder?
Image via Haagen-Dazs.
Tags: colony collapse disorder, honeybees, Organic Farming, wildflowersRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Organic Gardening
15 opinions for Bee Colonies Come Back!
kisha
Jun 28, 2008 at 4:44 am
I love it rent the Bee movie. That was a cute movie, my daughter thought so.Those are all good things. I have been trying all sumer to get my flowers to grow but am not having much luck. Maybe the ones from Burt’s Bee will do better.
robin
Jun 28, 2008 at 7:35 am
Creation Care Magazine (creationcare.org) had a simple to understand, well written article about this in their last issue that opened my eyes to this whole problem. I had no idea how important bees were to the growing of food until I read the article. Unfortunately, the article isn’t online or I would link you to it.
My six year old now says, “Oh good, there’s a bee” instead of freaking out over them. My eight year old still freaks a bit, but he does understand their importance now and doesn’t ask me to step on them.
The bee/honey guy isn’t at our local farmer’s market this year. I’ve wondered if this has anything to do with it, but haven’t asked. I’m on my way there in a few minutes - I think today I’ll ask.
Julie F
Jun 28, 2008 at 10:09 am
Bees will likely make a comeback. This has happened before, I believe it was in the 1970’s. There are many native pollinating insects in the Americas other than bees. Honey bees are not even native to the Americas, they are of European stock.
I do not want them to die off, no way, I love honey too much! I just am not too worried about the world’s crops when there are many other insects that pollinate as well.
Peggy
Jun 28, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Kisha and Robin, that’s great about the little ones understanding how important bees are. When I was young I never understood that. I just thought they were mean for biting people.
Julie, while there are other pollinators, honey bees are easier to manage. I’m talking beekeepers/large scale stuff. They use these bees to pollinate crops like almonds. Here’s a quote from the USDA:
Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion in added crop value, particularly for specialty crops such as almonds and other nuts, berries, fruits, and vegetables. About one mouthful in three in the diet directly or indirectly benefits from honey bee pollination. While there are native pollinators (honey bees came from the Old World with European colonists), honey bees are more prolific and the easiest to manage for the large scale pollination that U.S. agriculture requires. In California, the almond crop alone uses 1.3 million colonies of bees, approximately one half of all honey bees in the United States, and this need is projected to grow to 1.5 million colonies by 2010.
Hil
Jun 28, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Nova did a show on this a few weeks ago, and before that, I had no idea how important bees were to food supplies. Some farming/orchard operations spend nearly $1 Million a year renting them to boost production of berries and other things. Amazing.
Julie F
Jun 28, 2008 at 3:43 pm
http://www.bumblebee.org/economic.htm
Has information on how native bumblebees are just as important as the honeybee and can take their place in many instances.
http://www.wickedlocal.com/newton/fun/gardening/x1123491174
Like honeybees, bumblebees are very important pollinators of many plants in the wild as well as agricultural crops. In addition to several clover species, bumblebees are excellent pollinators of almond, apple, blackberry, blueberry, cherry, cranberry, cucumber, melon, pear, pumpkin, raspberry, squash, strawberry, tomato and more. Recently, I observed them pollinating foxglove flowers in a perennial garden in Steuben, Maine. Read more about bumblebees at http://www.bumblebee.org. For a concise summary of honeybee colony collapse disorder, see Science News, (172:4) 7/28/07.
There are several different types of bumblebees and hopefully they will take the place of the dissapearing honeybee. As I said, I don’t want honeybees to all die off, but I am glad there are other insects out there to help.
Robin
Jun 28, 2008 at 3:44 pm
The bee people were at the farmer’s market this morning. Turns out they were on vacation for a month. They told me that they did lose 60% of their hives last year, but that the bees are beginning to return. They said they have no idea why they left and no idea why they are returning.
I had bought honey at the grocery store yesterday because I didn’t think I could get it this morning. I decided to buy more this morning. My kids tasted both honeys when I got home. The local honey is far better than the store bought honey. It tastes better and it’s a beautiful dark golden color. The store bought is a pale yellow.
I think I’ll end up stocking up at the end of market season for the winter.
Julie F
Jun 28, 2008 at 3:44 pm
That’s weird, my comments are on moderation now. Did I do something wrong or is b5 acting up again?
Peggy
Jun 28, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Julie, I’m not sure what’s up with the comments. If it keeps happening, we’ll email support about it.
I’m wondering if whatever is affecting honey bees might affect other pollinators as well. It would be nice to figure it out, especially if it turns out to be pesticide use.
Robin, local honey is much better. Yum. Oh, and vacation for a month — wow! I wonder if the bees missed them.
Julie F
Jun 28, 2008 at 6:43 pm
I read a few things that point to a collaboration of virus, mites, and possibly a ’syndrome’. I forgot to see if africanized honeybees were being affected.
@the comments thing, I think it was a blog fart. (yes, blog farts are real even though I made up the term)
Wendy
Jun 28, 2008 at 7:37 pm
I dont see a submit button @ Burts Bees
Linette
Jun 28, 2008 at 10:42 pm
This week was National Pollinator week, I posted something about it earlier this week. I just added this as an additional resource link:) I think it’s such an important subject to get the word out there.
Peggy
Jun 29, 2008 at 2:34 am
Wendy, you’re right! I was going to fill it out later, but there’s no way to submit your info to Burt’s Bees for the free wildflower seeds. I emailed them about it. Thanks for letting me know.
Linette, thanks for letting me know about pollinator week and for the link!
kisha
Jun 30, 2008 at 2:30 am
Robins comments reminded me that I need to stock up next week. He always has great jellies/jam and honey sticks. My daughter loves the honey sticks (i think I might have to post something about this on myblog, lol)
Peggy
Jun 30, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Wendy - I suppose Burt’s Bees took away the submit button rather than putting up a note about being out of seeds. Maybe they haven’t had time to update? Not sure… I deleted the bullet from my post.
Here’s their response to my question about the submit button on the free wildflowers offer:
We’re thrilled everyone has been so supportive of saving the bees by ordering these seeds. We’ve run out!
In just over the past 10 days, we’ve given out over 50,000 seed packets so now there will be MILLIONS of flowers being planted across the country. That’s a lot of healthy places for bees to live and thrive.
To plant bee-friendly flowers on your own, our seed packets included a selection of the following wildflowers: Calendula, Shasta Daisy, Lance-Leaved Coreopsis, Plains Coreopsis, Purple Coneflower and Sweet William Catchfly.
Burt’s Bees remains committed to being ‘seriously natural’ and to you, our consumer. We will continue to provide you with safe and effective earth-friendly natural personal care products.
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