no it could not be that.
Here in Germany aparists take their bees en mass to the rape (many are paid a 20€ fee for doing so) every year.
For that time period the bees don't have much else to do but fly to the rape, pretty extensive exposure.
They do not report any negative effects on their colonies, these guys are professionals and would whistle blow at the drop of a hat.
Callum,are you telling me that German beekeepers are doing just fine,like we all are?Originally Posted by Calum
yes, we are all doing fine, losses are normal for the situation we and our bees find themselves in.
Varroa is a pain in the arse, and if you do not keep on top of it your colonies will bite the bullet, and take others with them.
The biggest problem that I see is a lack of professional training of beekeepers (its good here in Germany but it could be great), and groups of beekeepers that for different reasons do not implement properly the actions needed to keep the level of varroa low enough for their bees to survive the infestation long term.
I get the feeling that in the UK that the whole game is more amaturish than in Germany, but I get the feeling that UK beekeepers help each other out more than German ones do.
So to answer your question, yes that is what I am telling you (21% in 2011).
Last edited by Calum; 25-11-2012 at 10:14 PM.
How many months, or years, after pesticide exposure would you calll 'over time' or 'not immeidiate'?
....especially given that summer bees live for only 6-8 weeks anyway and are constantly replaced.
Colony numbers have increased year on year in the UK for several years now.
James Cresswell reported in his parliamentary evidence that worldwide, colony numbers have increased by 12% in the past 10 years.
Gosh, is it possible that the 'bees are dying' 'silent spring' 'Armageddon' stories we are being fed in the press are wrong?
Well yes actually, as it as as the gullible and/or lazy journalists who are simply regurgitating press releases from the anti pesticide campaigners and campaign groups who them fill up the comments section below the articles with more scaremongering and nonsense.
Yes. Bees are not human.
The longer term effects in bees would be over generations. Caused by pollution of the comb, the honey and pollen stores, effects on the queen's and drones' prolificacy,general disruption to colony efficiency caused by reduced immunity to diseases and parasites and reduced grooming behaviour, loss of foragers leading to job swaps, generally pooorer foraging due to navigation difficulties. and probably many other effects caused by neurotoxin poisoning.
It seems probable that many other pollinators and beneficial insects are more seriously affected than honeybees.
Last edited by Johnthefarmer; 30-11-2012 at 03:53 PM.
Loads of work has been done to check comb, honey and hive products for neonicotinoids and their metabolites and generally very little is found. They have been found of course but it is by no means ubiquitous. Other chemicals seem to be present in much higher concentrations.
Check out Mullen et al for example.
Aot of what they find is put there by the beekeeper for varroa control.
A lot of what we put there may not be so neccessary if the bees could use their noses properly. Maybe it's a case of more chemicals applied to deal with others we introduced earlier.
It's chemicals applied to deal with varroa which we introduced earlier and that could have been avoided by proper control of imports.
That is a ban I would support.
As bees' nervous systems share many basic characteristics with ours, I refer to my analogy with humans (eg alcohol and nicotine damaging foetuses)-very low levels of neurotoxins are likely to have severe effects on larvae.
Last edited by Johnthefarmer; 30-11-2012 at 04:38 PM.
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