.
[caption id="attachment_1345" align="aligncenter" width="566"]
Honeybee With Flower[/caption].
By dinner time tomorrow, Sunday, August 11, 2013, I will post my traffic report for both blogs for the month of July 2013. I now for fall that, although I know the traffic reports are going to look great you, My Dear Readers, have turned out in record numbers for at least the past month.
The subject of today is article, this article, will be Apis Mellifera also known as the Western honeybee. The problem with the Western honeybee as known as CCD: colony-collapse disorder. First noticed, by commercial beekeepers in America, and 2006. This malady is now responsible for a crippling blow to a fifteen billion dollar American agriculture system.
.
Just so that you, My Dear Readers, understand the width and depth and the severity of the situation. Just last winter one third of all United States honeybee colonies died or disappeared. The average loss of the United States Western honey bee keeper, during a normal winter, is only 10% to 15%. That is an increase in an order of magnitude of 100%, in just one year. Honeybees are responsible for the colonization of all; apples, almonds, asparagus, avocados, broccoli, blueberries, cherries, cantaloupes, cherries, celery, cranberries, cucumbers, lemons, lettuce, onions, plums, watermelons, tangerines, zucchini and all other squashes. As well as 20% of all cotton frown in the United States 2% or peanuts and 1% of grapes.
“If the Dean disappears from the surface of the globe, man would have no more than four years to live.” Albert Einstein.
.
[caption id="attachment_1346" align="aligncenter" width="500"]
Crime Scene Bees[/caption].
Whether or not Albert Einstein actually stand or wrote the word is in dispute. What is not in dispute is the fact that the Western Honeybee is, very likely, the ‘Canary-in-the-coal-mine’ for mankind. Whatever is causing CCD could, very likely, spread to other life forms on Earth. Even mankind himself.
And another little factoid, that I until researching this article did not know. The Western honeybee is not from the North American continent at all! Dean, what we now call, Western honeybee was actually imported into North America in the seventeenth century.
.
This brings me to one of the major reasons, it is thought, for CCD. In the seventeenth century farmers grew many different crops. They had multi-culture farms back then, in America. Now, more times than not, American farms are huge corporate farms and they are monocultures of; corn, rice or soybeans. However, there is a government program called Conservation Reserve Program that actually pays farmers not to plant a percentage of their farms. You see, monoculture farms appear, to honeybees, as vast and inhospitable deserts. Literally miles upon mules of nothing but corn or wheat or soybeans. With no flowering plants that they can pollinate or use for food for their hives. That is why the CRP was created. TO break up these huge deserts creating by commercial farming. Nevertheless, this year the program only paid for 25.3 million acres. Down significantly since its peak in 2007 and the single smallest level since 1988.
.
There is a type of pesticide that is thought to be part of the problem. They are called neonicotinoids and they entered the marketplace (and our ecosystem) about the same time as CCD began. For many beekeepers these chemicals are the most likely culprit. As well, there is American foulbrood, a bacterial disease that kills bees while they are developing. Not to be outdone by chemicals or bacteria, there is the ‘hive beetle’ (thy c contaminate hivs) and the bloodies of all? Varroa destructor a microscopic mite that burrows deep into brood cells that host baby bees. They have a sharp two-pronged tongue that can pierce a bee’s exoskeleton and suck out its hemolymph the fluid that serves as blood for honeybee.
.
A research scientist at the University of Maryland, Dennis vanEngelsdrop proposes that America is suffering from a “nature deficit disorder and that our American honeybee is the victim of this loss of nature and over industrialization of our nation. This school of thought believes that if Americans starting planting more bee-friendly flowers and plants in our home backyards, we could make a real dent in the incidence of CCD.
.
Yet another school of thought is based on the use of sugar water and the same corn syrup used to make soft drinks is being used as a supplement to the diet of American honeybees. Thinking that these sugary foods are just as bad for bees as they are for us and our hyper-active children. There are even more culprits that are being considered, but I just wanted to represent the most likely causes of CCD in this article.
.
[caption id="attachment_1347" align="aligncenter" width="624"]
Honey Bee[/caption].
Whatever the reason for the growing incidence of CCD, the result is the same. In just the past ten years it is estimated that over ten billion honeybees have died. In just a little under twenty years more bees have died, of an unexplained malady, than have died due to unnatural causes in the past one hindered years that came before.
. The American honeybee is not alone, either. The wild bumblebee and wild bees are dying in record numbers, too. In June, of this year, 50,000 wild bees died, in Oregon. A landscaping company sprayed insecticide on trees. This action caused the single largest mass poisoning of bees (of any kind) on record.
.
Globally, each year, over 100,000 animal species become extinct. This is a pattern of genocide that makes life on Earth… unsustainable… for mankind. Man cannot live solo, on this planet. We depend on many other species for our survival. Now, we begin to realize, that they depend on us for their survival. Mankind simply must stop being so.. callus. Callus towards our co-habitants of this planet and less callus towards his fellow man.
.
For more information, and a much better representation of the science and extent of this disease? I have a little independent movie I recently watched on Netflix. It is called ‘Vanishing of the Bees’. With a running time of one hour and twenty-seven minutes, it simply is the best use of an hour and a half of your weekend.
.
As always, My Dear Readers, I am deeply honored that you have come to The Other Shoe to read my words. I hope that I have entertained and maybe even enlightened. I take your patronage seriously and value your time and efforts. In closing, I ask your indulgence… for just a moment. I am a severely disabled American… in dire need of help. The building I have lived in, for the past decade, has been sold to foreign interests. Everyone that was living here, is being kicked out. In exchange… we are seeing… Americans from India moving into the vacant rooms. Nobody else it being allowed to move in, at this time. I find this development… disturbing. I am not a racist… at least I try very hard to not act or think in terms of race or color. However, I have never seen anything like this before.
‘
I just want to move and get away from this… whatever it is. However, my disability is getting worse and worse. My doctor is documenting my declining health. I have done my best to try and save money… but I am forced to ask for your assistance. I am deeply embarrassed… even humiliated… by doing this. Please, will you consider donating to my relocation campaign? Below is a link to the Indiegogo campaign I am running. There is only two weeks left for me to raise the funds I need. I would be deeply honored… humbled if you could see your wat clear… to help… to donate.
From the bottom of my heart I say:
“Thank YOU!”
[…] ← Where Have All the Honeybees Gone? […]
ReplyDelete