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DarkSteven -> Bees. Colony Collapse Disorder. (8/25/2013 9:50:15 AM)
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There's a question whether this should go here or in P&R. I'm posting it here. I've gotten fed up with the misinformation and misunderstanding about the honeybee situation.
First, the bee is a phenomenal pollinator but it's not the only pollinator. Some other insects pollinate as well. And I've heard that other bees (bumblebees, carpenter bees, etc.) do a more efficient job pollinating than the honeybee. If the honeybee is wiped out, we WILL see less production of food crops, especially initially. But I don't think it'll result in worldwide famines. Note that all of the grains (except buckwheat) are grasses that are wind pollinated, so a honeybee decimation will not affect grain production.
The honeybee hive is incredible. It can have as many as 60,000 bees, all (except the drones) working their tails off. The queen exists to lay eggs, and she will lay tens of thousands of them. The drones live a life of luxury akin to living at the Playboy mansion. They do not work and get pampered. Their sole purpose is to fly from the hive, find a queen, and mate with her, dying on the process. A queen is basically gangbanged in the air and gets impregnated by several drones. When times get tough, the workers kick the drones out of the hive to conserve food.
The vast majority of the hive bees are workers. They begin their lives doing hive duties (rearing freshly hatched brood, guard duty at the front of the hive) and graduate to flying outside the hive for nectar and pollen. Life is rough and they live about two months during the summer.
With that understood...
There's been a lot of foofaraw about honeybees dying off. It's true. But it's not all due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). There are two causes of honeybee decline - CCD and a worsened normal winter die-off.
CCD is hive abandonment. Picture a town full of houses - televisions and computers on, automatic lawn systems kicking on and off, electric signs and traffic lights working - and no adults or children. CCD occurs when a hive that has good stores of honey and brood has all its adult bees leave.
While there's no proven cause of CCD, the majority opinion seems to be gravitating toward bees getting weakened from bad husbandry (driving them around to pollinate crops out of state, stealing extra honey and replacing it with sugar water, pesticides in their ecosystem) and then falling prey to parasites.
Die-off occurs when a hive does not save adequate winter stores of honey. Here in Colorado, it takes 50 - 80 pounds of honey for a single hive to get through the winter. Obviously, it takes more in places that have longer winters, and less in warmer places.
The summers of 2011 and 2012 were hot and dry, which made the wildflowers produce less nectar than usual. The outcome was that the bees stored less honey and far more of them perished over the winters. If you believe in global warming, you can blame honeybee declines on it.
If you want to help bees...
Plant bee crops. When you're at the nursery looking for flowers to plant, select the ones that have bees flying to them. They especially like members of the mint family and legumes. Avoid hybrids - many of them produce no nectar.
Spike your lawn with clover. Lawns are worthless to bees - no flowers at all. Clover will make your lawn greener and also provide first class nectar.
Let wildflowers stand.
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