Bee decline documentary

[chrisinahat]

hello,

my name is Chris.

i am currently making a documentary about the decline of bee's world wide. but specifically the UK and the implications that will or may arise.

we a looking for people who have any information about bee keeping, the decline etc.

so basically bee experts, activists, scientist, vats of information. if you know any-one or are yourself interested in this documentary and are willing to help us please message me.

thank you so much. Chris.

 

[RoofTops]

You will probably find you have now started an intense debate on whether bees are in decline in the UK!

Some bees, such Colletes Hederae and Bombus Hypnorum are rapidly expanding in the UK having been more or less unknown 10 years ago. Others like Bombus Callumanus have been declared extinct - almost certainly in this case due to habitat loss - lack of legume rich grasslands.

 

[Finman]

.
Honeybee hives have been added during two years 40% in England, says last derfa calculations.

 

[hedgerow pete]

chris may be it would help if you told us what sort of bee you were particualy looking at ?


I can see the biggest problem being who ever you dont ask will denouce the ones you do as being unqualified, lol

 

[Finman]

.
I wonder what is the method to calculate bees? How many years it takes to reviele out natural cycles of variation .
I think that some lady is making doctor studies in finland about that issue.

 

[chrisinahat]

the documentary wont be about any particular bee (as of yet we have no idea where this doc will go as we have only a small amount of information)

we just want answers to questions like
is there a world wide decline or not? what are the implications of this?
what are the causes? and so on

we need info on the honey industry as well, the good and the bad

there are just so many questions.

i will pick a few that i think are very important and get back to you.

 

[RoofTops]

For non-honey bees types I suggest looking at this lot www.bwars.com

They are the bees, wasps and ants recording society and have distribution maps of bees in the UK going back quite a few years.

The US has of course had widely reported problems with honey bees. Some recent research identifies a possible link between a new virus and another organism which has jumped species from another type of bee. However, there remains intense debate over the role of pesticides and if you want a bit of controversy then you could look at this angle as well. You might also like to contrast the factory farming methods of industrial beekeeping in the US with what goes on elsewhere in the World. I can out you in touch with a bee farmer in Finland who has

In Europe there have also been losses of honey bees, some of known source and others still a mystery. What is sure is scientists cannot agree on what the causes are and whether there is one cause or several. The French, Spanish etc all have different views.

 

[Chris B]

chrisinahat,
can you tell us a little about yourself and the nature of this documentary. Is it a commercial venture? Are you a one-man project or are you representing an organisation? Who is the audience and via which specific media?

 

[Marvin]

Hi,

Where are you?
Do you want to see for yourself or are you looking just for quotes?
Are you considering commercial or hobby beekeeping?
etc.

Please tell us more and most of us will try to help.

 

[JamesB]

Ive booked myself in to see a screening entitled 'the vanishing of the bees' at Peterborough on 20/10/2010

backed by Peterborough Enviroment City Trust
Contact is;

Caroline Sheffield

Marketing & Communications Assistant

PECT Consultancy Limited / Peterborough Environment City Trust

The Green House

1st Floor, 4-6 Cowgate

Peterborough

PE1 1NA



T 01733 866 435

E [email protected]

W www.pect.org.uk

F 01733 553 716

I would assume this would be the same content as your documentary

 

[MuswellMetro]

there are statistics in the october issue of beekeepers news AS TO LOSSES last year by county, it is verry variable and i cannot see why London was 33% compared to lower losses in similar SE regions

and please, your answer still is a bit iffy on type, confirm it is only honey bees you are talking about, you know the brown ones that most uneducated people think are wasps, if our open days are anything to go by and not the lovely fluffy bubble bees they think they are coming to see

 

[Chris B]

i cannot see why London was 33%

It's because the stats only include a relatively smallish sample of beekeepers, so when you start to break it down by region it becomes less meaningful. One extreme result can skew the stats for a region.

 

[stilllearning]

in my experience, bee decline is one of those "how long is a piece of string" type of conversations, it all depends who you ask.personally i haven't noticed any especially the last couple of years where winter losses have been quite low,mainly due IMO to hard winters.I'm not saying CCD or simular virus' will not come over here but if they do then we'll have to deal with it simple as that. there are certainly not many feral bees but this is probably down to varroa and the fact they don't get treated but i wouldn't mind betting that in 20 years varroa will be a thing of the past and another pest, parasite,virus will be at the fore, no matter what, bees will be here long after we are ,that i can guarantee

 

[chrisinahat]

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=86991

thanks everyone for your replies i really appreciate this.

just to anwser a few questions,

we are not in any way looking to make this film for money, its not really what we believe. its all coming out of our own pockets.as we are young filmakers. if profits are made then they will probably barely cover our travel expenses etc.

our aim is to raise awareness about our impact on eco systems around the world and how delicate they are or could be.

in the short time we have been reasearching this subject we have come to believe that the bees are in decline and possibly has been boosted by human pollution ( i cant comment too much as the research we have done isnt enough to really make a statement )

which is why im posting on this forum, to gain more contacts and information.


potentially the film would go to festivals and end up on the internet for people to watch free of charge.

its a short. 15-20 mins

i hope this answers some of your questions.

 

[chrisinahat]

also to add to some more questions that need answering.

i think from the different coments made i need to understand some more fundemental parts to this. but its difficult to be so specific when your are essentially very new to the subject.

you must remember that i am here for information and contacts so im only in a research stage atm so the documentary could likely not go through at all.
so please go easy on me, and please just help me to understand the situation.

also we represent no company of any sort. our audience we have no specific one in mind, as we are new to the industry and independant.

exposure is exposure.

 

[MuswellMetro]

also to add to some more questions that need answering.

i think from the different coments made i need to understand some more fundemental parts to this. but its difficult to be so specific when your are essentially very new to the subject.

you must remember that i am here for information and contacts so im only in a research stage atm so the documentary could likely not go through at all.
so please go easy on me, and please just help me to understand the situation.

also we represent no company of any sort. our audience we have no specific one in mind, as we are new to the industry and independant.

exposure is exposure.

ok, whats your location, i have a spare bees suit (or two) and assume other beeks have as well

you need to come and see real live bees that buzz, get shown varroa,, omf flooors, brood, defromed wing virius, wasp attacks etc , treatments

it getting late in the season to inspect so be quick, otherwise wait until the new spring cycle and see in spring starving bees trapped on ivy honey, poisen bees returning from oil seed rape, dead bees in the snow with Nosema ,chill brood and perhaps EFB or AFB with a seasonal bee inspector

 

[MuswellMetro]

ok, whats your location, i have a spare bees suit (or two) and assume other beeks have as well

you need to come and see real live bees that buzz, get shown varroa,, omf flooors, brood, defromed wing virius, wasp attacks etc , treatments

it getting late in the season to inspect so be quick, otherwise wait until the new spring cycle and see in spring starving bees trapped on ivy honey, poisen bees returning from oil seed rape, dead bees in the snow with Nosema ,chill brood and perhaps EFB or AFB with a seasonal bee inspector

sorry pressed a wrong button

remember bees do not hibernate, they are awake all the year and like pengiuns, bees rota from outside to inside of the cluster to keep warm and still you end up in a good year with 5000 dead bees on the floor if they survive and 15,000 if they don't

So what do i think about loss of bees, seems mostlyb poison or a mix of poisons and is consistent over the last few years and is just a bandwagon from the usa media frensy on the problem of CCD if it was me i would make a film about the compassion beekeepers have for their bees i have been to visit my failing hive every day dfor the last four weeks, when i could just torch them and buy a nucleus of bees next year for £100 of free if i split a hive, so far i must have spent double in travel treatment and that not counting my time,

talk to beeks about starving bees with their tongues out, poisoned bees dead bees like black pitiful eye holes in in the snow ,chill brood as the hive dwindles to zero and look at the tender care given in vain to a failing hive just because we care, combining small and queen less hives to get one out of two through winter, traipsing through snow and minus temperature just to feed them candy on the coldest days of the year

 

[chrisinahat]

your compassion for your bees sounds truley comendable i respect any-one with a good respect and love for their animals or insects.

your idea is one we have been considering, although we always like to tackle the big subjects first.

we do believe that stories are the way people relate to films and documentaries
and can carry messages deeper than any other.

infact one of our ideas was to tell the stories of two very different bee keepers one on an industrial scale the other on a small holding.

so i think we could be on to something here.

 

[Chris B]

When you talk to someone about bee decline it is all too easy to talk at cross purposes. If we are talking honeybees in the UK then it's not a simple story - there are more things threatening bee health, but for every colony that's died, many more have been created, so we've seen a net increase over the last few years.

 

[Finman]

When you talk to someone about bee decline ..,......t so we've seen a net increase over the last few years.

i believe that fast rise of beekeeping of beginners means rise in losses too. I may see again in forum that beginners are not able to rear big enough colonies. Too large space at the beginning. Then too much honey in the hive and there is not enough space for brood. when the hive is too full, a small colony swarms and loose its power to build up.

Small colony has too much space in wintering. It stresses bees.

That is my quess.

If you bye a 5 frame nuc, it should be quite big hive in autumn. A swarm is more slow to build up.

If you put 3 frame swarm in the whole box space, it is really slow to build up. And many other reasons.

No understanding of heat economy of the colony. Non insulating, mesh floors in nucs, holes here and there. Sticks between box and inner cover.