bee prog more4 tuesday 10pm

[allotobees]

missed the program tuesday night and just watched it on their website

honestly if i treated my bees like that i wouldnt be suprised by them dying, one guy lost 140 hives in transit ( 3 days on the road ) 2000 hives stored in a warehouse loaded by forklift truck .
no room for colony growth in hive and diesese spread due to large populations in a small area.
they are not bee keepers, they own bees only interested in the 150 dollars/hive for pollination how can you operate an IPM program with that many hives just not enough hours in the day.
my sympathy is with the bees not the people who use them

 

[jezd]

I do find it odd how you can afford an insect sympathy but each to their own.

I have to admit to missing the programme (sadly) so others my find it odd that I feel fit to comment but what you see here is but a symptom of a much bigger issue and the UK is no different to the USA – they are just bigger in all aspects. Much of the UK population neither knows nor cares how food is produced or how it arrives on their plate, as long as its a perfectly formed and cheap. Honey/pollination services are no different to the general issues with producing fruit, vegetables and meat for a population that frankly ‘wallows on its fat arse in ignorance’ - don’t kid yourself that its anything more. If people really cared they would a) make choices and b) take an active interest, but the fact is that 99.99% of the population are so far removed from food production they don’t even get around to thinking why they should bother. So want to blame big business or your government? pish, we get what ‘we’ deserve and they simply represent the vast majority of the populations demand for cheap food with no personal cost.

This is not a bee issue and if you think it is your kidding yourself and ignoring the big *ucked up picture, it’s a food production issue for the growing worldwide masses, sympathy for bees? no (if I did that I would need to apply sympathy to every mass farmed leaf and limb) , sadness for how we got here? Yes in buckets.

This subject cuts across far more than a few bees in the states, we now have a generation of young kids that cant even use knives and forks let alone understand where food comes from….I have my views on how we got here so quickly but they would go down like a lead balloon in a nutshell we want and expect everything and carry no personal responsibility even in our own homes.

There will be exceptions – even on this forum lmao, but that just highlights the vast majority of ‘people’ left over.

JD

PS wow, I had a rant...lol

** sorry for the language / poor grammer / spelling errors **

 

[Stiffy]

I have now seen several programs about the poor state of the USA bee business. What I have not seen mentioned is how the hobbyist bee keeper is managing; do they have the same problems on a smaller scale or even exist?
Cheers

 

[Somerford]

dare I answer that, stiffy, by suggesting you join/watch the beemaster.com forum as it's american based and there is loads of info on the issues from hobbyist's points of view on it

 

[Hivemaker.]

...Or Beesource.......but no they don't seem to be having many problems.

 

[Stiffy]

dare I answer that, stiffy, by suggesting you join/watch the beemaster.com forum as it's american based and there is loads of info on the issues from hobbyist's points of view on it

Thanks for suggestion, I will have a look at the forum but probably know that most problems relate to the 'mass' farming practices in the USA. I would suggest that many problems and not only with bees can be traced back to the industrialization of farming. As well as keeping bees I grow my own veg and keep chickens and sell any surplus....a form of farming albeit on a very small scale. People are prepared to pay a premium for my surplus as they appreciate the work that I put in and the way my hens are kept . Until we manage to get the majority to realize that a 'cheap chicken' or mass grown spud has a remedial cost to the ecology of the countryside we will have problem such as 'colony collapse' which should be called 'ecology collapse'. The USA has many other problems such as WNS which has suddenly appeared in the last few years and is having a devastating effect of bat populations.


Not a good start, my apologies for the 'rant' on a Saturday morning ! [/I]

 

[Brosville]

"I do find it odd how you can afford an insect sympathy" - I find more than a touch worrying....... I'm not about to indulge in unnecessary anthropomorphism, but it is definitely indicative of "attitude".
I'm of a diametrically opposed viewpoint - they may only be insects, or bees, or chickens, but they are worthy of our respect for what they are, especially if they are going to be decent enough to provide us with a living.....
I think what summed it up beautifully was one of the recent documentaries about bee problems - on one side we had the brutal brainless cowboy approach, who were suffering dreadful losses, on the other hand, there was a cheerful chap who kept hives all over London, who obviously held his "ladies" in high esteem, and chatted to them while he worked, and was suffering no problems whatsoever..... I think that to demean and belittle whatever livestock you have makes it far more likely that you will treat them badly, and if only from a purely commercial viewpoint, that can only be bad..

 

[SixFooter]

Recent research has shown that cows that have been given names by the farmer yield more milk. Maybe we should try that with bees

 

[Somerford]

starting at A, I wonder how many girls names there are ? LOL

And do you think they would be offended if you got the names mixed up ?!!

 

[jezd]

Recent research has shown that cows that have been given names by the farmer yield more milk. Maybe we should try that with bees

I know a molly the cow...

 

[grizzly]

Am watching this programme now, first thing i notice is they are moving the bees from areas which have a covering of snow, to a state baking in sunshine.

Er ..... how the hell do the bees cope with that on a 2 day journey.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Same as you when you went from here to Cyprus i expect Grizzly.

 

[grizzly]

What Sweat heavily and turn to the booze !!

 

[Hivemaker.]

Ha Ha, yes, and then can't find your way back to your hive....

 

[grizzly]

Good Form

 

[thurrock bees]

I do find it odd how you can afford an insect sympathy but each to their own.

I have to admit to missing the programme (sadly) so others my find it odd that I feel fit to comment but what you see here is but a symptom of a much bigger issue and the UK is no different to the USA – they are just bigger in all aspects. Much of the UK population neither knows nor cares how food is produced or how it arrives on their plate, as long as its a perfectly formed and cheap. Honey/pollination services are no different to the general issues with producing fruit, vegetables and meat for a population that frankly ‘wallows on its fat arse in ignorance’ - don’t kid yourself that its anything more. If people really cared they would a) make choices and b) take an active interest, but the fact is that 99.99% of the population are so far removed from food production they don’t even get around to thinking why they should bother. So want to blame big business or your government? pish, we get what ‘we’ deserve and they simply represent the vast majority of the populations demand for cheap food with no personal cost.

This is not a bee issue and if you think it is your kidding yourself and ignoring the big *ucked up picture, it’s a food production issue for the growing worldwide masses, sympathy for bees? no (if I did that I would need to apply sympathy to every mass farmed leaf and limb) , sadness for how we got here? Yes in buckets.

This subject cuts across far more than a few bees in the states, we now have a generation of young kids that cant even use knives and forks let alone understand where food comes from….I have my views on how we got here so quickly but they would go down like a lead balloon in a nutshell we want and expect everything and carry no personal responsibility even in our own homes.

There will be exceptions – even on this forum lmao, but that just highlights the vast majority of ‘people’ left over.

JD

PS wow, I had a rant...lol

** sorry for the language / poor grammer / spelling errors **

i can understand your rant and do agree with it, i have a allotment, bees ( of course) and chickens, i played on a farm when i was a kids (oh tat feels like a long time ago lol)..

good one JD

 

[grizzly]

The old boy at the end sums it up by saying trying to get more out of a honey bee who is already maxed out with work in its little life is Foolishness.

 

[wbchive]

So want to blame big business or your government? pish, we get what ‘we’ deserve and they simply represent the vast majority of the populations demand for cheap food with no personal cost.

You are too harsh, Jezd. The UK has never had much of a food culture and what little we had was destroyed by urbanisation when townspeople lost control of their diets due to lack of decent raw materials, sparse cooking facilities and ridiculously long working hours. By the time conditions improved the culture had all but gone. People had a good diet during World War Two because of rationing, but the younger generation associated home cooking with the war they wanted to put behind them so they were quick to adopt convenience food when it arrived. Most young people (under 40) nowadays don't consider making their own food because it's not part of their mind-set.

I suppose what I'm saying is that it's not just a matter of laziness.

What really is sad is that children rarely, if ever, cook at school. They learn loads about designing, packaging and marketing a product, but precious little about making wholesome food.

Steve J.

 

[mark s]

 

[Onge]