Could the internet of things hold the key to saving the honeybee from annihilation?

[einsteinagogo]

It's not often, that a Honey Bee article, ends up in my Computing Weekly...

Computing Weekly 21-27 July 2015 Page 7

Could the internet of things hold the key to saving the honeybee from annihilation?

Gemalto is developing an ambitious machine-to-machine communications project, with agricultural science firm Eltopia and the University of Minnesota, to save the honeybee (and humans) from extinction. Alex Scroxton reports

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[itma]

I fear that they MiteNot actually understand the problem ...

 

[OursonAnglaise]

Interesting article & idea. Like you say, its not often that you find bees in the Computer Weekly magazine!

 

[Finman]

.
Do not worry. You have out there in UK too much beehives.

The fewer quests, the better party.

But that article is totally world wide rubbish . I do not say pure in this connection. Too nicely said then.

Ccd has been in USA 9 years. Bees are vanishing but hive numbers are the same. Ccd does not exist in other countries. Reason must be pollination business and transporting hives in trucks. Summer dead rate of hives is almost the same as in winter.

Press button like/not like

 

[Excession]

Yep, it always amazes me that the yanks haven't figured out - they are the only country with a big CCD problem, and also the only country with their unique farming practices....

Occam's razor should be applied!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

.

But that article is totally world wide rubbish . I do not say pure in this connection. Too nicely said then.

Ccd has been in USA 9 years. Bees are vanishing but hive numbers are the same. Ccd does not exist in other countries. Reason must be pollination business and transporting hives in trucks. Summer dead rate of hives is almost the same as in winter.

Press button like/not like

Nice to see you talk sense Finny

 

[pargyle]

Yep, it always amazes me that the yanks haven't figured out - they are the only country with a big CCD problem, and also the only country with their unique farming practices....

Occam's razor should be applied!

Yep ... but I was at the Bees and Honey weekend at Manor Farm at the weekend talking to all and sundry about bees .. Amongst other bee related attractions we had hive openings and an observation hive and there was a lot of interest from the punters.

Most frequently asked question was ' Aren't the bees in trouble and dying off ?' - so the media have proliferated the misunderstanding that honey bees worldwide are having difficulties.

I tended to answer the question with a no - but qualified with some comments about how pollinators, in general, are finding the changes in both commercial and domestic agriculture harder to cope with.

CCD has heightened an awareness about bees and their relationship to the environment so, in some respects, I think we should be grateful for this red herring.

I think also that the USA would like to think that CCD is a global problem ...but in fact it is even a localised problem in PARTS of the USA.

 

[OursonAnglaise]

Well I for one have learnt a lot from this discussion this morning. I had no idea that CCD was confined mainly to the US. I guess I got duped along with the rest of the general public ....however given that I'm new to beekeeping this year (bought to it by seeing a swam in my garden last year & becoming fascinated by them rather than as a result of the scare stories), I still have much to learn

 

[mjt68]

Yep ... but I was at the Bees and Honey weekend at Manor Farm at the weekend talking to all and sundry about bees .. Amongst other bee related attractions we had hive openings and an observation hive and there was a lot of interest from the punters.

Most frequently asked question was ' Aren't the bees in trouble and dying off ?' - so the media have proliferated the misunderstanding that honey bees worldwide are having difficulties.

I tended to answer the question with a no - but qualified with some comments about how pollinators, in general, are finding the changes in both commercial and domestic agriculture harder to cope with.

CCD has heightened an awareness about bees and their relationship to the environment so, in some respects, I think we should be grateful for this red herring.

I think also that the USA would like to think that CCD is a global problem ...but in fact it is even a localised problem in PARTS of the USA.

I help the local Assoc out with fairs etc. in a similar way and always get lots of questions about bees being in trouble. I point out that honeybees are doing well but if people want to 'help the bees' (and lots do) then the Bumblebee Conservation Trust is the best place to start looking.

On the topic of CCD, I spend some time on another beekeeping forum (the one with a hippy bent) and lots of people have threads like "I never count/treat Varroa or feed and my bees all died - CCD must be here in the UK." With that style of beekeeping gaining a lot of traction (Gardener's World) and with my cynic hat on I think there's a bit of an interest in overhyping the situation to sell newspapers, courses etc. Same cynicism can be poured on the Friends of the Honeybee from BBKA or any of the 'pay a beek to put a hive in your garden then buy the honey off them' schemes or people looking for free capital for their beekeeping business (look on Kickstarter) to 'help the bees'.

 

[Finman]

.
Newspapers have big plans to sell their products every day.
One of our paper have made us aware about how dangerous normal weather can be. Some examples:

Killing hot it coming
Killing rains are coming
Killig winds are coming
Killing frosts are coming
Killing hot passed us
Killing rains srinked away
Killing winds calmed before arriving



So, we know that there is no any normal day in out life. It like in movie "sharks from tornadoes"

 

[einsteinagogo]

Many in the offices here, thought it was an article by me, they could not believe that honey bees were on the front pages of Computing Weekly, and many thought oh god, if bees are not enough in the office, now it's in print!

I think clearly must talk too much about bees at work, but at least I'm not a Computer Nerd! Talking about the new Intel X398753980 dah dah dah

I'm glad my post, has started a nice debate and discussion!

 

[foghornleghorn]

Most frequently asked question was ' Aren't the bees in trouble and dying off ?' - so the media have proliferated the misunderstanding that honey bees worldwide are having difficulties.

I tended to answer the question with a no - but qualified with some comments about how pollinators, in general, are finding the changes in both commercial and domestic agriculture harder to cope with.

There's a huge amount of work being done in the US atm on Agroecology (cover crops, pollinator strips etc)which will start gaining more traction over the next 20-30 years, light at the end of the tunnel...

 

[Finman]

I'm glad my post, has started a nice debate and discussion!

After 9 years vanishing!

But new information has been confirmed last year, that summer dead rates are as big as Winter dead rates.

 

[Finman]

.
In Finland there are some who speak that wild bees and bumble bees are declining.... Based on what research?

Whens you look world map, you see that inhabited Russian Taiga begins from Finland and Sweden and reaches up to Korea. There is no human impact which can kill wild pollinators. Except bumbles what we buy from Holland. Then Taiga is full of Dutch bumbles.

Killer bumbles are coming! Cry for nature! Cry! Gimme 100 million euros to save wild pollinators and humankind!

 

[user 6228]

The U.S. since WW2 went for high colony mass, high thermal conductance beekeeping owing to the campaigning of C.L. Farrar

In otherwords give very little shelter and to compensate, have massive colonies to over winter 3 to 4Kg. Thats over twice the size of UK or Germany colonies. This means a lot of food is needed which means a lot of water exhaled which is overcome by even less shelter.
It worked, but it crowds a lot of bees close together, increasing the chance of disease acquisition and transference in a colony.
It makes the colony survival dependent on large numbers surviving i.e. it reduces the safety margins.
So while disease levels and other stress factors are low - no problem

Add varroa,
Add pesticides,
Add moving beekeeping from dispersed to concentrations of colonies with the change from honey to pollenation ...

BANG!

 

[Excession]

Finny quoting Sharknado.
Finman wins the internet, turn it off, and everyone go home.
It's never getting any better than this.

 

[Finman]

.
Over half of beehives are collected for winter in south. It is at same level as North Africa. They start with almond, orange and so on pollination.

No other country collect such way their hives. Winter is warm. Often 25C in December and nothing to forage. But those summer losses are something else.

 

[Finman]

Finny quoting Sharknado.
Finman wins the internet, turn it off, and everyone go home.
It's never getting any better than this.

That all about famous British intellectual poking.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Nothing wrong with a bit of poking - SWMBO swears by it