Survey for causes of CCD

[jasson]

Bees Survey​

Hello I have decided to do my extended essay on colony collapse dissorder in bees because I think that bees are important species. I understand how importany bees are in pollinating flowers throughout the world and without them our food supply would be extremely limited. I think it is really important thet i learn more about bees and understand better the factors associated with their demise.

Please could you give me your expert opinion on why the honey bees are dying and what you think is causing colony collapse disorder.

Many thanks for your time and Help

Jasson Alexis

Name:

where do you keep bees?

Which of the following do you think may be the cause of colony collapse disorder.

Neonicotinoid Varroa Climate change Urbanization Other


Do you believe that with the new Law upon the thee neonicotinoids (clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxa) on the EU the number of the lost hives because of CCD will decrease? Yes/No

Please give reasons for your answers.

 

[Erichalfbee]

CCD is largely a North American phenomenon though cases have been reported in Mainland Europe. UK beekeepers will have little experience of the phenomenon.
There is some useful stuff here http://www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=15572

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Better try an American forum. we don't have sudden colony collapse disorder in the UK (or even Europe I don't think). Don't get me wrong, you do get colonies collapsing in the uk - but this is not CCD (people forget about the sudden at the start) it's just a fancy name for a colony dying out from disease/starvation/failed queen etc.

And the reason for CCD in the USA - complex but in my opinion mainly bad husbandry, monoculture, itinerant beekeeping and clueless disease management (they still haven't a clue how to cope with varroa) with a little bit of pesticide/pollution added for good measure

 

[farbee]

Is this an A level Extended essay project? If so I would suggest you think about whether you can modify your essay title or do some more research on CCD first because (as mentioned above) you would be better going to an American forum.

 

[pargyle]

I think you might be better changing your subject altogether ... CCD is not something you will get much response to a questionnaire about in the UK beekeeping fraternity as it doesn't exist here ... and in the USA where it is prevalent there appear to be no concrete answers to the problem and it is very much a localised problem ... and a lot of beekeepers over there are in denial so you may not get a lot of response from US beekeeping sites ... and what you do get may well be skewed.

If you do some googling on colony collapse disorder you will get a lot of hits from USA websites ... but if you look at this one (which is a synopsis of a piece of research) you will see that even the most eminent of academics only have a range of possible answers ...

http://solutionsforyourlife.ufl.edu/hot_topics/agriculture/colony_collapse_disorder.html

and this one:

http://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33938.pdf

I'd look for an aspect of beekeeping where you can actually have some chance of drawing a conclusion ...

 

[Ely]

The fact that we don't have any cases of CCD in this country speaks volumes about certain practises of commercial beekeeping that are carried out over there but not here.

 

[Hivemaker.]

The fact that we don't have any cases of CCD in this country speaks volumes about certain practises of commercial beekeeping that are carried out over there but not here.

I don't think so, we have had our problems with bees in the past as well, on a large scale, and nothing much was known about it at the time, did that speak volumes about our practices back then...as the USA never had the same problems at the time...of course not, it happens that is all.

 

[Ely]

Everything happens for a reason. The fairies aren't carrying them away. It was only a few weeks ago you commended Michael Palmers talk which discussed the possibility of weak queens in poor quality bee packages. I know we have packages here but not so reliant on a huge scale as over there.

 

[Michael Palmer]

...and in the USA where it is prevalent...

Actually not so prevalent as the media would have you believe. The beekeepers in my state of Vermont have never seen a case of CCD. I would say the same for the remaining 5 states of New England. One possible case in Connecticut at the beginning of the reports, but I know him and doubt it was a real case.

Jeff Pettis, just resigned head of our national bee lab, said there hasn't been a documented case of CCD in a few years. Of course some operations would like to say they have lost bees to CCD recently because they get government money to re-stock their dead colonies. Most likely a case of PPB, not CCD.

CCD was, in my opinion, a combination of factors, with varroa at the forefront. Think about this...What do you think would happen if your bees....

Were compromised by varroa...and the viruses they inject into the bee pupae
Had high levels of Nosema
Got placed on trucks and travel thousands of miles to pollination
When on those crops are expected to gather nutrition from mono-crop, poor feed resource deserts
Are exposed to pesticide and fungicide levels such as you've never seen in the UK.

And this CCD thing which supposedly began in 2006, is only the latest in a series of events going back a hundred years or more. Disappearing disease and Fall Dwindling were all unexplained cases of something that could be called Colony Collapse.

In 1995, Jadczak, apiary inspector from the state of Maine, called what he was seeing as Colony Collapse, and wrote Shimanuki at the US Bee Lab. His letter was just published in Bee Culture magazine.

 

[user 6228]

Actually not so prevalent as the media would have you believe. The beekeepers in my state of Vermont have never seen a case of CCD. I would say the same for the remaining 5 states of New England. One possible case in Connecticut at the beginning of the reports, but I know him and doubt it was a real case.

Jeff Pettis, just resigned head of our national bee lab, said there hasn't been a documented case of CCD in a few years. Of course some operations would like to say they have lost bees to CCD recently because they get government money to re-stock their dead colonies. Most likely a case of PPB, not CCD.

CCD was, in my opinion, a combination of factors, with varroa at the forefront. Think about this...What do you think would happen if your bees....

Were compromised by varroa...and the viruses they inject into the bee pupae
Had high levels of Nosema
Got placed on trucks and travel thousands of miles to pollination
When on those crops are expected to gather nutrition from mono-crop, poor feed resource deserts
Are exposed to pesticide and fungicide levels such as you've never seen in the UK.

And this CCD thing which supposedly began in 2006, is only the latest in a series of events going back a hundred years or more. Disappearing disease and Fall Dwindling were all unexplained cases of something that could be called Colony Collapse.

In 1995, Jadczak, apiary inspector from the state of Maine, called what he was seeing as Colony Collapse, and wrote Shimanuki at the US Bee Lab. His letter was just published in Bee Culture magazine.

With the combined stress of migratory bee keeping, Monoculture, extreme levels of pesticides, high thermal stress (my soapbox), lowered genetic diversity, the surprising thing is how bees managed to survive at all, rather than just have lower survival rates.
It shows Honeybees colonies are really tough, but even they have limits.
It might have been yourself that said as soon as you did migratory, the bee losses increased.
Keep a animal stressed close to edge of survival, then anything will knock it over.

 

[Ely]

Actually not so prevalent as the media would have you believe. The beekeepers in my state of Vermont have never seen a case of CCD. I would say the same for the remaining 5 states of New England. One possible case in Connecticut at the beginning of the reports, but I know him and doubt it was a real case.

Jeff Pettis, just resigned head of our national bee lab, said there hasn't been a documented case of CCD in a few years. Of course some operations would like to say they have lost bees to CCD recently because they get government money to re-stock their dead colonies. Most likely a case of PPB, not CCD.

CCD was, in my opinion, a combination of factors, with varroa at the forefront. Think about this...What do you think would happen if your bees....

Were compromised by varroa...and the viruses they inject into the bee pupae
Had high levels of Nosema
Got placed on trucks and travel thousands of miles to pollination
When on those crops are expected to gather nutrition from mono-crop, poor feed resource deserts
Are exposed to pesticide and fungicide levels such as you've never seen in the UK.

And this CCD thing which supposedly began in 2006, is only the latest in a series of events going back a hundred years or more. Disappearing disease and Fall Dwindling were all unexplained cases of something that could be called Colony Collapse.

In 1995, Jadczak, apiary inspector from the state of Maine, called what he was seeing as Colony Collapse, and wrote Shimanuki at the US Bee Lab. His letter was just published in Bee Culture magazine.

I agree

 

[pargyle]

Actually not so prevalent as the media would have you believe. The beekeepers in my state of Vermont have never seen a case of CCD. I would say the same for the remaining 5 states of New England. One possible case in Connecticut.

Yes ... I actually went on to say that it is a localised problem and one if the studies I linked actually has a map showing which states have a problem with CCD and its by no means prevalent in all parts of the USA.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

In general, bees in the UK are doing fine, provided varroa is dealt with and they have enough winter food.

 

[irishguy]

Main reason for CCD, well you don't need to be a rocket scientist to work that one out. Its humans who are the cause of it thou trying to prove it legally is another matter altogether!!

 

[user 6228]

Main reason for CCD, well you don't need to be a rocket scientist to work that one out. Its humans who are the cause of it thou trying to prove it legally is another matter altogether!!

A very simple answer ... but true...

 

[Hivemaker.]

Everything happens for a reason.

Of course, but when the bees were wiped out in large parts of England no one knew what the reason was at the time.

 

[richardbees]

Jasson

Honeybees are OK in the UK at the moment - but I'd be interested in the result if you did a survey of butterfly sightings.

Don't know about anybody else but I've seen hardly any this year - not even Cabbage whites.

Richard

 

[Erichalfbee]

Jasson



Don't know about anybody else but I've seen hardly any this year - not even Cabbage whites.

Richard

Yes, same here.
Last year my asters were alive with all sorts of butterflies. This year, very little.
Not seen many wasps or bumbles either.

 

[pargyle]

Lots of cabbage whites at the allotment but not many other species ... few wasps this year .... lots of bumble bees. Strange how different localities not that far apart are so different in terms of flora and fauna ..

 

[BeeJayBee]

Cabbage white caterpillars ate all the sprout plants when we weren't looking, slugs managed to avoid all the deterrents and ate a lot of lettuce.

We had fewer bumble bees this year than last but more solitary bees; same number of wasps as usual, ditto mosquitoes. Same number of birds - which ate most of the currants and all the cherries before they were ripe enough for us to pick.

Oh, and this year was a bumper year for honey bee swarms!