Who Killed the Honey Bee? BBC 4 Tonight 21:00 15/02/11

[Heltor Chasca]

Sorry if already posted....b

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00jzjys

"Bees are dying in their millions. It is an ecological crisis that threatens to bring global agriculture to a standstill. Introduced by Martha Kearney, this documentary explores the reasons behind the decline of bee colonies across the globe, investigating what might be at the root of this devastation.

Honey bees are the number one insect pollinator on the planet, responsible for the production of over 90 crops. Apples, berries, cucumbers, nuts, cabbages and even cotton will struggle to be produced if bee colonies continue to decline at the current rate. Empty hives have been reported from as far afield as Taipei and Tennessee. In England, the matter has caused beekeepers to march on parliament to call on the government to fund research into what they say is potentially a bigger threat to humanity than the current financial crisis.

Investigating the problem from a global perspective, the programme makers travel from the farm belt of California to the flatlands of East Anglia to the outback of Australia. They talk to the beekeepers whose livelihoods are threatened by colony collapse disorder, the scientists entrusted with solving the problem, and the Australian beekeepers who are making a fortune replacing the planet's dying bees. They also look at some of the possible reasons for the declining numbers - is it down to a bee plague, pesticides, malnutrition, or is the answer something even more frightening?"

 

[For want of a better word]

I read somewhere that cerial crops( Wheat rye barley rice) are not pollinated by honeybees?
Just playing the devils advocate here, as for every fact there is some counter argument!

 

[MuswellMetro]

I read somewhere that cerial crops( Wheat rye barley rice) are not pollinated by honeybees?
Just playing the devils advocate here, as for every fact there is some counter argument!

yes ,but Bees also milk honeydew from aphids on the wheat, this 1984 abstract related to such event

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ps.2780150603/abstract

honeydew from wikipedia

Honeydew honey

Instead of taking nectar, bees can take honeydew, the sweet secretions of aphids or other plant sap-sucking insects. Honeydew honey is very dark brown in color, with a rich fragrance of stewed fruit or fig jam and is not sweet like nectar honeys.[34] Germany's Black Forest is a well known source of honeydew-based honeys, as well as some regions in Bulgaria and Northern California in the United States. In Greece, pine honey (a type of honeydew honey) constitutes 60–65% of the annual honey production.[35] Honeydew honey is popular in some areas, but in other areas beekeepers have difficulty selling the stronger flavored product.

The production of honeydew honey has some complications and dangers. The honey has a much larger proportion of indigestibles than light floral honeys, thus causing dysentery to the bees, resulting in the death of colonies in areas with cold winters. Good beekeeping management requires the removal of honeydew prior to winter in colder areas. Bees collecting this resource also have to be fed protein supplements, as honeydew lacks the protein-rich pollen accompaniment gathered from flowers.

 

[For want of a better word]

As my Gran would have said.. "you are a hive of information".. MuswellMetro!
Thanks

 

[oliver90owner]

I read somewhere

Wind pollination v. insect pollination. There are some minor alternatives. Large multi-coloured flowers (buttercups) v. small plain-green florets (like grasses).

 

[Skyhook]

I read somewhere that cerial crops( Wheat rye barley rice) are not pollinated by honeybees?
Just playing the devils advocate here, as for every fact there is some counter argument!

yes ,but Bees also milk honeydew from aphids on the wheat, this 1984 abstract related to such event

Quite right that insects don't pollinate wheat, rice or any other grass, and there are a numebr of other crops such as potatoes which would be fine without insect pollination, so the idea we would all starve is probably a bit overstated.

Although bees can benefit indirectly from wheat, this is of no benefit to the wheat. Wasps on the other hand, will take the aphids, so can provide a minor benefit.

Thanks HC for flagging up the programme- will try to watch it.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Last year I saw bees on maize. Would they be getting pollen?

 

[Skyhook]

Last year I saw bees on maize. Would they be getting pollen?

Yes- last year someone even had them collect pollen from pampas grass!

 

[nosmoking]

Who Killed the Honey Bee?

I watched this last night and was amazed at the way the commercial beekeepers treated the bees! Is it me or were they downright abusive towards them? I know nothing about bees but if I were treated like that I wouldn't come back home either. Sending bees hundreds of miles to pollinate crops seems like madness to me. After they have done their work they're transported again somewhere else to do the same job! I reckon they're sat navs are up the creek after that! It was so nice to see the British beekeepers treating theirs with respect.

Anyway who am I to pass judgment?
College course booked for March 3rd start. 6 evenings with a final visit to a apiary, can't wait.

 

[Storm™]

I watched it last night, all excited and sat there open mouthed.

Only move hives 3 feet per day or at least 10 miles away. Pack up the hives and move them at night etc etc etc,

it just threw anything out of the window in one fell swoop. Disgusting. It was amazing to see so many bees in the air though. I would give anything to experience that I think. But if that meant working there - forget it.

 

[Tim1606]

Did you see the colour of the combs? Must have been there since year dot.

And the way they threw the boxes about, i was quite discussed.

Basic hive hygiene would not go a miss i think.

 

[Brosville]

I'm really glad it got another airing - and pleased to see the sight of the way the commercial beekepers do things has affronted people, add to that the utterly bleak shots of neverending acres of chemicalised monocultures, it rather makes the point about the damage we're doing to the environment (not just the bees) - it's time for change in many areas - before it's too late!

 

[ebee]

Didn't see the prog at this showing but is this the one where the bee farmers are sprinkling a white powder in the hives? Is this anti biotic?

 

[madasafish]

To me it typified a lot of US farming and commercial practise... Do it in volume , do it quickly, and stuff the consequences...

Anyone who has read any of the stories of US company malpractice.. Bhopal for example - would recognise the story. It's the same with variations upon the product , the protagonists and the names. The outcomes are the same.

The stories now breaking in the financial world - and the ensuing court cases - of financial malpractice prior to the 2008 financial crisis - show Silvio Berlusconi in comparison is a saint. Fairly typical US practise though: you need a long spoon to deal with any of them..

The combs in one of the hives looked two decades old. If they had been using chemical anti verroa treatments for a decade, those frames would likely be highly contaminated..

The only surprise is that those keepers managed to keep any bees alive at all... not that they had losses.

 

[nosmoking]

Who Killed the Honey Bee?

And, did I hear correctly? Do they use radiation to clean the hives?

 

[DorsetB]

My wife watched it with me for the first time, and as she watched the Aercian beeks chucking stuff around she looked at me and said:

"Look at the way they treat them, no wonder the bees are leaving and going back to their own planet!"

 

[DanBee]

I didn't see the airing last night, but if it's the one I recall there is a delicious irony that the hives shown - being thrown about, with pitch black combs, and getting an automatic shovelling of white powders - belong to one David Hackenberg, notable for coining the term 'Colony Collapse Disorder'. Seems to me there's a number of obvious problems there to be dealt with before we go chasing after a mysterious new disorder...

I find it sad that the producers of all of these recent documentaries chose to show footage of US beekeeping with no commentary about whether or not it paralleled the UK model & practices.

It does not.

 

[For want of a better word]

Ever ridden an American Motorcycle... clunky, stiff, out of date technology and agricultural... ( compared to my British made Hinkley Triumph 900 tripple!)...................... sums up those capatilist red necks completely!!!