Comments on: Is the golden age of beekeeping over?

By: Bees Keeper

Bees Keeper — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:38:02 +0000

I’m no scientist, but this is a fascinating batch of information. Thanks for the good work. Anything we can do to raise awareness and keep the dialogue going is, I believe, valuable.

By: ekpeach

ekpeach — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 03:03:42 +0000

A very well written article. I read this week that there is a strong suspicion that it is caused by a virus coming from Australia. I wrote about it on my blog and included a link to a news article about the virus.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 01:34:25 +0000

I imagine this has already made the rounds, but the ecojournalist Elizabeth Kolbert wrote about this topic in a recent (but after this blog post!) New Yorker. The article is entitled “Stung: Where Have All the Bees Gone?” The link below appears, at the moment anyway, to provide the whole article for free.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/06/070806fa_fact_kolberthttp://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/06/070806fa_fact_kolbert

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 18:29:08 +0000

I loved reading about your dad and beekeeping. Out here in California many people believe it’s the cell phones that’re responsible. Anyway, have a WordPress question for you. How do you get the single wide column for your About pages? I was just wondering how you made that change to the default Kubrick theme.

Cheers,
Tom
http://www.coyotecanyonpress.com

By: Ryan B

Ryan B — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 16:12:17 +0000

Great article! So much chatter about this, and it’s great to see such a well written summary of it all from someone with a personal beekeeping experience. I’m sorry for your dad’s losses as well, whether for fun or profit, it must be really hard to see his bees die off like that.

I’m trying to raise money for bee research and education by selling tshirts. I hope you’ll check it out, and maybe pass it along to your other beekeeping friends. Thanks so much!

Ryan
http://www.savetheblank.com

By: Descendant from a Tangled Bank at Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

Descendant from a Tangled Bank at Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 04:06:01 +0000

[...] has a personal take on the bee shortage and colony collapse disorder. Her dad is a [...]

By: Tangled Bank #82 at Greg Laden

Tangled Bank #82 at Greg Laden — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 20:12:43 +0000

[...] I had the great pleasure of meeting the delightful Annalise Paaby, proof personified of one assertion to which I have always adhered despite the protestations of many of my good Uncle’s colleagues: Members of the fairer sex often have something worthwhile to say, and in our age of Queen Victoria often underachieve in their role of house mate and servant to man. The charming Annalise asked me the question: “Have you heard about the honeybee crisis?” and went on to explain that sometimes beekeepers discover that their hives have dwindled or gone extinct over the winter. Such events are usually rare, however, and multiple colony collapses are typically local phenomena. But across America, beekeepers are now reporting alarming numbers of hive deaths. A 20% loss over the winter is normal, but beekeepers in California report losses up to 60% and losses have been even higher in Texas and on the east coast. This alarming state of affairs clearly causes us to ask the question: Is the golden age of beekeeping over? [...]

By: malcolmxpark.org » Malcolm X Park a beehive of activity, literally.

malcolmxpark.org » Malcolm X Park a beehive of activity, literally. — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:16:55 +0000

[...] the mysterious disappearance of bees from hives across the country. Local Philadelphia science blog http://www.thinkevolution.net even suggests that the “golden age of beekeeping” may be over. But one hive has found a [...]

By: T Paaby

T Paaby — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 10:41:04 +0000

Delightful article! About the behavior of your dad’s bees — it could be the result of chaulk brood disease, which may occur when the hive is kept damp (in the woods), when the colony has remained small from a failing queen, or from importing diseased equipment from other hives or even from the beekeeper’s own stored hive parts which previously had experienced chaulk brood. It could be that the confused behavior is a function of constatntly having to fight the effects of dying brood, i.e., the colony just cannot get strong.

By: ABP

ABP — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 20:28:22 +0000

Presumably one could do a series of fairly straightforward experiments to test this, by exposing bees to cell phone radiation and seeing what happens to their ability to navigate over short and long periods of time. This idea is addressed in a Salon article, though, and the experts interviewed dismiss the idea for a couple of reasons. One is that cell phone radiation has a wavelength of about three inches, and bees are too small to create much of a "shadow" and be affected. Another reason is that lots of bees are dying in Appalachia, where there are no cell phones.