There are a lot of things contributing to the problems with bees. A
mite named varroa was introduced a couple of decades ago, and decimated
the bee populations until the feral and untreated colonies learned to
deal with them. In the mean time commercial beekeepers used miticides
to control them, the consequences of using an insecticide inside a
beehive are not too difficult to contemplate. In addition antibiotics
are often feed as well. Then you have the fungicides being applied to
crops, and the pesticides, which include the neonicatoids. Although
each alone can cause problems, a mixture of 2 or more of them is much
worse than any one alone. Then on top of that it has been found that
natural substances in nectar help the bees immune system so not only are
antibiotics not needed when they are eating honey, but the bee can
handle higher concentrations of the other poisons as they detoxify. So
on top of all this you have beekeepers which are feeding their bees
sugar syrup, with none of these substances in them, which makes them
even sicker and unable to detox. The the really big commercial guys are
using HF corn syrup to feed, and that over time, especially at elevated
temperatures forms hydroxymethylfurfural a deadly toxin for bees.
On the other hand you have the natural beekeepers. The do not treat,
and never feed anything but honey if needed. Some still experience
losses to the pesticides if their location is near fields of crops which
are treated, or GMO engineered to be poisonous but other than that the
treatment free beekeepers are seeing from 0 to maybe 10% yearly losses,
which the commercial and those that are treating their bees and feeding
sugar syrup are seeing from 30 to 70% losses.
I am in the treatment free group myself.
Marshall
On 5/25/2014 7:21 PM, Jane MacRoss wrote:
I never feed wild birds, I observe them at the flowers - still out
here in lateiders, and then some help themselves to dog food left in
the bowl on the verandah overnight - I hear the 'ping' on the bowl of
their beaks .... the parrots take the fruit and the kookaburras ...
make enough noise but I don't know what they find here
....May, hovering under them for nectar - and others darting along the
verandah removing the insects & sp I would have thought humming birds
would not have needed man manufactured sugar - isn't that what's
killing the bees?
Jane
*Subject:* Re: CS>CS in hummingbird nectar?
Their water containers in the wild are flowers, and pooled dew
drops and other fresh bits of moisture that evaporate, rather than
culture mold from sugar water going 'off'. L
On May 25, 2014, at 2:55 PM, Alan Faulkner wrote:
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