Regarding the “Bee Crisis”
David Hackenberg was the first beekeeper to report the disorder to Penn State last fall after losing nearly 75 percent of his 3,200 colonies.
He has rebuilt his business to 2,400 colonies but now asks growers whether they use the chemicals because he is convinced the bees are being harmed by pesticides, especially a type called neonicotinoids.
“I’m quizzing every farmer around,” Hackenberg said. “If you’re going to use that stuff, then you’re going to have go to somebody else.”
If bees continue to die, he said, Hackenberg Apiaries may have to raise prices to replace dead hives. The business charges about $90 a hive to “lease” bees in fields. Replacing a hive with new bees costs $120.
Neonicotinoids do not contain nicotine — the addictive drug found in tobacco — but they are named after it because they target nerve cells in a similar way.
Two things.
First, if bees aren’t finding their way home because of a nicotine-like reaction, there has to be some hilarious smoking joke there. Find it for me, and win!
Second, if 75% of his hive died mysteriously and without a sense of closure, does that make it a … haunted apiary?
(why don’t I have a beekeeper icon, anyway? Or at least something more ARGy than my “war-walking”)
does that make it a … haunted apiary?
Yes. Yes it does.
If the bees started buzzing the melody of Stormy Weather, then I might want to go check that out…
You know, I’ve pondered the whole explanation of the bees just not finding their way back to the hive, and I see a flaw. So people have reported these hives to suddenly be completely empty. If bees were not finding their way home, there would be more reports about a slow dwindle in the number of bees, not a sudden disappearance.
I don’t really know the patterns of bees, if they send out for food in heavy waves, or forage at a slower pace.