Threat to bees not as bad as first feared
Monday 14th June 2010, 2:58PM BST.
Jersey Beekeepers Association president Bob Tomkins
UP to a quarter of Jersey’s 400 beehives may have to be destroyed because of disease – half of what was first feared.
An outbreak of American Foulbrood, an infection that kills younger bees, has caused nearly 50 Island hives to be incinerated in the last few days.
President of the Jersey Beekeepers Association Bob Tomkins said that some keepers had lost all of their hives but that on the whole, the outbreak was not as bad as first feared.
‘It’s looking at the moment as if 20-25 per cent of colonies are affected,’ he said. ‘We first thought it was 50 per cent.’
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That’s terrible news, I do hope that they will be humanely destroyed, put to sleep with a little needle perhaps. I love bees, I love the fact that it is aerodynamically impossible for them to fly but because they don’t study physics they don’t know it. They are so useful too, I stick them to a cotton bud for cleaning out inside my ears ( top tip remove the stinger first ) If we lost the bees then the only annoying stinging insect left would be wasps and I don’t like them, they look like insect supermodels with their tapered waistlines, it’s unnatural, nossireebob I don’t like wasps at all.
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I’ll have a double of what ur drinking please Gordy!!
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i was lead to belive , that if bees die out , the pollenation process was in danger, and upset the food chain?
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Could it be that some unscrupulous should-know-betters have been importing damaged stock? I doubt it got here in the ash cloud… If so, perhaps who ever did this massive damage to the environment and crops should be treated like BP and have to pay the consequences and compensation.
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No. 1 (Sting)
I think your getting your bees confused, the big fluffy (bumblebee) ones are the ones that defy physics by being able to fly and those happen to be an endangered species.
the smaller more aerodynamic honey bee are the ones being affected, the vast majority of these dont even have a sting only a few guards who protect the hive from there viscous cousins (wasps) Its a great loss to bee keepers and i’m sure that you’ll be less than happy when the price of honey goes up because all those hives have had to be destroyed.
Try and get your facts right at least a little before posting a sarcastic comment.
Good luck to all those bee keepers, hopefully no more hives will be infected.
P.s i’m not a bee keeper but i do like the fact that the bees pollenate my garden.
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#5 Paul
Very waspish comments directed at Sting!
Before you say things like
‘Try and get your facts right at least a little before posting a sarcastic comment.’ perhaps you should read up a little about our aculeates yourself. You are perpetuating some urban myths!
‘I think your getting your bees confused, the big fluffy (bumblebee) ones are the ones that happen to be an endangered species.’
WRONG: Bumblebees are NOT a single species, nor are they an endangered species. We have 24 species of bumblebee in the UK. Six species have special conservation status but others, like the recently arrived tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum), are increasing their range. Some are suffering declines but many are still common. The ubiquitous ‘big six’ can be seen in most gardens which offer a range of pollen and nectar resources across many months in the year.
‘the smaller more aerodynamic honey bee are the ones being affected, the vast majority of these dont even have a sting only a few guards who protect the hive from there viscous cousins (wasps)’
WRONG: The queen in a honey bee hive and all the workers have the ability to sting. It is only males that don’t possess an ovipositor. As males are few in number when compared to workers, the vast majority therefore DO have the ability to sting.
If you want to get a bee in your bonnet about anything, it should be about native species versus introduced species. The honey bee is not native to the UK. Like dogs and cows, honey bees have been the subject of human selection for thousands of years. New Scientist covers a story this week that biblical bee keepers 2000 years ago were choosing high yield bees from Turkey rather than the local subspecies. No wonder then that the words ‘land of milk and honey’ were banded about. The academics behind the research state that the Turkish bees selected produce eight times as much honey as the local Syrian strain and are less aggressive. Who wouldn’t want those rather than their lazy, angry cousins?
Bee keepers manipulate bees; they dictate the size and form of the nest area (hives), they use chemicals to kill off species that coexist with or parasitize bees, and ultimately decide what stores bees get to keep to get them through the winter months when no nectar or pollen is available. Honey is removed from hives for human consumption and replaced by highly refined cane sugar dissolved in water and given as a solution.
‘Its a great loss to bee keepers and i’m sure that you’ll be less than happy when the price of honey goes up because all those hives have had to be destroyed.’
CORRECT Nobody who keeps bees for a hobby or as means of earning a living would like to see their work and effort lost. I empathize with them.
‘P.s i’m not a bee keeper but i do like the fact that the bees pollenate my garden.’
You should like the fact that it is not only honey bees that act as pollinators in your garden, but that there are also many species of bumblebees (and their cuckoo species), solitary bees, flies (especially hoverflies) and butterflies that also act as pollination vectors. Most gardens and native plants would be fine if all Apis mellifera (honey bees) disappeared tomorrow; it’s the other insect diversity you want to be worried about. Of course commercial bee keepers would disagree. Their livelihood (especially in the USA and Canada) depends on moving millions of honey bees and thousands of hives across vast distances. Agriculture North America style cares nothing for native insect diversity. It’s all about profit.
Oh, and lay off the wasps. They are far more beneficial than you imagine. Not only do the adults act as pollinators but many species feed their young on a ‘soup’ of insects that would otherwise be attacking your vegetables and flowering plants, shrubs and trees.
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How insensitive some of these remarks are – not all bee keepers are in it for commercial reasons. It is a devastating blow to learn that our bees have to be destroyed – as the Bean says – probably because some unscrupulous so and so has imported damaged stock. They should be ashamed of themselves not only because of the loss of the bees to the environment but because of the grief they have brought to many island bee keepers.
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