This blog is looking for wisdom, to have and to share. It is also looking for other rare character traits like good humor, courage, and honor. It is not an easy road, because all of us fall short. But God is love, forgiveness and grace. Those who believe in Him and repent of their sins have the promise of His Holy Spirit to guide us and show us the Way.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
This Can't Be Good
Ann Althouse links to this New York Times article alleging that our honey bees are vanishing.
It is just a scare article; I first saw it a couple of weeks ago. Shortly after that, several beekeepers came forward and clarified things. I'm still trying to find the article, which has now been buried beneath the scare news, but the point was this:
1. Bees go through this type of die-off every few years. It has happened before, but nobody freaked out because they weren't trying to link it to global warming or cell phone use. 2. The bees that are dying seem to be mainly kept bees; this is due in part to the fact that entire hives are loaded into truck and moved around to different places to pollinate crops. This moving is very stressful to the hive, and naturally there will be consequences. 3. Our main crops are not pollinated by honeybees. Many crops that are bee pollinated are pollinated by carpenter bees, such as the one that has taken up residence in my oleander tree. 4. In my neck of the woods, I've seen no lack of bees. My fruit trees were buzzing with them when they bloomed, and our hike up to Wind Cave a few weeks ago culminated in a rock face that was actually a giant, hollowed-out bee hive. There were tiny hole in the face, and bees were buzzing in and out. In one place, there were gigantic chunks of honeycomb dangling from the face, and broken pieces on the ground below.
Wow - I've been looking as I've been typing, and google has this version of the facts buried pretty deep; I can't find it, anyway. I don't remember where I read it, unfortunately, but take heart - this really does seem to be the scare tactic of the month.
5 comments:
I linked a similar article over at river's site today. I hope it's just another scare article with no proof, but it does sound bad.
I have vines that attract thousands of bees every summer. I'll be watching for them a little more carefully this year.
Me, too.
Good thing I check by here daily. This is alarming.
It is just a scare article; I first saw it a couple of weeks ago. Shortly after that, several beekeepers came forward and clarified things. I'm still trying to find the article, which has now been buried beneath the scare news, but the point was this:
1. Bees go through this type of die-off every few years. It has happened before, but nobody freaked out because they weren't trying to link it to global warming or cell phone use.
2. The bees that are dying seem to be mainly kept bees; this is due in part to the fact that entire hives are loaded into truck and moved around to different places to pollinate crops. This moving is very stressful to the hive, and naturally there will be consequences.
3. Our main crops are not pollinated by honeybees. Many crops that are bee pollinated are pollinated by carpenter bees, such as the one that has taken up residence in my oleander tree.
4. In my neck of the woods, I've seen no lack of bees. My fruit trees were buzzing with them when they bloomed, and our hike up to Wind Cave a few weeks ago culminated in a rock face that was actually a giant, hollowed-out bee hive. There were tiny hole in the face, and bees were buzzing in and out. In one place, there were gigantic chunks of honeycomb dangling from the face, and broken pieces on the ground below.
Wow - I've been looking as I've been typing, and google has this version of the facts buried pretty deep; I can't find it, anyway. I don't remember where I read it, unfortunately, but take heart - this really does seem to be the scare tactic of the month.
Juliec,
Thank you so much for this clarification. Since the source was the New York Times, I should have smelled something.
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