Bats and Bees?

[osprey]

The bats i'm not sure about , i do still see them , and don't seem to see any less of them , but i have a few friends who raise bees and they , almost all have had problems recently with die offs , these folks are just in it as hobbyists not big operations. Does anyone have any idea what is behind these alleged (i'm hesitant to use that word) die offs of bats and bees?

 

[Stevie-B]

As far as the bats are concerned, there is a disease/fungus that is adversly affecting them. I think it wakes them up during hibernation and they don't have enough energy to survive through 'till spring. I have heard that the bees have been having issues for several years. The big operations that drive the hives to different locations have bees disappear while transporting. They are not sure what the problem is with the bees. Some say it's disease, others that it's cell phone radiation messing up the bee's guidance system. Either way it dosen't sound good for the bats or bees.

 

[Maurice]

Bee pollination is instrumental to agriculture. Without honey bees, we simply will have no crops. No crops means no food. They need to figure this one out or its dooms day for the world.

Another theory about the bees not returning is that there is an africanization occurring where a few africanized-killer bees infiltrate a hive, brees with the queen and put the africanized.nomadic gene into the hive. Then the bees leave, colonize ontheir own and don't return to the hive.

Its a scary situation. And I hate bees

 

[tomgamber]

Funny you should mention this today...

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_627223.html

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Is it possible the bats are eating the bees and thus getting stung to death as they do? :lol::lol:

 

[osprey]

Tom , don't get mad at me but i don't read the paper or watch much TV but i did hear this thismorning on a talk show i listen to on XFM called coast to coast , the woman who was the bee expert called it colony collapse disorder , and yeah she painted a pretty bleak picture , she blamed it on the large commercial companies who use something in the bottom of the hive to give their bees a head start , she also talked about micro wave towers.

 

[tomgamber]

Yeah, I just happened to read it in the paper this morning...its all over the news today. Must have been a national release and the paper put a local spin on it. My kid's on teacher keeps bees and he's been having problems for the last 5 or 6 years.

I thought it was interesting, in the article, that there are guys who take their bees to different farms and for a fee let em loose, then pack 'em up and do it again somewhere else.