Bees

[Elaine]

Was watching the paul O'Grady show this evening, they were saying that britain has lost a third of its bees They dont know if its b ecause of disease or not but it will have a very big knock on effect on Brittish produce such as apples, broccoli etc, oh not to mention honey.

[Moli]

I saw a news report a while back about it....

[dandysmom]

Same here in the States, Elaine. They are just abandoning their hives and vanishing. Going to have a big impact on agriculture.....You do wonder if all the insecticides and pesticides used in modern farming have something to do with it.

[angieh]

It's a dreadful shame. Everything is against the poor bees this year, including a parasite and a cold summer -

http://www.reuters.com/article/envir...4AP08Z20081126

(I don't get paid by Reuters btw!!!)

[dinahsmum]

This is potentially a huge problem
Let's hope we have decent, 'normal' weather for a few years and the numbers build up again. I'm sure they have the potential to increase hugely and quickly if the circumstances are right.

[yola]

A very sad report. I heard it towards the tail end of summer too. I think it's a combination of factors; changes in farming styles/produce farmed and changes in temperature/climate overall. Whatever happens I hope the balance is restored, because apart from thinking bees are lovely their demise will have a very negative impact on our indigenous fruit, vegetable and flower stocks.

[Elaine]

How easy would it be to keep a bee hive do you think? Apparently we can help by doing this and thought it might be worth looking into.

[angieh]

There USED to be local beekeepers' groups all over the place. Perhaps there still are - I remember going out to visit some hives with a local group when I was much younger. I wanted to keep hives then, but I was living at home and my parents wouldn't allow it.

I think I may see if there is a group local to the area I live in now.

[dinahsmum]

Not terribly apparently Elaine.

Do you live in an area where you might 'host' a hive or two? Find a friendly beekeeper and offer to let the hive stay on your place? I'm going to suggest we do it at the allotments.
You need quite a lot of land because the bees can't do vertical take off & landing very well, so they need a good area for their 'glide path', apparently. Amazing what you hear on the radio - and I repeat my plea, why can I rememeber things like that but not my sister's phone number?

[angieh]

Here's a link to the British Bee Keepers' Association

http://www.britishbee.org.uk/