Where Have All The Honeybees Gone?

Sing along with me (to the tune of "Where Have All The Flowers Gone" by Pete Seeger):

Where have all the honeybees gone,
A long time buzzing?
Where have all the honeybees gone,
A short time ago?
Where have all the honeybees gone?
Pesticides (and urban spreading and inbreeding) may have killed every one.
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?


(My apologies to Pete Seeger. I usually hate it when someone changes the words of a song to promote something. But what the heck.)

Allegedly millions and millions of honeybees are dying. The cause(s) has/have only been theorized at this time.

On http://www.celsias.com/blog/2007/03/15/bee-colony-collapse-disorder-where-is-it-heading/, Craig Mackintosh says, "Huge monocrop farming systems and specialisations, and the spread of suburbia across natural habitat, are removing natural diversity. Bees have been lumped together in the millions, in a factory farm type environment not so unlike that of our chickens and other livestock animals. Many of these bees are transported across several states to perform pollinations in orchards and farms around the country. Today they are in contact with substances they shouldn’t have to deal with - pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, and pollen from genetically modified crops."

Consider these comments from http://www.celsias.com/blog/2007/03/15/bee-colony-collapse-disorder-where-is-it-heading/:

11. Ellen Anderson says: March 16th, 2007 : "I am a beekeeper (whose bees are not yet dead.) I think there is plenty of indication that the neonicitines (imidacloprid) is responsible and I am worried since all of the garden aisles are full of it this year. It goes by the name of Merit (also Gaucho) and is made by Bayer Crop Science. It is advertised to control grubs and ticks in lawns, virtually all insects on fruit trees, etc. etc. It is also used to control termites. The symptoms, advertised by Bayer, of poisoned termites sound just like the symptoms seen in bees - i.e. overgrowth of disease and loss of memory. It was banned in France but we Americans get no news from abroad anymore. HELP!!!"

20. Strider says: March 25th, 2007 : "Honey bees have a natural way of being that is blocked by our current way of raising bees for profit. We first asked the question: 'How much honey get i get out of my hives?' The[n] we devised ways of getting more honey. We’ve done the same with cattle, chickens, cows… We devised greater efficiencies. In the case of bees: 1. We put them in trucks and carry them to different sites to aid in pollination 2. We discourage them from swarming. 3. We block the natural progression of queens by preventing the mating flight; by killing them before their natural life span is up and we replace them with bought queens (artificially inseminated). 4. We 'steal' too much of their honey and replace it with sugar water. These are just some of the ways we disrupt the bee’s natural systems. If you were to try to see how much you could get out of your mate (how much house cleaning, cooking, sex…), I bet your mate would flee the hive pretty fast. My point is, when we come from the point of view of profit, we lose the thread. If we were to honor the honey bee and ask, 'How can we coexist for mutual benefit?,' we’d find a different, 'natural' way of being and beekeeping. The solution is 100,000 small-time non-profit local and regional beekeepers with small apiaries sustained for mutual benefit and out of respect and love for the honeybee.. Can’t be done commercially. I’m going to start with a few hives. Look up 'natural beekeeping'. People are doing it and have different kinder methods than the damaging commercial methods that weaken the bee’s immune systems. I’ve given a small part of the situation but I bet you get the picture."

22. KAZ says: March 26th, 2007 : "That list, above, should include the huge number of plants that don’t need honeybees at all. Honeybees are invasive to North America, displacing the pollinators that native plants need. NO PLANT native to the Americas needs, or wants, honeybees. This includes tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, cucumbers, corn, most kinds of beans, peas, squash, pumpkins, yams, and many more."

The lesson that I get from all of this is that, if we interfere with the natural order of things and try to force other living beings to do what we want, there will certainly be undesireable - and sometimes even disastrous - consequences.