Is honey bee colony collapse syndrome cured yet?

nope

Sorry to say no.

Nope, and a pesticide that supposedly was hurting the Bees, Obama had banned, Trump just unbanned it.

@SQUEEKY2 Wow. Just Wow.

@SQUEEKY2 chlorpyrifos I found a link

The article said Obama tried to ban it but never got it accomplished. It says nothing about Trump.

@Patty_Melt Thanks.

Here is a very good talk by Professor Lin Field. She is an Insect Molecular Biologist and she explains very well the classes of insecticides and their risk vs hazard to bees. Remember there are insecticides actually used in bee hives to control mites. It doesn’t harm the bee, just the mite. And classes of chemicals called neonicanoids cover a range of chemicals that have varying toxicity to bees. Watch the whole lecture here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtACFGJ62zU

It seems the Trump administration has lifted Obama’s ban on pesticides that harm bees. It isn’t surprising. Trump sees nothing in the world but money and power.

@Patty_Melt There is a link to another article imbedded in that article explaining Trump’s actions against the Environmental Protection Agency.

@All My partner and I own a bee hive in England. We set it up this past Spring in our back garden. We also belong to a FB group called UK Beekeepers. Every day, there are posts from beekeepers with questions.

In all, it is a fairly simple hobby. The bees pretty much take care of themselves. All we have to do is inspect the hive every one or two weeks to make sure the queen is still there, there isn’t a sign of them swarming, that they have enough food, and that there aren’t any parasites or mice that have moved in. We also supply a water source for the bees near the hive.

The challenge pertaining to pesticides is that there is no way to control where the bees go to collect the pollen that they use to make honey. My partner bought about a dozen fruit trees and plants for them, but our hive barely touched them. They headed off each morning over the garden walls to some other source at least one had found and conveyed to the others. Supposedly, honeybees will travel up to three miles away from the hive to collect pollen.

We have no idea if any of their pollen sources have been treated with chemicals, or what type. It’s just a matter of inspecting the hive on a regular basis to ensure that all is normal. Some people in the FB group have reported losing a hive. It is rarely from pesticides. If there is any doubt, dead bees can be sent to an agency for testing.

Trump does not believe in science. Pesticides killing bees? No way! Global warming? Chinese conspiracy! Pollution killing people? Fake news!

I know there has been a great deal of hype in the media, but maybe this should make everyone feel better. To paraphrase someone famous, ‘The rumours of the honey bees demise has been greatly exaggerated. https://www.livescience.com/61086-biggest-myth-about-bee-apocalypse.html

Just to make everyone feel worse again the European Food Safety Authority believes there is a risk and unlike in the US the use of such pesticides is restricted in Europe.

I moved into my home in 1998 & this has been the first year that I’ve seen any honey bees & this year we have been overrun with them!!! I don’t know what the scientists are saying; but I do know what my eyes are seeing!!!

@flutherother It’s not a scientific response to the problem, really. You can get an idea of the science vs the policy in the video I linked above.

No. And bumble bees are taking a hit, too…

There was a Bee farm about an hour from me, close to the Edisto River, that lost millions of bees. The article, and a few other sources claimed pesticides indeed killed them. Something about they usually spray at night, when the bees are safe in their hive. This particular spraying was done too late in the morning, when all of the bees were out. They showed the owner on the local news. A very nice older lady. She was crushed. My heart ached for her, and for all those bees….

@Pied_Pfeffer .
I’m wanting to get a small hive eventually, but I also want to build a bat box. They should operate at different times, but can you foresee an issue? I know I have to watch for certain wasps, or hornets. Will the bats decimate a hive? Obviously, I wouldn’t have them close to each other…

@MrGrimm888 I’m not the person to ask. My experience with bees is based upon UK standards. I have yet to see a bat there.

Where I grew up in the US, bats were common in the warm weather, at night. Based upon the activity of both the bees and the bats, albeit in different countries, I doubt that there would be any concern. Our bees don’t head out until mid-morning and are back well before it is dark. The bats only came out at night.

I don’t know what you mean by a small hive. It is what it is. The bees are in charge. There needs to be a queen, who lasts about four years. She mates with the drones (males), who tend to the cleaning of the hive and caring for the queen. The female bees are the ones who are out every day collecting pollen.

A hive box is made up of a brood box, where the queen and the drones live. Beekeepers hang cone frames in it for the bees to build egg nests. These are filled by the queen and the drones. Upper layers of the hive are filled with cone frames for the females to fill with pollen that then becomes honey.

^Thanks for your honesty.