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Thomas Gerber: Mysterious, Massive Death of Bees

ATCA - February 19, 2007

We are grateful to Richard Thomas Gerber, based in Michigan, USA, for his seminal submission to ATCA, "Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) -- Mysterious, Massive Death of Bees in the US -- Are bees the Canary in the mineshaft?"

Dear ATCA Colleagues; dear IntentBloggers

[Please note that the views presented by individual contributors are not necessarily representative of the views of ATCA, which is neutral. ATCA conducts collective Socratic dialogue on global opportunities and threats.]

We are grateful to Richard Thomas Gerber, based in Michigan, USA, for his seminal submission to ATCA, "Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) -- Mysterious, Massive Death of Bees in the US -- Are bees the Canary in the mineshaft?"

Richard Thomas Gerber is CEO of Intelegen Inc, a "proof-of-concept" company based in Michigan, USA, now celebrating it's eleventh year; with a current focus on high quality video production, streaming and interactive media development; system development, meta research and predictive analytics derived from data mining the Internet. Richard is also an informatics systems architect with 22 years experience working in the Detroit metropolitan area in the US. He has serviced or acted as an information technology consultant to over 200 clients from a broad range of industries specializing in accounting and finance applications and systems integration and custom development. He has worked for Moore Stephens International and as a consultant for Daimler Chrysler, General Motors and Ford Motor. He also currently hosts and maintains virtual manufacturing environments for several companies with time critical manufacturing operations and multiple physical plant and office locations across the US. He writes:

Dear DK and Colleagues

Re: Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) -- Mysterious, Massive Death of Bees in the US -- Are bees the Canary in the mineshaft?

Albert Einstein made the statement "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years left to live." He was speaking in regard to the symbiotic relationship of all life on the planet. All part of a huge interconnected ecosystem, each element playing a role dependant on many other elements all working in concert creating the symphony of life. Should any part of the global body suffer, so does the whole body.

Many people would be surprised to know that 90% of the feral (wild) bee population in the United States has died out. Recent studies in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have shown that bee diversity is down 80 percent in the sites researched, and that "bee species are declining or have become extinct in Britain." The studies also revealed that the numbers of wildflowers that depend on pollination have dropped by 70 percent. Which came first, the decline in wildflowers or the decline in pollinators, has yet to be determined. If bees continue to die off so would the crops they support and with that would ensue major economic disruption and possibly famine.

In the US, bee keepers are experiencing unprecedented die offs of bees some losing as much as 80% of their colonies. Commercial beekeepers in 22 states have reported deaths of tens of thousands of honeybee colonies. So far the cause remains unexplained and somewhat mysterious. It is being called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and is causing agricultural honeybees nationwide to abandon their hives and disappear and raising worries about crops that need bees for pollination. It's a kind of mass suicide in the bee world. "There have been cases where there have been these die-offs of bees before, but we have never seen it to this level," said Maryann Frazier, a Pennsylvania State University entomologist. "One operation after another is collapsing."

Bees have done quite well for millions of years, in the last 60 years that began to change. In recent years, beekeepers have been losing 25 percent of their hives each winter. Thirty years ago, the rate was 5 percent to 10 percent, said Keith Tignor, the state apiarist for Virginia.

The unusual phenomenon was first noticed by eastern beekeepers starting last fall. Researchers, including some connected with the Penn State University College of Agricultural Sciences, have identified some of the possible contributors, but have not yet found a single cause. Initial studies on bee colonies experiencing the die-offs have revealed a large number of disease organisms, with most being "stress-related" diseases but without any one agent as the culprit. Climate chaos and extreme weather seem to be a major factor.

It is hard to tell if wild honey bee populations have been affected by the CCD disorder because Varroa mites have "pretty much decimated the wild honey bee population over the past years," said Maryann Frazier of The Pennsylvania State University Department of Entomology. "This has become a highly significant, yet poorly understood problem that threatens the pollination industry and the production of commercial honey in the United States... Because the number of managed honeybee colonies is less than half of what it was 25 years ago, states such as Pennsylvania can ill afford these heavy losses."

Dennis van Engelsdorp, acting state apiarist with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture said "Every day, you hear of another operator, It's just causing so much death so quickly that it's startling."

Lee Miller, director of the Beaver County extension office, said the deaths appear to be stress-related, but that stress could come from several sources. Dennis van Engelsdorp of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture said that initial studies found a large number of disease organisms present, with no one disease being identified as the culprit. And while studies and surveys have found a few common management factors among beekeepers with affected hives, no common environmental agents or chemicals have been identified.

University of California Davis entomologist Eric Mussen specializes in bees. He thinks the answer lies in last summer's lack of wild flowers, nationwide. Janet Katz, a beekeeper in Chester, NJ, says the weather is having a major impact, "The weather last season was not cooperative," she said. "Over the course of the season it was too wet, too dry, too hot and too cold, all at the wrong times." Bees store honey every autumn -- a hive needs 60 pounds to survive the winter -- but with this year's warm weather, they ate a lot, and beekeepers had to supplement with sugar syrup.

Florida apiarists say citrus growers are compounding the problem by spraying pesticides to kill off a dangerous pest that menaces fruit trees, wiping out bees at the same time. While a combination of problems is putting the bee population in peril, it's the phenomenon of the animals suddenly deserting their hives, never to return, that has observers most baffled.

"There have been cases where there have been these die-offs of bees before, but we have never seen it to this level," said Maryann Frazier, a Pennsylvania State University entomologist. "One operation after another is collapsing."

At stake is the work the honeybees do, pollinating more than USD 15 billion worth of US crops, including Pennsylvania's apple harvest, the fourth-largest in the nation, worth USD 45 million, and New Jersey's cranberries and blueberries.

While a few crops, such as corn and wheat, are pollinated by the wind, bees help pollinate more than 90 commercially grown field crops, citrus and other fruit crops, vegetables and nut crops. Without these insects, crop yields would fall dramatically and some tangerines and pecans would cease to exist. Agronomists estimate Americans owe one in three bites of food to bees."

All of the following are dependant on bees, apples, pears, tangerines, peaches, soybeans, pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, cherries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, carrots, broccoli and avocados. And do we realise bees pollinate almonds? California has the biggest almond groves in the world, supplying 80 percent of the nuts on the market; they currently have to import millions of bees to pollinate the groves.

There are several unusual things about the phenomena and one common factor that cannot be attributed to be the direct cause but may be an "aggravating other conditions" factor and that is temperature fluctuations.

- No single cause drought chemicals/pesticides, mites, bacteria, a fungus or virus seems to be common to all the events or even indicated as a cause in any single event. Extreme weather and temperature fluctuations seem to play a major role stressing the bees and weakening their immune systems.

- There are no bee bodies; they simply all disappear, all adult bees are simply gone, sometimes leaving a queen and a few young hatched workers. This is unheard of, since normally a bee colony will do almost anything to protect its queen.

- The hive is left intact, with capped cells of honey and bee bread.

- Another unusual factor is that bees sensing a dying colony nearby aren't going in right away and killing the other bees and robbing the hive of honey, like they usually do for example when the bees have died of parasites or disease.

- Researchers have also noted few signs of damage from wax moths and small hive beetles taking advantage of dead colonies.

According to David Tarpy, a bee specialist at NC State, "Bees die all the time, although this year seems to be worse than normal." The difference now is that none of the "usual suspects" are to blame, Tarpy said. "That's what makes it problematic." Also, unlike when bees are killed by some other causes (disease, mites), there are no dead bees littering the bottom of a hive. The bees are simply gone, he said, or perhaps a queen and a few younger bees remain, but the adults have disappeared.

Reports of the situation began to come in over the fall and winter, but scientists don't yet have an answer. It might be a disease, a pest or an environmental factor or even a combination of effects making bees vulnerable to an existing problem. Now, the bees have sealed themselves inside the hives to stay warm, and the keepers can't open the structures until spring. Neither entomologists nor growers can say what will happen when the 2007 growing season for most of the country's crops starts. As a result, some people are really worried.

Diana Cox-Foster, a professor of entomology at Penn State University, has been working on the problem for months now. She says the die-off is unprecedented, and she's made some dramatic discoveries. For example, the normally resilient bees she dissected showed traces of not one or two diseases, but nearly every disease known to affect them over the past century. They had all the diseases at once, a sign their immune systems have been compromised. "The bees are immuno-compromised, being stressed somehow," she said. Some could be related to the severe weather swings we've seen over the past few years. But many questions remain unanswered.

She and the other scientists working on the CSI-style case don't think this is just a cyclical thing. It's uncommon, unusual, and frightening to everyone associated with the often-overlooked industry. No one is sure just how bad it will be when the hives are opened in late march.

Where does milk come from? "The bees pollinate the alfalfa, which feeds the cows, which give the milk. Honeybees are one of the main links in our world. They really need to be nurtured." Jerry Hayes of the Florida Department of Agriculture worries the bee is the canary in the mine shaft, "telling us something is happening that will have ramifications for us down the road. "I think the bees are so stressed, they are saying, 'I give up,'" said Hayes, Since the mid-1980s, parasitic mites have been devastating the honey bee population across the country, including the South-eastern US. In North Carolina, the number of kept beehives in the state has dropped by 44 percent, and about 95 percent of wild bees have been wiped out, according to North Carolina State entomologist David Tarpy.

A series of hurricanes in 2004, including Katrina in 2005, destroyed thousands of honey bee colonies, decimating the vital Gulf Coast bee industry. Many of the pollinators for other parts of the country traditionally came from these beekeepers. The economic impact of these storms, especially Katrina is yet to be determined.

"Replacing the Gulf Coast bee colonies, although highly important, is not enough. It is obvious that the huge losses suffered during the past 16 years must be dealt with to provide security for our future honey bee-dependent food supplies. It will take a well-defined series of coordinated efforts by all components of the beekeeping industry and the involvement of local, state and federal governmental entities to solve this potentially disastrous situation," says John Roberts, a beekeeper and President of Nature Technics Corporation.

There has been a sixty-year decline in pollinators. The honeybees and native bees may live in far more harmony than cats and dogs, but the modern world has not been in harmony with them. The last 60 years have been rough on all pollinators. In the 1940s there were over five million managed colonies of honeybees in the United States. Today there are just over two million, and their numbers are declining, both in North America and worldwide.

The entire world now faces a decline of native pollinators. Over 100 species of birds and more than 80 mammals that pollinate are considered threatened or extinct by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), a network that includes scientists, experts, government agencies and non-governmental organizations from around the world. Each country has its own tale to tell. In southern India, nearly all of the native bees died in the 1990s when they became infected with an imported virus. In Iraq, smoke from the burning oil wells during the Gulf War decimated most of the country's bee colonies.

In summary plants and animals remote in the scale of nature are bound together by a web of complex relations resulting from dependencies we have yet to fully understand. Every creature seems to play a role even, parasites serve a purpose. We are just beginning to understand the beneficial symbiotic relationship between the human body and certain bacteria. We are dependant on many other species and any failure of one part of the ecosystem can create a domino effect causing disruption throughout the entire chain of life. All plants and animals are vulnerable to climate chaos which seem to be having a major impact. Whether or not we are responsible for climate chaos is not as important an issue as to how humanity will adapt. It could also be that our methods centred on mass production and factory farming are in conflict with nature, as we can see in the case of avian flu, we may be creating a world of pestilence having forgotten that we are part of nature and there is a natural order, balance and harmony that needs to be maintained in the dance of life. Like any species in nature that gets out of hand, nature has a way to keep it in check, and humankind may be the next species in line for severe adjustment or even step-by-step eradication.

All the best

Richard Thomas Gerber

[ENDS]

We look forward to your further thoughts, observations and views. Thank you.

Best wishes

For and on behalf of DK Matai
Chairman, Asymmetric Threats Contingency Alliance (ATCA)
____________________________________________________________________________

ATCA: The Asymmetric Threats Contingency Alliance is a philanthropic expert initiative founded in 2001 to resolve complex global challenges through collective Socratic dialogue and joint executive action to build a wisdom based global economy. Adhering to the doctrine of non-violence, ATCA addresses opportunities and threats arising from climate chaos; radical poverty; geo-politics, organised crime & extremism; advanced technologies -- bio, info, nano, robo & AI; demographic skews; pandemics; and financial systems. Present membership of ATCA is by invitation only and has over 5,000 distinguished members from over 100 countries: including several from the House of Lords, House of Commons, EU Parliament, US Congress & Senate, G10's Senior Government officials and over 1,500 CEOs from financial institutions, scientific corporates and voluntary organisations as well as over 750 Professors from academic centres of excellence worldwide.

The views presented by individual contributors are not necessarily representative of the views of ATCA, which is neutral. Please do not forward or use the material circulated without permission and full attribution.
____________________________________________________________________________
Intelligence Unit | mi2g ATCA The Philanthropia Φ

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Posted by ATCA at February 19, 2007 12:51 PM

Comments

Dear Richard

Thank you for a brilliant but very scary article.

love, Heath

1. Posted by hgquinn on February 19, 2007 01:45 PM

I smell an experiment.

This sounds crazy even to me, if our collective neglect caused the bees to be gone, could our collective hope bring them back?

2. Posted by doodleman on February 19, 2007 05:24 PM

Usually when bees abscond, it's with a second queen.

Under normal circumstances, the original queen bee naturally and robustly suppresses the development of any of her workers so they won't transform into a queen...so if a second queen does appear among the workers, it's a telltale sign that the original queen is losing her luster.

So it's possible that this be a queen bee problem and not a bee problem.

Maybe she's depressed. Maybe the queen breeder is doing something, setting up breeding conditions such that it's causing a problem later on. Bad breeding can bring a dog a lot of misfortune, hip dysplasia, etc. Maybe the same goes for bees.

Or maybe the queen's just situationally depressed, sick of all this Anna Nicole Smith obsession.

Or maybe she's getting too hot in the winter as they all pile onto her to protect her.

As far as the mites, there's a lot of research to support the claim that antibiotics are squarely to blame. Bees in China happily groom themselves, keeping mites off themselves. But American bees are fat and untidy because of drugs. They've stopped grooming, and since mites are now resistant to the drugs, they've got a problem.

My brother-in-law's father is a beekeeper. Not having been given any drugs, most of his hives were decimated; however, those that have survived remain hardy and productive.

And did I mention Anna Nicole Smith?

3. Posted by danashields on February 19, 2007 07:02 PM

Oh this queen mentality of suppressing and ruling. How come Richard is not spamming his own thread? LOL!!!!

4. Posted by Hasela on February 19, 2007 07:44 PM

Its like a scary movie.

Have the bees, even if it stings and live long.

Rajesh

5. Posted by Rajesh Sharma on February 20, 2007 12:11 AM

Hello Intent bloggers,

It is in interest of all of us to start a bee keeping co-operative collectively at as many places and as many countries as possible.

Rajesh

6. Posted by Rajesh Sharma on February 20, 2007 12:17 AM

My best guess would be an as yet unknown fungus that's killing the bees. Anyway, scientists will work all the angles out. Don't start blowing your end of world whistles too soon.

I would also like to recommmend the expertise of Aurora Carlson who has paranormal talents, like, apart from the ability to bend kitchen spoons, she can also talk to insects, like ants from thousands of miles away, to which I am a personal witness.

So, lets hope she would head our request and talk to the disease causing agents to leave the bees in peace and thereby save the world.

Aurora, would you mind helping the bees?

7. Posted by Nick Thompson on February 20, 2007 12:57 AM

Dear Nick

The scientists still haven't worked out all the angles of the global frog die-off, which was first noticed in 2000. There has been a global decline in amphibians, and in ocean fish as well. The scientists know reasons for declines in some local populations. But why is there a widespread decline at all, affecting so many discontiguous populations?

(Until 10 years ago, there were tiny gray toads living in the lawn of my parents home, and in the lawns of all the homes of the neighborhood, 30 miles northeast of NYC. The local climate hasn't changed in any dramatic way, there was no chytrid fungus affecting them, the neighborhood is stable, with residents using conservative grounds management practices -- no pesticides, and so on. So why are they gone?)

love, Heath

8. Posted by hgquinn on February 20, 2007 03:58 AM

Nick and Rajesh: We must do something for the bees now. It's now or never. Just because they are bees you can't do such things to them, which would harm them and thereby the ecosystem, ultimately coming back at us.

Heather: I think since this modern man has come into existence in nature, lot of species are on decline. Do you think one day homo sapiens will pay the price for the harm it causes to the ecosystem and they themselves may decline?

Have the bees stung Richard, while doing some research? Not to be seen. LOL!!

9. Posted by Hasela on February 20, 2007 04:14 AM

Dear Hasela

I agree that humans have caused a lot of destruction. We will certainly pay a heavy price for it. We already are, I think.

I think Richard will come back to comment. Writing that article must have been a tiring piece of work. It's really good and very complete -- factual, easy to understand, comprehensive in showing both the big picture and many important details.

love, Heath

10. Posted by hgquinn on February 20, 2007 04:27 AM

Good morning Richard and Everyone,

Richard thanks for this very interesting article, please keep us informed if you get any more information as to the source of this problem.

thanks again

have a wonder-full day, all, ruth

11. Posted by ruth on February 20, 2007 05:14 AM

Wisdom is to be open to any possibility, no matter how improbable or undesirable, without prejudice.

Thanks Heather, and only scary if we do not do what is in our power to do. Yes, I did spend a good number of hours reading and writing over several days, including bee autopsies.

You do articulate the question of the day very well.

“But why is there a widespread decline at all, affecting so many discontiguous populations?”

In conjunction with amphibians, birds have also been affected, and we are not including those succumbing to avian flu, but the cause is unknown even after autopsies. Thousands fell from the skies dead in Australia there was also a concurrent even in the US, what was the connection, if any? To clarify though avian flu is a type of pestilence and the cause, a virus, has been identified however the cause of the virus is not clear although it seems to be attributed to the factory (unnatural) environment millions of fowl are raised in, acting as sort of an incubator.

"This is the precedent of a disease working its way across an entire species on the scale of all mammals, all birds or all fish," said Joseph Mendelson, curator of herpetology at Zoo Atlanta and an organizer of Amphibian Ark. "Humans would be absolutely stupid if they didn't pay attention to that."

Since their geographic locations are different, we might all ask what elements do the effected birds, amphibians, fish, bees, share? The climate and man are common factors; also the sun and space could be a factor. As could be plants and flora since we find that some trees have initiated chromosomal changes in response to the climate. In short trees to the North have switched on Chromosomes found switched on in trees in the south. What do the trees know that we do not?

Many of the above amphibians and fish have been seemingly killed by fungi which could be a clue.

Fungi actually have important symbiotic relationships with other organisms. Mycorrhizal symbiosis between plants and fungi is particularly important; over 90% of all plant species engage in some kind of mycorrhizal relationship with fungi and are dependent upon this relationship for survival. Fungi are also used extensively by humans: yeasts are responsible for fermentation of beer and bread, and mushroom farming and gathering is a large industry in many countries.

If we killed off all the fungi on the planet we could expect similar and even more devastating effects than if all the bees were to die off. Fungi and bacteria are the primary decomposers of organic matter in most terrestrial ecosystems. As mentioned above 90% of the flora, plant life depend on them.

Does a species have it’s own consciousness, shared intelligence, or communication, could it initiate system wide changes? Is a virus an interspecies form of communication for change?

Does a species initiate changes and then cause members of the species with the old configuration to stop reproducing? Does some other life form act to eliminate the "old" non-adapted configuration of another species? If a member of a species is sick because of a programming malfunction, life would not want this member to replicate, so would there be a mechanism to exterminate the defective members?

Is man impeding or acting in conflict with evolution and adaptation?

Discontiguous by the way is a rather new word, not in many dictionaries because it is a computer term related to networks. Interesting that it has entered our consciousness.

12. Posted by Richard Thomas on February 20, 2007 09:42 AM

Derek, you may be on to something there what does the collective nature of a bee colony have to do with the effects that we see? Is there some collective connection between the other colonies and pests in this situation? Are they going through self induced genetic modifications that somehow require? Is the collective consciousnesses breaking down or short circuiting. Is it initiating system wide changes?

as a side thought...

Ants and bees don't seem to fear death, perhaps they do not even know the concept, or perhaps it is no different then the body shedding skin cells.

Perhaps the whole body of the organism, is all the individual members of a species.

13. Posted by Richard Thomas on February 20, 2007 09:50 AM

Dana, obviously the attention on ANS is part of the problem. Question is, is it the consumer or the media behind this focus of the attention. You bring up an important point.

As for queens if we take into account the information below we see that what is happening is not normal.

Honey bee queens
Periodically, the colony determines that a new queen is needed. There are three general triggers.

(1)The colony becomes space-constrained because the hive is filled with honey, leaving little room for new eggs. This will trigger a swarm where the old queen will take about half the worker bees to found a new colony, leaving the new queen with the other half of worker bees to continue the old colony.
(2)The old queen begins to fail. This is thought to be recognized by a decrease in queen pheromones throughout the hive. This situation is called supersedure. At the end of the supersedure, the old queen is generally killed.
(3)The old queen dies suddenly. This is an emergency supersedure. The worker bees will find several eggs or larvae in the right age-range and attempt to develop them into queens. Emergency supersedure can generally be recognized because the queen cell is built out from a regular cell of the comb rather than hanging from the bottom of a frame.

Regardless of the trigger, the workers develop the larvae into queens by continuing to feed them royal jelly. This triggers an extended development as a pupa.

When the virgin queen emerges, she is commonly thought to seek out other queen cells and sting the infant queens within and that should two queens emerge simultaneously, they will fight to the death.

Recent studies, however, have indicated that colonies may maintain two queens in as many as 10% of hives. The mechanism by which this occurs is not yet known. Regardless, the queen asserts her control over the worker bees through the release of a complex suite of pheromones called queen scent. (I wonder how that actually works)

Often in the case of a second queen she will take leave taking 50% of the colony with her. In our case of Colony Collapse Disorder they all go!

ANOTHER MYSTERY
A very intriguing question leading to a major insight would then bee. :)

If you are a bee, and a second queen takes off how do you answer the question.

Should I stay or should I go? Half the bees decide to stay the other half decide to leave. How is this decision possible?

How or what determines how to separate the bees basically in half? What are the logical steps to make this determination and how are they implemented?

This question could lead to the demonstration of a collective consciousness with intelligence.

14. Posted by Richard Thomas on February 20, 2007 10:08 AM

Dana, you bring up an excellent point in relation to you relative who is a bee keeper. He did the right thing in harmony with nature. He took a loss but he ended up with a superior bee. One that I would think would be very valuable. So in a sense he did not have a loss but actually a financial gain. It all depends upon perspective.

Which leads us to another scope of thought which will be forthcoming.

15. Posted by Richard Thomas on February 20, 2007 10:16 AM

Wisdom is to be open to any possibility, no matter how improbable or undesirable, without prejudice.

Humans may be able to accelerate human evolution yet is humanity also damaging and impeding evolution? For example the use of pesticides, we may be impeding the pests from fulfilling their purpose not allowing defective or sick plants to be able to reproduce or be eaten by species that would themselves become nutrient deficient. The number one cause of sick plants is soil demineralization. A plant healthy because of adequate minerals and nutrients is resistant to pests. Humans shouldn’t eat defective plant material so the pests kill destroy the unhealthy plants so we don't eat them.

What is the impetus behind evolution? If there were a higher directive behind evolution then it could be the impairment of evolution was part of evolution.

Nature is adaptable, are we interfering with it’s adaptation? Is that what we see nature doing in response to the climate changes, adapting?

Just like skeptics, pests serve a purpose; they are allowing only the healthiest genes to survive and may also provide checks and balances within the ecosystem. Pests may be nature’s natural culling solution for the various species. Skeptics on the other hand help to keep defective thought from being accepted into the main stream although sometimes they can erroneously attack valid healthy thought by mistake.

One of the best solutions man can apply system wide would be soil remineralization, this would correct a major planetary imbalance. This is not achieved by petroleum based fertilizers. But can be achieved using rock dust and seaweed.

So this is an actual step that the worlds executive management needs to implement.

16. Posted by Richard Thomas on February 20, 2007 10:21 AM

What if global consciousness is moving out from life activity?

What if putting too much of our attention to cyber-reality by example, we manifest deep separations at conscious level, weakening life system?

What if by becoming unconscious of life we are creating strong dualistic polarizations?

One conclusion that I have for sure: Nothing can replace the experience that I have with nature. The experience that I have with it, the transformation that she operates in me cannot be replace by anything else, even if it looks very similar.

17. Posted by Jean-Francois on February 20, 2007 10:43 AM

Actually Hasela, I got stung by lots of bees once when I about 3 or 4. It did not hurt at all, yes they stung my head, my mother pulled out the dozens of stingers. I had no swelling or pain or anything.

I was standing under a beehive while these other older boys where throwing rocks. It fell the bees came after me, I ran while brushing them off of my head. It was a bit terrifying.

I was also a bit of a Frankenstein when I was young. In England, in my grandparent’s garden, I would catch bees wearing a rubber glove and drown them, and then bring them back to life. I love all creatures and I feel bad about it now, and they did get me back I stepped on a few as a child and got stung running through the grass barefoot.

I do now transport all insects including spiders and flies out of the house, setting them free rather than killing them.

After a while one learns to watch and be careful where they step. So in the death of a single bee they protect other future members of the species.

18. Posted by Richard Thomas on February 20, 2007 10:44 AM

Thank you Ruth, if I learn anything new I will let you know, the same for you if you come across anything.

Nick, you could be right about the fungus but I wonder is what the bigger picture is.

Jean, What we discuss may provide insight to other area's of investigation, like evolution and the existance of an innate or all pervading intelligence, and collective consciouness. Or the idea that everything is all One.

We may have many proofs sitting right under our nose.

19. Posted by Richard Thomas on February 20, 2007 10:50 AM

A non-holistic scientist may never have these thoughts and may deprive themselves of the greatest discoveries.

Disease is not a flaw in nature but a process of adaptation, evolution and preservation. In some cases an indicator of an imbalance.

Could there be evolution without death? Does a shorter human life cycle speed evolution? In that belief systems are modified and changed faster? Is this why some historical records state humans once had longer life spans? Did humanity fall from grace? Did the ego override the awareness of our oneness?

Then again perhaps it served a purpose we have rocket ships now and don't live in caves. So now it is time to return to the Oneness along with all our cool toys and technology? Maybe even join the rest of the civilization in the universe?

20. Posted by Richard Thomas on February 20, 2007 11:05 AM

A conspiracy of de-naturalization

An end to the illusion of evolution like an absolute truth.

A "reverse spirit engineering" mutation reaching its terms. Behind this engineering could be hided the spirit Tree of the alchemy mutation and power.

"all pervading intelligence" --> yes!

21. Posted by Jean-Francois on February 20, 2007 11:05 AM

Dear Richard and All

A timely blog in the NYTTimes just now, about frog die-off and how scientists are trying to deal with it:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/02/20/a-fungus-brings-dinosaurs-fate-to-frogs/

I wonder if the author of that NYT blog was reading Richard's article here, yesterday.

Richard, discontiguous came from my work, I guess. Though I don't hear others use it, I use it often.

love, Heath

22. Posted by hgquinn on February 20, 2007 11:08 AM

Hi Heather,

Thanks for the link. I did mention the Amphibian Ark several times, but I think awareness is simply spreading at the speed of light. It appears nuclear bombs and sectarian conflict is not where our attention should be, something else is more pressing for the world.

Nice article, this stands out

“Realize the precedent that amphibians are setting here,” Dr. Mendelson said. “A disease that we did not know existed, and we don’t from where it came, and we don’t know how it gets around, is working its way across an entire vertebrate class, eliminating species at an incredibly accelerated pace — and we can’t stop it.”

The big question is what changed on the planet to induce the fungus to happen? Was it stimulated? Was something keeping it in check gone?

Have the immune systems of the frogs become impaired? Did something in their metabolism change?

Are these frogs being removed to make way for a new frog adaptation to the new climate?

Has anyone noticed the increase in chronic coughing, sinusitis and allergies in humans over say the past decade?

Related causes?

Time to start a home garden?

23. Posted by Richard Thomas on February 20, 2007 12:16 PM

So, they stung you in the head when young. Now, I understand why you spam. You were quite late in your own thread though. Surprised me. LOL!

24. Posted by Hasela on February 20, 2007 12:33 PM

Yo, Ricahrd your enthusiasm radiates from your words.

I do believe that bees and animals represent the first level of warning. Just like our skin is the first level the show illness.

Remember the Africanized bees? I think that they were expressing their frustration with us. We didn't listen now they are vanishing.

I believe it's past time for us to put our differences aside and save the bees.

You can stop the domino effect by taking out a few dominos, like.......ego.....war......greed.....ect.

The internet is a beautiful way to facillate saving the bees.

peace to the bees

derek

ps. Richard your are deffinately my hero. Peace Bro

25. Posted by doodleman on February 20, 2007 01:08 PM

It's clear that just a few know the power of transformation of oneself.

I think the question is not to seek for a remedy. We are powerfully magnetized to bring life alive. But we are weak now.

Maybe the sum of disappeared souls inject sufferance and unbalance this planet at all level. If only we could be crazy enough to allow ourselves back with all its seductive and wild colors.

If only music was playing all the time...

26. Posted by Jean-Francois on February 20, 2007 01:49 PM

Richard, doodleman! I like your comments.

Heather, your are a sweety and I send you a special delivery by a bee right to your knee. Hope you are fine!

27. Posted by Jean-Francois on February 20, 2007 02:08 PM

I truely know in the deepest way that everything is connected, physicaly and energeticially.
The very electricity that runs through me is everywhere running through everything. I have felt this my whole life. I can almost see, visually, the connection of everything at once. I believe that animals and insects are even more aware of this.

The intensity of our energy is turning up exponentially, it could be driving the bees crazy, like an overload.

When something mechanical continues to speed up, it reaches a point where it fails or smoothes out, like a gyroscope.
I hope we are like a gyroscope.

God bless the bees

derek

28. Posted by doodleman on February 20, 2007 06:00 PM

Richard,

I have learned so much from reading your comments and articles. Thank you. This seems to be one of those things people might look back on and wished they had paid a bit more attention.

29. Posted by melissa on February 20, 2007 07:50 PM

Dear Richard:

Thank you so much for your time to research and write this article. I have been following this story with keen interest.

My husband and I are blessed to have a sanctuary in the mountains. We purchased an adjoining piece of property about 5 years ago. The man who owned the property had 6 bee hives there and we told him he could leave
them there. About 2 years ago, he decided to move the hives and his remark at the time was that the bees apparently were not getting enough nectar because the sourwood trees were not blooming and the hives were not reproducing. I didn't think much of it at the time other than a little sadness because I loved having his bees in my garden(Iam now certifiable
organic!!!) and he gave us free honey!

This past summer(and I had almost forgotten about this until the bee story came out) I was working in the flower garden Now I normally don't just stand and watch the bees, but this day I did for some reason. I noticed there was an increase in domestic bees and they were intermingling with the wild honey bees and there was just something, not odd so much as different in their behaviour and appearance. They all seemed to be a group. My thought at the time was to wonder if the domestic bees were "left overs" and they were breeding with the wild bees. I also remember feeling a sense of bewildered joy. I mentioned this to my husband and he said that most likely someone had some new hives close by. I actually checked. Nope no new hives.

I have no idea whether this has any significance or not because I don't know (a) how far bees travel for food (b) how far they could travel and still find their way home or (c) if wild honey bees and domestic honey bees will interbreed.

Richard do you know?

Bonnie

30. Posted by Bonnie on February 20, 2007 08:05 PM

Maybe this is a silly question...but have they done any studies on the quality of the honey in light of these observations? Has it changed at all? Just curious.
M

31. Posted by melissa on February 20, 2007 08:33 PM

dear Richard,
Thank you for your article and for the comments contained within.

I agree and
acknowledge
we are connnected with nature
and each other - in unique and special ways, that enrich and reward our lives.

My life is beyond compare
and I do appreciate being part of the IB community
Love,
~ Kate

p.s.
my garden is the
beneficiary
of bees
and pollinication
Hooray!

32. Posted by Kate... on February 21, 2007 02:28 AM

she means to say,
pollination
:)
~ Kate

33. Posted by Kate... on February 21, 2007 02:30 AM

Dear Richard

I, too, was thinking about that fungus: If it was new, how did it spread worldwide so rapidly? If it wasn't, why did all the frogs become suddenly vulernable to it?

...personal bee notes...

When I was a kid, I was often stung on the feet by bees as I ran barefoot through clover in the summers.

There's an old song about a sleeping bee that always made me shiver, for its metaphor and for the pretty melody. Some of the lyrics are:

"...When a bee lies sleeping
in the palm of your hand,
you're bewitched and deep in
love's long-looked-after land,

where you'll see a sun-up sky,
with a morning new,
and where the days go laughing by,
as love comes a-calling on you.

Sleep on bee, don't waken.
Can't believe what just passed.
He's mine for the taking,
I am happy at last.

Maybe I dreams, but he seems
sweet-golden as a crown.

A sleeping bee once told me
I will walk with my feet off the ground,
when my one true love
I has found..."

For about ten years, a big queen hornet has overwintered in a chest I use to store blankets. Every springtime, I find her hibernating in the folds of a spring blanket. I used to think she was a honeybee, because she looked so much like one. It takes a few days for her body come back to life. She flies around a little, and sooner or later, she starts hanging out on the curtains of a window I've opened for her. Though she can fly out from her position on the curtains, she never does. I have to put her on the top edge of the window frame. Finally, off she goes. Her presence has always surprised and mystified me.

Dear J-F, my knee is improving. I appreciate the bee delivery.

love, Heath

34. Posted by hgquinn on February 21, 2007 06:10 AM

Dear Heath:

Liked your melody. Maybe I had been bewitched by the bees in my garden last summer, but somehow, I keep thinking, there was something else I should have or could have noticed about the bees and didn't. The difference I noticed was almost imperceptible, but it was there. Don't know how to explain it but I know it. Maybe I was just "in tune" with the bees.

Anyway, now I am looking forward to spring and I will be looking for and appreciating the bees more.

Bonnie

35. Posted by Bonnie on February 21, 2007 08:10 AM

Heather,

Your Queen Hornet story is amazing. I have a small suburban ranch style house built upon old forest, still many trees in the wooded lot. In the summer it is like being in a forest. If you look at my zaadz profile you can see the pictures of the flowers etc. There is one big tree about 300 years old. In it is a colony of bees. I now look at them differently knowing how scarice they might be or become.

36. Posted by Richard Thomas on February 21, 2007 08:11 AM

That should be knowing how "Scarce" above.

Bonnie, Bees fly "as far as they have to" Bees will forage up to seven miles, but that the law of diminishing returns (where hives lose weight) kicks in at about four miles. Most would fly less than a mile. In a single day a large colony's combined flight will be the distance to the moon.

I think you lead us to an important new area for investigation. In the US many people use weed killers in their lawns. Then there are simply the fields of concrete. What I am getting at if people are killing the clover in their yards etc. are bees having to fly farther for food and becoming weakened and more vulnerable?

Are we upsetting the balance of nature by using weed killers? The answer is yes! Weeds have a purpose and one thing we are killing is bee food.

Are we upsetting the balance using GM crops embedded with weed killers? Yes.

Are we upsetting the balance of nature spraying fields with weed killers? Yes.

**The proper way to get rid of weeds is to pull them or hoe them, not a chemical.**

That we have killed off wild bees and are destroying their food source is very disturbing.

Just had this thought.

Natural profits vs. Unnatural profits.

Natural profits come from creating a product or service needed in a natural environment. Unnatural profits are created when humans create a situation that creates a need for a product or service that does not exist naturally. Unnatural profits can also come from a false assumption that creates the illusion of a need for a product or service.

37. Posted by Richard Thomas on February 21, 2007 09:01 AM

Melissa,

There is of yet no actual evidence linking bee deaths to GM crops; however beekeepers have made the following observation.

Most beekeepers are aware that Terramycin (aka oxytetracycline) no longer gives good control of American Foulbrood in many areas. This resistance started about the same time that genetically modified crops came out. Some think there is a connection. Tetracycline resistant genes were introduced into the first GM crops along with Roundup-Ready genes (according to Dr. Nasr, more recent GM crops don't have this resistant gene). Resistant AFB seems to be more common where GM canola and soybeans were first introduced.
The following information is known to be true but does not prove a connection.

Trypsin endopeptidase inhibitors and soybean trypsin inhibitors are found to be toxic to
adult honey bees. Studies show that GM crops modified with modified with protease inhibitor genes inhibitors consistently have detrimental impacts and the glucanase enzyme modification to resist fungi also was found to effect bees detrimentally.

We do know that GM pollen get’s into beehives and is processed and spread by bees. There is concern that the introduction of GM herbicide tolerant crops, such as oilseed rape, will reduce still further the diversity and number of wild plants used by bees for nectar and pollen sources.

Bees avoid fields sown with GM crops favoring non GM crops fields. That they can distinguish them may imply something.

The novel proteins or toxins produced by GM crops may also be in the pollen they produce. This means that honey containing GM pollen could pose a potential health risk. The researchers who studied this problem concluded that if GM pollen contained novel toxins or proteins it “could pose problems, not only to man who consumes honey as a food, but also to bee populations which rely on pollen as the sole source of protein

Researchers at Cornell University wrote a report about genetically modified corn plants and monarch butterflies. The corn was of a type that had been modified to produce an insecticide known as Bt toxin to protect it from the depredations of the European corn borer. By virtue of this modification, Bt toxin is also produced in the pollen of the corn plants. Cornell scientists found that when monarch caterpillars were raised on leaves dusted with Bt-containing pollen, many of them died. This however was a laboratory study and not one done in the field so it only points out potential and does not determine actual probability that this would occur.

The farm-scale evaluations (FSEs) of GM crops in the UK found. The cultivation of GM rape and beet seemed to damage biodiversity. There were fewer insect groups, such as bees and butterflies recorded among these crops.

38. Posted by Richard Thomas on February 21, 2007 09:20 AM

Melissa, (I posted this out of order)

I don't know as far as the quality of honey, I do know they have studied and found honey contaminated by genetically modified crops.

There is a remote possibility the GM crops crops could be a contributing factor to Bee die offs.

39. Posted by Richard Thomas on February 21, 2007 09:22 AM

Kate, your welcome glad you found some benefit.

Was that a play on B words?

40. Posted by Richard Thomas on February 21, 2007 09:26 AM

The French honey industry is under threat from hordes of bee-massacring oriental hornets, the Daily Telegraph reports.

The hornets are just the latest blow to the French beekeeping industry. Pesticides and hot summers have taken their toll on bee populations, and a spokesman for the French National Bee Surveillance Unit said the winter mortality rate among bees had risen to six in ten.

The forests of Aquitaine, in south-west France, now play host to swarms of the the Asian Hornet, Vespa velutina, which is believed to have arrived there "from the Far East in a consignment of Chinese pottery in late 2004".

Entomogist Jean Haxaire, who first eyeballed the invaders, said: "Their spread across French territory has been like lightning."

Haxaire said he's now counted 85 "football-shaped" nests across the 40 miles which separate the towns of Marmande and Podensac "in the Lot et Garonne department where the hornets were first spotted".

The Asian Hornet can cause some serious damage to a human, "inflicting a bite which has been compared to a hot nail entering the body". But that's not the principal threat they pose. They can decimate a nest of 30,000 bees "in a couple of hours" in search of larvae on which to feed their young. This, unsurprisingly, gives local beekeepers serious cause for alarm.

Accordingly, honey production has been hit hard - down 60 per cent in south-western France in the last 10 years. The country's 1.3 million hives, managed by 80,000 beekeepers, are unable to supply demand and France now imports 25,000 tonnes of honey annually.

The Bee Surveillance spokesman lamented: "The arrival of these hornets has made the situation considerably worse. The future of our entire industry is at stake."

In Britain, meanwhile, it looks like we'd better start stockpiling honey. Stuart Hine, manager of the Insect Information Service at London's Natural History Museum, warned: "There's no doubt that these hornets are heading north and will probably find their way to Britain at some point."

There is, however, some hope for Blighty. While Hine confirmed climate change meant the hornets would find summers very much to their liking, "they would still have difficulty coping with our winter frosts". ®

41. Posted by Richard Thomas on February 21, 2007 10:37 AM

Climate related- bees starved to death because of extreme weather

Carlton Simpson, a Knox County apiarist and bee supply dealer, said varroa has been a universal problem in North America for years, but the colony collapse disorder is a relatively new development. Simpson said that while neighboring states, such has Pennsylvania, have reported bee colony deaths, the disorder does not appear to be a problem in Ohio at this time. He said there is a potential shortage of bees in the area, but beekeepers won’t know for sure for another three to four weeks when the weather improves.

Part of the potential scarcity, Simpson said, is due to the unusually cold and wet spring of 2006, and extra rain much of the summer. The rain negatively impacted flowers’ production of pollen and nectar, causing a scarce honey harvest. Simpson said his more than 200 colonies of bees typically produce 250 to 300 pails of honey each year, but this fall’s yield was only 18 pails. “A number of bee colonies in Knox County,” he said, “actually starved to death in August due to the lack of proper nutrients.”

42. Posted by Richard Thomas on February 21, 2007 10:44 AM

Clue? Beekeepers in Europe, which are more likely to use non-chemical methods to control mites, have not seen cases of collapse disorder.

Dewey Caron, a Univ. Delaware entomologist
Bees killed by collapse disorder have been found to have abnormal levels of fungi, bacteria and other organisms.

"We are finding some unusual pathogens in the bees, but at this point we don't know if it's cause or effect," said Dewey Caron, a UD entomologist who is helping lead the investigation. The investigation is focusing on possible side effects of chemicals used to keep the mites under control, or possibly the mites themselves, which have been found to transmit viruses to the bees.

"The best bet does seem to be something that's causing weakening of their immune system," Caron said. Beekeepers in Europe, which are more likely to use non-chemical methods to control mites, have not seen cases of collapse disorder.

43. Posted by Richard Thomas on February 21, 2007 10:51 AM

Dear Richard:

So I take it that the original question I raised on the other blog of GM crops having a link to the disappearance of the bees has now moved from the realm of possibility to that of probability?

Probably not the only link, of course, but then everything in interrelated in the final analysis.
Now, we have cloned animals which have been approved by the FDA for human comsumption with no labeling. Also, GM crops are not required to be labeled. Cloning of animals will eliminate the diversity of genes in animals in favor of those that look the best on the meat counter, keep the longest etc.

What this boils down to, is control of the food supply by those corporations who hold the patent for the cloned animals, GM crops etc. giving the
public no choice and no control. AND, WHAT WE WILL HEAR FROM THESE CORPS. AND THE MEDIA IS THAT IT WILL ELIMINATE WORLD HUNGER BLAH BLAH BLAH. and most people will accept it unwittingly.

I think I said this before, but I will say it again, what this is, is a PERVERSION of the free market system in every sense. And a perversion of science by technology all in the name of profits. Now, I love profits(I am a businesswoman) and there is nothing inherently wrong with profit, but these are, like you say, unnatural profits. We have to start thinking more along the lines of sustainability.

Meanwhile, I still haven't found out if wild honey bees and domestic honey bees will interbreed. And, I am still thinking there was something significant about my "bee experience". I will contemplate it further and let you know.

Meanwhile I feel blessed that I am seeing more birds and bees(lol)on my little piece of heaven here on earth. It seems to be I am having a different experience than what I am hearing from others.

Stay tuned,

Bonnie

44. Posted by Bonnie on February 21, 2007 11:55 AM

Dear Richard

The possible causes of bee death, and the potential for severe impact on agriculture, are reminders of how fragile the web of existence is. #42 especially reminds me of what I read about "the year that had no summer", which was the summer of 1816. The climate in the northern hemisphere was colder than it is now, as it was near the end of the Little Ice Age. Volcanic eruptions in two previous years supposedly darkened the atmosphere and caused fluctuations in the northern jet stream, allowing polar air to invade the upper latitudes of the northern hemisphere throughout the summer. There were freezes, starting in June and lasting throughout the summer, interspersed with periods of normal temps. The cold spells completely disrupted agriculture. The result was famine in New England, Great Britain and Europe.

The galactic butterfly symbol on your zaadz profile is an amazing piece of design.

love, Heath

45. Posted by hgquinn on February 21, 2007 01:52 PM

Dear Richard:

I have finally had a few minutes to do some research myself on honey bees. My word! I never knew there was so much information on honey bees.

These are some of the things I noted:

Honey bees have been shown to employ what in human terms would be called range voting to make hive-relocation decisions, see Myerscough(2003), Lindauer(1971) and this essay
http://www.rangevoting.org/ApisMellifera.html at the Center for Range Voting
http://www.rangevoting.org/

Several researchers and beekeepers describe a general trait of the African subspecies which is absconding, where the Africanized honeybee colonies abscond the hive in times when food-stores are low, unlike the European colonies which tend to die in the hive

Apis mellifera scutellata, classified by Lepeletier, 1836-(African honey bee) Central and West Africa, now hybrids also in South America, Central America and the southern USA. In an effort to address concerns by Brazilian beekeepers and to increase honey production in Brazil., Warwick Kerr, a Brazilian geneticist, was asked by Brazilian Federal and State authorities in 1956 to import about pure African queens from Tanzania to Piracicaba-Sao Paulo State in the south of Brazin. In a mishap some queens escaped. The African queens eventually mated with local drones and produced what are now known as Africanized honey bees on the American continent. The intense struggle for survival of honey bees in sub-Saharan Africa is given as the reason that this sub-species is proactive in defending the hive, and also more likely to abandon as existing hive and swarm to a more secure location. They direct more of their energies to defensive behaviours and less of their energies to honey storage. African honey bees are leather colored, difficult to distinguish by eye from darker strains of Italian bees.

Africanized bees have spread across the southern United States where they pose a small danger to humans, although they may make beekeeping difficult and potentially dangerous.

Note: Am wondering if this trait is being transferred to all honey bees.

It seems that the honey bee that I see in my garden and call wild is the following

Apis mellifera mellifera, classified by Linnaeus, 1758 - the dark bee of northern Europe also called the German honey bee-domesticated in modern times and taken to North America in colonial times. These small dark-collored bees, sometimes called the German black bee, have the reputation of stinging people (and other creatures) for no good reason at all. The ones I have do not sting though.

Some fun facts:

Worker bees-infertile females-keep hives clean,raise the young, guard the hive and forage for nectar. (Hmmm sounds familiar to another species I know)

Drones -males- Do not forage-primary purpose is to fertilize a new queen-die after each mating, the process of onsemination requires a lethally convulsive effort( Guys count your blessings!!)

In some species drones are suspected of playing a contribution role in the temperature regulation of the hive.

This was interesting too:

Karl von Frisch studied the behaviouss of honey bees with regards to communication and was awarded the NObel Prize for physiology and medicine in 1973. von Frisch noticed that honey bees communicate with the language of dance. Honey bees are able to direct other bees to food sources through the round dance and the waggle dance....... Another signal for communication is the shaking signal, also known as the jerking dance, vibration dance, or vibration signal. It is a modulatory communication signal because it appears to manipulate the overall arousal or activity of behaviours. A worker bee vibrates its body dorsoventrally while holding another honey bee with its front legs.

That's amazing!! The language of dance!!
My question is which species is the most evolved.
us or the bees.
I know there's a song in there somewhere)

Anyway, way too much to report now but will have more later.

Bonnie

46. Posted by Bonnie on February 21, 2007 07:06 PM

Interesting article. Reminds me of the land of milk and honey, as referred to in the Bible.

THE DANCING BEE

The Golden Honey that draws the dancing bee
is sweet upon her thirsty lips.
How shall she land upon the Flower of Love,
as the piercing rays of the Sun
tenderly touch her wings.
The strong Winds hold her steady
in their gentle breeze,
As she smiles upon
the Crystal Sky above.

Love, Char

47. Posted by Char4 on February 22, 2007 02:14 PM

Char:

Did you know also that Honey bees are one of the very few invertebrates that produce a sort of "milk" for their young, royal jelly, which is the only food the larvae will eat early in development.

Bees are indeed marvelous!

Bonnie

48. Posted by Bonnie on February 22, 2007 04:11 PM

Char:

Also bees are capable of perceiving the polarization of light. They use this information to orient their communicative dances.

They navigate by using a combination of memory, visual landmarks, colors, the position of the sun, smell, polarized light and magnetic anomalies.

Hooray for the Dancing Bee

Bonnie

49. Posted by Bonnie on February 22, 2007 04:17 PM

Bonnie, range voting was interesting, I still wonder how a colony splits itself in half. I don't think the cloned animal itslef is bad, but it is genetic diversity that allows a species to survive and adapt. There is no proof yet of GM foods, could still be a collection of factors.

Heather,

I did not know about "the year that had no summer" interesting. Yes the Galactic Butterfly is interesting haven't quite figured it out yet, I think it is a key that unlocks something.

Thanks Char, yes bees actually do triangulation which they communicate in their bee dance.

oh and bees have sex while flying...

50. Posted by Richard Thomas on February 22, 2007 06:18 PM

Hi Richard,

Interesting read at:

http://digitalizmo.blogspot.com/2005/11/galactic-butterfly.html

Love, Mieke

51. Posted by mieke on February 23, 2007 07:47 AM

http://oneheartbooks.com/resources/videos/natural_mystic.htm

Perhaps the bee phenom is a combination of HAARP, DU, sunspots, evolution gone awry, et al. Loosing 25% per year adds up fast when you are used to pollinating friends. Perhaps the Uranium level in the atmosphere has reached a level that interferes with the memory and navigation capabilities of the bees to the point where they cannot return to their hives and therefore perish. No bees in my garden in Los Angeles so far this spring. By this time the critters are usually in the orange blossoms, avocado, figs, roses, berries, etc.
What have we done?

52. Posted by johnmccarthy on April 7, 2007 01:20 PM

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