Comments for Foodie Freak: What's killing the honeybee? at http://lakeconews.com , comment 1 to 5 out of 5 comments http://lakeconews.com Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:15:57 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/7666/919/#comment-11058 I will look that up. Would be really interesting to see. You are right, there are quite a few vehicles nature has put into place to ensure pollination. Some plants actually self pollinate naturally, as well. Those bees have quite a bit of backup. - purplegirl Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:36:01 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/7666/919/#comment-11055 correctly it was part of a piece 60 Minutes did on commercial pollinators and how 'colony collapse' was affecting them. That's alot of stress to put on these little critters, the road miles they rack up. They also pointed out that corn, wheat and rice were wind pollinated - all great crops but variety is nice, tho it may become a luxury at the rate we are rolling along. - Donna Christopher Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:00:13 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/7666/919/#comment-11043 Donna, I will have to look that one up, it sounds like they have a pretty interesting system there. I think that China is a good example of what I was pointing out. Again, people are moving off the farm and into the city and cities are expanding which is doing away with much of the natural state of things and the bees are disappearing (along with a few other things). I am sure someone will eventually come up with an effective way to pollinate crops without bees (or any other pollinators... including the human hand) at all. Maybe even create self pollinating crops through Genetic Engineering. I hope not but I can see a huge potential (profit) in it and I can see it happening in the very near future. - purplegirl Mon, 09 Mar 2009 05:25:59 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/7666/919/#comment-11029 about how China has had to deal with it's bee decline - caused by farmland being turned into industrial uses. What was left of the growers would gather the pollen by hand and get it into a cardboard shoebox. They would then carefully 'dry' it by putting a light bulb in the box. Next was tying poultry feathers to a stick. They'd dip the feathers into the dried powdered, climb the fruit trees and hand pollinate the blooms. Very tedious work, they were polinating about 50 blooms aday where as the bee itself can get to thousands a day. - Donna Christopher Sun, 08 Mar 2009 09:29:26 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/7666/919/#comment-11025 Actually, I believe the quote is refers to "bees" not "honeybees" specifically. (At least, everytime I have read the quote, it reads ""If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left." That being said, I still agree with most of your analysis. There is a whole lot of speculation and not a whole lot of evidence to support much of it. Still, I have to say, after researching and considering all of the theories, I do see an underlying factor in the most plausible ones and that would be that the bees seem to appear to have some sort of weakened immune systems which allows them to be more susceptible to outer influences. I don't believe the poor diet given by the truck drivers holds up for the pure fact that these truck drivers didn't just start giving them this diet recently they have been doing it all along for many years. So, I would definitely rule that one out. However, I do believe that diet may play a significant role. There has in fact been a steady decline in both the quantity and the value of their food, in the past 100 years or so. And, a rapid decline, most recently. Before the mid 1900's, over 50% of the U.S. farmed. Currently, that number is about 2%. In many areas of the globe, farming has also declined. The way in which we farm has also changed significantly. Using more and more pesticides as well as farm equipment which pollutes the environment. As well, what we farm. We have gone from farming plants created by and for nature to plants created by and for man. I believe, all of these things are factors in the weakening of the natural defenses of the bee (as well as other animals and humans). But, I also agree that we often forget that there are other pollinators which not only include other bees but wasps, birds, butterflies, bats, moths, flies and even some beetles. And, I have in the past substituted for the lack of pollinators in city gardens with a small brush, necessity being the mother of invention. So, you are right, it would be very logical to assume Einstein was wrong in this particular theory. - purplegirl Sun, 08 Mar 2009 03:25:10 +0100