Sweet Honey Bees Demographics

The colony collapse disorder has been threatening the United States for many years. Reports show excessive numbers of honeybees dying off. According to the Bee Informed Partnership and USDA’s annual survey, during the winter of 2013-2014, the mortality of managed honeybee colonies was 23.2. The previous winter’s report showed a loss of 30.5 percent of the colonies and thus, the winter 2013-2014 results might show some improvement. However, beekeepers persist that the still declining honeybee colonies are becoming too low for colony collapse disorder to be considered a solved issue. Approximately two-thirds of the beekeepers reported losses greater than the acceptable 18.9 percent mortality rate, thus deeming the losses greater than what is economically sustainable. The issue

This paper reviews the phenomenon of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), or the disappearance of large swathes of the bee population in the US and elsewhere. It reviews the potential causes of CCD, including pathogens, pesticides, and other environmental factors that could contribute to bee deaths. Although many have linked the widespread use of pesticides to the phenomenon, there is no 'smoking gun' that is clearly implicated in causing CCD. The phenomenon can likely be attributed to a wide variety of factors, rather than a singular cause.

According to the National Geographic News website, the domestic honey bee population has decreased 50% in as many years (Roach, 2004). Many reasons are blamed for the decrease in honey bee numbers including diseases and pesticides. Scientists have given the decline in honey bee population phenomenon a name, Colony Collapse Disorder. While some experts maintain that Colony Collapse Disorder is a nuisance and not a catastrophe, it is a serious problem affecting domestic honey bees worldwide.

Bees have been around for about 100 million years, they have survived the dinosaurs and many other things so why are they dying right now? Albert Einstein once said “If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live.” Now bees are doing what is called Colony Collapse disorder. This means that bees are disappearing more and more and it has been spreading across the US and Canada. But why?

Attention Getter: Bees are dying at an alarming rate and we just don’t know why!

During the past decade the presence of bee diseases, droughts and other variable weather conditions has reduced the supply of bees worldwide. In the United States for example, the past few years have seen bush-fires, droughts, the killer mite (Varroa destructor) and the Colony Collapse Disorder wreck havoc with U.S. honey crops by destroying nearly two-thirds of their colonies. This has lead to a market opportunity for other countries to sell their honey to the U.S., which happens to be the largest consumer (and 3rd largest importer) of honey worldwide.

During the winter of 2006, beekeepers all over the world started to see a 30 to 90% loss in their colonies as a result of Colony Collapse Disorder. In the United States alone, the bee population is steadily declining from 5 million bees in 1988 to 2.5 million bees today.

Another event more recently was reported in Pennsylvania where Keepers reported a 53% loss of their hives. But what made this event most serious was the loss of 1/3rd of bee hives within the United States as a whole. This event appeared to have no particular rhyme or reason for this cause and no singular circumstance could be pointed to as an exact cause of such mass destruction of one species that is crucial to food production within the United States ("Honey Bees and Colony Collapse Disorder").

Many know the bee population is declining, but it is not widely known why that even matters. Bees are the main pollinators of the crops we grow. Without bees, the crop yield would suffer. Although there has been many studies researching why the bees are disappearing, most signs are pointing towards insecticides. Regardless of the cause, the population of bees is declining, and we need to do something.

Those who hold gardening as a certified profession have been contacted in relation to the decreasing number of bee colonies. It 's good to know about what is going on and I have built up a brief summary of readings and discussions that I have discovered on the subject of bee colonies. Shelley McNeal, who carries expertise within the bee colonies department, quotes 'The fuzzy little honey bees are the buggies ' when talking about these pollinating bugs. They not only enable your flowers and thus your gardens to flourish but they also play an indispensable part in agronomics. But the scary thing is, these bee colonies are now becoming an endangered specie. Nearly a quarter to one half of bee colonies that are in America have gone within the last twenty or so years. Mites were mainly responsible for the initial loss of bee colonies however another destroyer is looming on the horizon: The Colony Collapse Disorder. The reason is still unknown for the set up of this organization however we have had hints that viral infections or bacteria could be a possible cause. A number of individuals have come together to study the Colony Collapse and is made up of businesses from Pennsylvania. They are currently studying hard; delving into research to look for answers to what could be probable issues causing this, experimenting with CCD colonies so that they may find a way to put an end to the cruelty of bee colonies being collapsed, and instead promoted and enable the next generation of

This article gave me a lot of scientific background about bee and statistical information about their population changes, migration patterns, and specific seasonal behaviors. All of this key information about bees is being altered by outside factors. A major factor being climate changes and the warming of areas where bees live, work, and migrate. Because of so many bees dying, farmers may have to find ways to pollinate their crop themselves, which will cost a lot more money, take a lot more time, and be very difficult to do. Over the years, humans have forced the honeybees to adapt to certain things, but now the climates are changing so rapidly that the bees are not able to keep up any longer and have no evolved to accommodate for this. Too

Now it is really turning into a desperate problem as beekeepers report bee losses of 50 - 60%. Some of the factors causing that loss are habitat loss and Varroa mites. Varroa mites are mites that inhabit a bee’s nest then lay eggs in those nest. When a bee wanders by the grown up mites to make honey in a honeycomb, the mites trap the bee in the honeycomb then eventually kill it. Bee also have other natural enemies like bears and other insects. On top of that, we have a lot of stuff against bees, mainly pesticides. Most of the pesticides we use on the crops are usually considered harmless but since the bee pollinates an astonishing number of flowers per day, the pesticides gets mixed together which can have a number of tragic

A recent study by a UN body, says that wild bees, butterflies, and other pollinators have been declining rapidly. Northwest Europe and North America are seeing the biggest decrease of bees, and it's not just a stroke of bad luck. High levels of pollution, pathogens, invasive species and climate change are common in Europe and America. It's murdering bees at a rapid rate.

Colony Collapse Disorder not only affects honey bees, but they also affects wild bees. Richard Gerber quotes “Many people would be surprised to know that 90% of the feral (wild) bee population in the United States has died out” (Gerber). With 90 percent of wild bees extinct, this astounding number really makes you wonder if this goes above and beyond the issues researchers are looking into. Is there something else that researchers and scientist may be overlooking for there to be such a diminishing population of wild bees? Gerber says that since 2007, 22 states have reported tens of thousands of honey

Honey bees, feared by the misinformed and admired by the intelligent, are dying. The interest in bees from many environmentalists is not for a sudden cause, as this issue is not new to the world. Honey bees as a population have been in decline for years but have yet to reach the endangered species list anywhere in the United States except for Hawaii. Many people kill bees that buzz around joyfully, simply because they are afraid of being stung by them; however, a vast majority of bees do not sting and the others do not care. This unfortunate commonality is not even one of the top causes of the worldwide epidemic of honey bees. Although bees are jokingly idolized on the internet in pictures and videos as a result of a popular children’s movie, their population decline is in fact quite serious. Honey bees and other pollinators like birds and insects ensure the pollination of flowering plants and crops all around the globe. Not only do honey bees pollinate plants that produce the foods that humans eat, but they also pollinate trees that produce clean oxygen for Earth. Without honey bees, the world as we know it could soon end, due to carbon dioxide pollution and lack of farmable foods. The population of honeybees and other important pollinator-bee species is dwindling due to a dilemma known to scientists as colony collapse disorder (CCD) because of the use of bee-killing pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, the decrease of flower meadows in the world, and the general increase