RE: Bees

There are still plenty of bees at my house, the rabbitbrush is blooming
(Chrysothamnus nauseosus) and it is covered with bees. I would bet honey
made from that pollen is not so good though.

Cyndi


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gardenchat@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On
Behalf Of Theresa W
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 5:56 PM
To: gardenchat@hort.net
Subject: Re: [CHAT] Bees

My mason bees have been great here- they actually are better pollinators

than honey bees.  Also, i always have a handful of bumbles that take
care of the tomatoes for me : )
Theresa

Bonnie Holmes wrote:
> Besides the drought, another possible reason for reduced crops...(Jim
must have lots of bees around)...
>
> Saw a disturbing program last night on Nature, followed up by an
article in Organic, about the disappearance of honey bees.  I had seen
mention of this problem earlier but didn't realize that the problem is
not resolved.  The PBS program stated that 1/3 of U.S. honey bees have
disappeared and that the problem is world-wide.  Since most foods are
pollinated by honey bees, it leaves only wind-pollinated foods, such as
wheat, corn, and rice relatively safe.  The magazine article pointed out
that native bees still pollinate squash, tomato, and eggplant but even
they are being reduced in population.
>
> The PBS program also featured bee demise in Sighuan province in
China...there are NONE due to pesticides...so the farmers hand pollinate
the pear trees.  Right now, most of our beekeepers are replacing their
bee stock with Australian bees but some scientists think some may have
been contaminated by the royal jelly produced in China.
>
> Possible causes include poor nutrition, pesticides, virus (especially
the 1apv found in Israel), fungi and/or a combination of these.  When
bees get sick, they leave the hive to protect it, which is one reason it
has been difficult to find the dying and dead ones.  Interesting thing
is that bee preditors also leave the hives of deminishing bees alone.
>
>
> Bonnie Holmes
> ETN Zone 7
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
> message text UNSUBSCRIBE GARDENCHAT

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE GARDENCHAT

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE GARDENCHAT
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index