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Disappearing bees


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Posted
  • Location: Leeds (Roundhay) 135m
  • Location: Leeds (Roundhay) 135m

I don't know if any one has heard but apparently there is some sort of disease going round wiping out bees. Many country's have lost many bees. I think America has lost 70% of its bees. I was reading the news paper just now and apparently they are blaming mobile phones :unsure: Wouldn't all this have effects on farming and Gardening as well as honey. IF your wondering were i saw this it was in the daily mail.

Edited by mark bayley
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Posted
  • Location: Larbert
  • Location: Larbert

Read something yesterday about this too. Middle page spread in the Sunday Herald. Have tried looking for a link to their report, but can't find it.. was interesting though.

I mentioned last night how large the bees appeared to be this year. Real Dakota sized :unsure:

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Posted
  • Location: Leeds (Roundhay) 135m
  • Location: Leeds (Roundhay) 135m

There has been bees all over today. Not the bumble be but the smaller ones that have a body slightly similar to a wasp. Speaking of wasps i haven't seen many around which is good because they are the most annoying,ugly,pesky,vermin creatures on this planet :angry:

Edited by mark bayley
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Posted
  • Location: South Derbyshire nr. Burton on Trent, Midlands, UK: alt 262 feet
  • Weather Preferences: Extreme winter cold,heavy bowing snow,freezing fog.Summer 2012
  • Location: South Derbyshire nr. Burton on Trent, Midlands, UK: alt 262 feet
There has been bees all over today. Not the bumble be but the smaller ones that have a body slightly similar to a wasp. Speaking of wasps i haven't seen many around which is good because they are the most annoying,ugly,pesky,vermin creatures on this planet :)

Hi Mark,

As I used to keep bees myself so thought I would add a little more to this thread.

It sounds like the bees you are referring to are worker honeybees, (all females) with the majority of these originating from beekeepers hives. It’s a sad fact that many people confuse honeybees with wasps, the main visual difference is the colour, wasps are yellow with black stripes, where as honeybees are light brown with black stripes.

At this time of the year the number of worker honeybees will be at a minimum, probably around 20,000 to the average hive, but during the summer months these will increase to around 50,000 or even 60,000 in a large hive, as the queen becomes busy laying eggs.

Obviously some honeybees do indeed live out in the wild, mostly well away from human dwellings.

To be quite honest I have not noticed any less bees this year, also I have seen plenty of queen bumble bees around already, a good indication for the summer ahead, as these will soon build nests and produce many thousands more.

Also during spring the only wasps you will see are the few queens which manage to over winter successfully, these are normally very large. These too will quickly build nests to produce thousands more workers during the mid to late summer.

Wasps only become a real nuisance during the late summer when the nests have matured, and no more grubs need feeding, the workers then have loads of time on there hands so they become lazy and attack peoples picnics, also greedily feeding from over ripe fruit while getting drunk in the process, then go round looking for someone to sting, :)

I am sure this summer the air will be filled with the sound of busy buzzing bees, and of course not forgetting those pesky wasps.

honeybee

Paul

Edited by Paul Carfoot
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Posted
  • Location: Swallownest, Sheffield 83m ASL
  • Location: Swallownest, Sheffield 83m ASL

I've seen quite a few honey bees so far this year. We used to have a handful of keepers in this village but the last one retired a few years ago and the bees were few and far between. Last year, one of the 2 remaining independent farms started selling honey so I assume they have their own hives given the increase in the number of bees since last summer.

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Posted
  • Location: Taunton, Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Snow, thunder, strong winds
  • Location: Taunton, Somerset

Bees in plentyful supply here, not many wasps but then this is normal looking at Paul's explanation. That was an interesting read, thanks Paul :)

Edited by Somerset Squall
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Posted
  • Location: Larbert
  • Location: Larbert

I dunno. One has rescued two of the buggahs already this year so they appear to be plentiful around here - one is generaly hostile to insect kind but one always rescues Bees that stumble into the towers and sets 'em free. :cold:

Read somewhere recently that mobile phone signals are interfering with said Bees onboard navigation system - might explain the lack of the buggahs? :cold:

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Posted
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
  • Weather Preferences: Any Extreme
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
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Posted
  • Location: Upper Tweeddale, Scottish Borders 240m ASL
  • Location: Upper Tweeddale, Scottish Borders 240m ASL

I'm really hoping this doesn't have an effect on Mead production!

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Posted
  • Location: Hubberton up in the Pennines, 260m
  • Location: Hubberton up in the Pennines, 260m

Are the Queen bumble bees them big bl00dy things? i love bees, one of the things i will let buzz around me.

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Posted
  • Location: Saddleworth, Oldham , 175m asl
  • Weather Preferences: warm and sunny, thunderstorms, frost, fog, snow, windstorms
  • Location: Saddleworth, Oldham , 175m asl
Are the Queen bumble bees them big bl00dy things? i love bees, one of the things i will let buzz around me.

Yeah I think they are. It's funny really because every spring people say blimey aren't the bees big this year when its just the queens.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: Cheddar Valley, 20mtrs asl
  • Weather Preferences: Snow and lots of it or warm and sunny, no mediocre dross
  • Location: Cheddar Valley, 20mtrs asl

Found this, apparently disappearing Bees is not a new phenomena but has been reported periodically for at least a couple of hundred years. Could this be yet another example of a natural cycle we don't fully understand?

http://www.synchronizm.com/blog/index.php/...-flew-too-high/

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Posted
  • Location: Saddleworth, Oldham , 175m asl
  • Weather Preferences: warm and sunny, thunderstorms, frost, fog, snow, windstorms
  • Location: Saddleworth, Oldham , 175m asl

Our tree in the garden is heaving with bees and wasps today even saw a hornet aswell, and there was all different kinds. Has anyone got a link to a website thats shows the different species? I've looked on one but it only shows drawings and I found it very difficult to identify them. I am interested because there were quite alot I had never seen before.

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  • 3 years later...
Posted
  • Location: Mytholmroyd, West Yorks.......
  • Weather Preferences: Hot & Sunny, Cold & Snowy
  • Location: Mytholmroyd, West Yorks.......

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/07/honeybee-collapse-stung-from-behind

Though our 'honey bee' collapse continues the above Article brings us another perspective to the 'pollinator crisis'.

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Guest North Sea Snow Convection

I'm planning to set up a beehive with my friend at my local allotment (permission pending though!)

I try and put as many favourable plants for pollen in my garden as possible to encourage the bees. They are marvellous creatures and they should get as much help as possiblesmile.gif

Edited by North Sea Snow Convection
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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: South Derbyshire nr. Burton on Trent, Midlands, UK: alt 262 feet
  • Weather Preferences: Extreme winter cold,heavy bowing snow,freezing fog.Summer 2012
  • Location: South Derbyshire nr. Burton on Trent, Midlands, UK: alt 262 feet

I'm planning to set up a beehive with my friend at my local allotment (permission pending though!)

I try and put as many favourable plants for pollen in my garden as possible to encourage the bees. They are marvellous creatures and they should get as much help as possiblesmile.gif

Hi Tamara,

That’s excellent, hope everything goes well for you, it is a fascinating hobby, worth getting stung occasionally.

Honeybees do seem to have been very scarce around this area for a few years now, whether this is due to disease or just purely a lack of beekeepers I am not sure. But I haven’t seen one honeybee yet this year. Last year there was a swarm in a neighbour’s garden, they dispersed in to the wild hopefully, and not in to someone’s loft space, where if so, they would have probably been ultimately destroyed.

It does cross my mind occasionally to restart keeping bees again myself, but not sure how well it would go down with the neighbour’s lol.

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Posted
  • Location: Solihull, West Midlands. UK
  • Location: Solihull, West Midlands. UK

Well just watch a World Cup game and you can theoretically hear millions of them.

vuvuzela-bee-400.gif

Phil. (Ban the Vuvuzela!)

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Posted
  • Location: Amesbury, Wiltshire, England, 96m asl
  • Location: Amesbury, Wiltshire, England, 96m asl

I was initially annoyed yesterday to see the leafs of my strawberry tree cut to shreds thinking it was bugs but having looked it up and realised it was a leaf cutter bee, I'm actually quite pleased.

Edited by potsy
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