National News tonight April 4th, NBC 6:30 pm EDT is
planning a news segment on the US nationwide Honey
Bee Crises.
Be sure to tune in in your area to NBC National news if
interested.
MADRID - A parasite common in Asian bees has spread to Europe and the Americas and is behind the mass disappearance of honeybees in many countries, says a Spanish scientist who has been studying the phenomenon for years.
The culprit is a microscopic parasite called nosema ceranae said Mariano Higes, who leads a team of researchers at a government-funded apiculture centre in Guadalajara, the province east of Madrid that is the heartland of Spain's honey industry.
The latest buzz that I have heard is that wild bees are not affected only the home grown farm raised ones. The commercially grown bees are forced into building larger honey combs and this somehow affects their immune system.
For some reason, the bees in my home territory, Tupelo country, are not affected, so far.
Quote:
Tupelo bees in North Florida unharmed
Ben Lanier removes a honey frame covered with bees from a hive in order to gather honey, Wednesday, May 16, 2007, in Wewahitchka, Fla. Lanier continues the honey-making business his grandfather started in 1898. Bees in this Florida Panhandle community renowned for its tupelo honey have so far escaped a mysterious killer that has wiped out a quarter of the nation's bee colonies.
Ben Lanier removes a honey frame covered with bees from a hive in order to gather honey, Wednesday, May 16, 2007, in Wewahitchka, Fla. Lanier continues the honey-making business his grandfather started in 1898. Bees in this Florida Panhandle community renowned for its tupelo honey have so far escaped a mysterious killer that has wiped out a quarter of the nation's bee colonies.
WEWAHITCHKA, Fla. (AP) � The bees in this Florida Panhandle community renowned for its tupelo honey have so far escaped a mysterious killer that has wiped out a quarter of the nation's bee colonies.
Honeybees in the Apalachicola River swamps around Wewahitchka have been busy making the premium, floral-flavored honey since early May, hindered only by a persistent drought, beekeepers said.
Beekeepers in 27 states, however, have reported in the past few months that their bees have suddenly vanished. Similar disappearances have been reported in Brazil, Canada and parts of Europe.
Scientists have dubbed it colony collapse disorder, though they have not been able to determine what's causing it.
A study released earlier this month pointed to some kind of disease or parasite, but Roy Lee Carter, Gulf County's agriculture agent, speculates that pesticides may be to blame.
Gulf County has few fields where crops are grown and sprayed with pesticides, so bees here may be somewhat protected, Carter said.
County officials say a bee die-off here could fracture the economy, which is dependent on the tupelo honey, as well as a prison and fishing.
Made famous by the 1997 film "Ulee's Gold" and celebrated at the annual Tupelo Honey Festival in Wewahitchka, tupelo honey sweetens the state economy by about $2.4 million a year.
Northwest Florida, along the Chipola and Apalachicola rivers, is the only place where the honey is produced commercially.
Ben Lanier continues the honey making business his grandfather started in 1898. He also believes chemical spraying may be behind the bee die-offs elsewhere. He said the county mosquito spraying two years ago killed many of the bees he raises himself.
Isolation and breeding may be what's saving the colonies that support L.L. Lanier & Son's Tupelo Honey, but it may be their ruin, too, he said.
"I've got the same stock that I've had for 25 years, and they're real good bees," Lanier said. "They're real good and it wasn't their fault that they didn't fill up these boxes. It was all dry weather."
Honey Bee Crises!
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