Bees

photo courtesy of Belanne Pibal©



For those who have been paying attention, there is a mysterious disorder that has been killing off bees. We have been losing our bees at an alarming rate for several years now. Did you know that 60% of commercial hives are used to pollinate the almond crop in CA? 60%.

We are now at the point where one bad winter could leave us with severe food shortages. There is a new study out that may have some clues to the losses in our bee populations and the news is not good. (For those who can't make heads or tails of the study there is an easier article here.)

Where many have blamed one pesticide or another or a class of pesticides, this new study suggests that the problem lies in the cocktail of chemicals including fungicides that are used on our crops to keep them healthy. While these chemicals may protect the plants, they are leaving the bees far more susceptible to any number of problems that can threaten bees. Parasites, infections, you name it and not surprisingly, these chemicals that the bees get through the pollen, (which they collect to feed the hive), cause the bees natural resistance to these plagues to drop like a rock.

It's time to go back and re-examine the use of chemicals on our crops...before the next bad winter.

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." ~ Gen 1:26