think about this next time you use you cel phone.

[Hotzcatz]

The USDA folks are inspecting beehives around the island to see if the varroa mite has gotten to this island. From what the fellow said, so far they haven't found any. Our island does ship a lot of queen bees from Kona off to the mainland, but we haven't been able to bring either bees or used bee equipment into the islands for quite some time.

[Les C]

My wife found this article which covers a lot of different angles of CCD, Colony Collapse Disorder, or vanishing bee syndrome.
http://www.gnn.tv/articles/3063/Please_L...t_the_bees

Interestingly, although it refers to the April 15th Independent article that started this thread, cell phones are never mentioned. There's a lot of other considerations, though.

[mella l]

Last night I woke in the midle of the night and turned on the radio. It is a scratchy static ridden station and had the Coast to Coast Broadcast in the wee hours. It does help one fall back to sleep! LOL

Any way last eve there was someone speaking about the bee colapse and they said it was more the Corporate Bees, you know the ones that travel from area to area to pollinate that were experiencing the colapse, opposed to the bees that are kept by farmers. Wish I had listened more closely, but fell back to sleep, drat.

Coast to Coast, is a pretty far out station with lots of looney stuff discussed, obsurd, and sometimes very interesting, check it out!

Hilo KPUA-AM 670 10 KW M-F: 7p-12a
Sat: 7p-12a
Sun: 7p-12a

mella l

[sittall]

Saw this article in the Organic Consumers Assoc. newsletter.

UPDATE:
CATASTROPHIC BEE COLONY COLLAPSE IS NOT AFFECTING ORGANIC HIVES
As previously reported in Organic Bytes (Issue #104), beekeepers in 24 states are experiencing record losses of honeybees. Some states have reported up to 70% disappearances of commercial bee populations. Researchers are struggling to find the causes of this mysterious collapse. A crucial element of this story, missing from reports in the mainstream media, is the fact that organic beekeepers across North America are not experiencing colony collapses. The millions of dying bees are hyper-bred varieties whose hives are regularly fumigated with toxic pesticides by conventional beekeepers attempting to ward off mites. In contrast, organic beekeepers avoid pesticides and toxic chemicals and strive to use techniques that closely emulate the ecology of bees in the wild. Researchers are beginning to link the mass deaths of non-organic bees to pesticide exposure, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and the common practice of moving conventional bee hives over long distances.

[mella l]

Connie thanks for posting the article and for the understanding here. What I remember is the corporate bees also are stressed from the travel from area to area, different climate and smog and chemicals. Your information is much more complete. I'm glad to know the organic hives are thriving! Mahalo, Mella

mella l

[Les C]

Something else that I read refers to one organic beekeeper's hives not being affected by the Varroa mite. This involves the size of the cells that are used in the hives. At the Bush Farms (bushfarms.com), they use a natural sized cell, 4.6mm, instead of the 5.4mm size that many beekeepers use (perhaps in an effort to maximize their honey output?). Michael Bush says that the larger size leads to larger bees, about half again as large as normal. The lower Varroa mite problems are attributed to shorter [cell?] capping time, therefore shorter exposure. This is in the URL that I provided above.

Edited by - Les C on 05/18/2007 14:49:55