"Beepocalypse" is over?

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Simple correlation: more Jedi, more bees.

I'd really question this article. Even here in the area my local bee club that includes the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, All of Northern Wisconsin and Northern Minnesota sees a 40-80% loss of bees every year so I don't think so. We are not in a heavily pesticide use area either. This spring I had 100% loss, so I would like to see more information from this author.

I think we've managed to stabilize bee populations by refusing to pollinate certain crops that are known to use neonicotinoid pesticides. My local beekeepers manage to keep their losses down to about 3% by using new beekeeping practices. The thing that the article fails to mention is that beekeepers lost almost half their bees this year, it just wasn't in the winter.


Me, personally, I lost 100% of my bees in 2013 because they were next to a commercial apple orchard that would drive by and spray them. In 2015 I bought new bees(at 20% higher cost) and moved them to the opposite side of our property in a fenced apiary surrounded by 100% organic polyculture farm. So far they're thriving and rarely leave the property. Our crops that require pollination have exploded with fruit. They're getting all their anti-viral and anti-bacterial agents directly from our plants like spearmint, peppermint, lavendar, etc.

I think too smaller bee keepers are really focusing on breeding healthy survivor populations. I am working with a master keeper who has done no treatments on his bees for over five years. He does mite counts and checks constantly but has zero problems. In the north here where we get extremes in winter weather we are only breeding populations that can survive the harsh conditions. Three of my hives have come from survivor winter stock. They don't produce as much honey but are strong and winter well. I'm curious to see how my Italians out of the Carolinas will do. This is not their native region. However if they do survive I'll be splitting them next spring with queens I will raise from the rest of my stock. Or buy from a friend who is also a local keeper.

It all sounds ok for managed bees, but how are wild bees faring?

This is only half the story.

No one has ever investigated wild honey bees. As far as I know (at least around here) they do not survive the winter. Honey bees are not native to North America, so wild populations from swarms might survive but they are extremely rare. If one does catch a swarm guaranteed they are from another bee keeper.

I stand corrected. They are finally starting to look at Wild bee populations.
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/bee.htm
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/07/140711-wild-bees-north-america-honeybees-science/

Jedi_Roz wrote: I'd really question this article. Even here in the area my local bee club that includes the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, All of Northern Wisconsin and Northern Minnesota sees a 40-80% loss of bees every year so I don't think so. We are not in a heavily pesticide use area either. This spring I had 100% loss, so I would like to see more information from this author.

Yeah, you lost a few colonies a while back, iirc.. didn'tchya, Roz? That must be difficult to bounce back from, I'd imagine.

When I was growin' up on my cousin's farm back in the '80s, we had 12 hives - had the occasional swarm, but not the problems that hit apiaries today...

...has it been very harsh, bouncing back/upkeep?

I did. Three were to my error of trying to deal with very mean bees and the the fourth one was my Russian hive that made it all the way through the nasty winter but died this spring. I have no idea why. I am guessing starvation even thought they had sugar candy and pollen patties.

It wasn't hard other than the financial hit. Because it was not disease I could reuse the equipment so that was not a total loss. When you suspect CCD you have to burn everything. It really depends on your area and situation. Like Whitehorse said. Sometimes it's a an easy fix and sometimes not

I'm trying the Italian bees this year. 2013 was Corniolan but the guy I bought the cornies from was the one with 3% loss so it wasn't weak bees.

I also observe wild bees. We have bumblebees and wasps around here. I always find dead bumblebees at the same time I find the dead bees(when the neighbors spray the flowering orchards). I think the guy that does the spraying is from guatemala and has no clue what he's doing. Probably only gets $300/mo to run the orchards.