"Researchers find "alarming" decline in bumblebees" (as well as honeybees)

I thought this article was worth a gander:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE7023P720110103?pageNumber=1

IMO, the Honey Bee collapse is due in large part to GM crops from companies like Monsanto. Huge tracts of this country are planted with these crops such as the Monsanto/Bayer GM crops and the effect is known to be toxic to honey bees and other bees.

Scorched Earth pesticides in either GM crops or pesticides on their own kill indiscriminately.

Ahhh, the joys on monoculture agriculture.



EPA approved clothianidin despite evidence of extreme toxicity to honey bee populations:

http://www.infiniteunknown.net/tag/bayer/

Food Inc is an interesting Documentary, there is a whole section on Monsanto and there not so nice treatment of farmers

Most of the "modern" problems arise from trying to attain unnatural results from one of the most quintessential "natural" creatures... modern hive and comb design and modern production expectation and hive management practices account for much of the problems. Here's a decent link or two, there are dozens like them if you search:

http://www.davesbees.com/anap.html

http://www.thewarrestore.com/qualityconstruction.htm

The first is about top bar hives (I just made one of 1X12 pine, working up another made of 7/8" cherry), the second is a Warre' (Wau-RAY) design. I'm also planning a Warre', as well as a "Frankenhive" (look it up, really neat) along with a conventional Langstroth hive. I'm excited about the prospects of using my own honey. It's quite a fascinating undertaking. I highly recommend it to anyone anywhere. Search for the guy in the heart of Chicago that keeps bees on a rooftop. Good video, good story.

EDIT: Oops, the Warre' link is for their hive construction... here's for the philosophy: http://www.thewarrestore.com/warrebeekeeping.htm
Sorry about that.

don't get to caught up in different hive design. bees are fairly hardy, they live in just about anything. tall and skinny (eg warre) is not necessary a good or bad size/shape. theres more to it, hive population, temperatures, temperature variations etc. langstroth is fine IF your running a decent size colony, but a lot of commercial operators runs their hives weak.
one thing i really do like with the warre hives is it removes moisture with its ventilation system. a well insulated roof which cuts down on heat and noise. thick insulating boxes also makes it easier for the bees to control the heat. the less heat control work the house bees have to do the more they can do on other hive/brood work.

one of the biggest "problems" of modern beekeeping is transporting beehives. its hugely stressful at the best of times. then most commercial operates will keep hives undersized to be able to transport them which adds further stress.

Unfortunately, nobody knows what causes CCD. There are many suspects, but most if not all have been ruled out as "the" cause. It may be that the search for "the" cause is flawed, in that no single factor causes it, but a combination of many: bee transport, neonicotinoids and other pesticides used in ag, pesticides used by beekeepers themselves, exotic parasites and hive pests, et cetera. Perhaps scariest, as pointed out in this article, is that population decline/collapse among pollinators isn't limited to the artificially maintained populations of honeybees. As to the health of populations of wild pollinators we have only scratched the surface. The one thing that is certain is that a continuing decline in pollinators is ultimately catastrophic.