Panic Measures Over The Loss Of Bees ?

[Tempus Fugit]

After many years of pressing UK Government for more research into the loss of bees,(link) including a march on Downing Street in 2008,

calling for an immediate increase in research funding – from what the BBKA terms the "paltry" £200,000 currently spent annually on bee health research, to £1.6m annually for the next five years. link

, the government seem to have taken panic measures now the implications have hit home, I just hope it's not too late. Although honey bees are not the only polinators, they are certainly the most readily studied and treated to find the problems with bee diseases and losses, and now they have allocated £10m to the problem.

Bee experts say the government made a big mistake when it stopped funding one of the world's leading bee research unit.

 

Rothamsted’s honey bee unit had to shut down in 2006. The government’s National Bee Unit is now the primary centre responsible for bee studies and disease diagnosis.

 

Rothamsted experimental station was one of the leading institutes for honey bee research, and remains the oldest agricultural research station in the world. Britain’s top bee scientists worked on research and cures for bee diseases and parasites. link

 

Whether it is just the lack of hives near me but whilst the hawthorn and other blossom was in full bloom there were hardly any bees foraging on it as I have seen in past years, there's just the occasional bee seen in my garden these days.

 

My dad kept bees for over 40 years and would have been very upset at the current situation.

[Slim]

Whether it is just the lack of hives near me but whilst the hawthorn and other blossom was in full bloom there were hardly any bees foraging on it as I have seen in past years, there's just the occasional bee seen in my garden these days.

 

Don't know if it's connected or not, but my fruit tree's are performing very badly this year.

[Mutley]

Lot's of bumblebees in my garden but quite a few seem to be dying. Not so many bees this year and thankfully few wasps.

[GD4ELI]

The long and cold winter here killed off loads; coupled with the current bee illnesses it's not at all good. Little honey in 2010.

[monasqueen]

thebees - are you still there?

[- Paul -]

They're all going back to the the planet Melissa Majoria.

Dotor Who - The Stolen Earth (1)

[Snaipyr]

Couple of relevant sites:

 

http://www.soilassociation.org/Whyorganic/Welfareandwildlife/Wildlife/Bees/tabid/417/Default.aspx

 

http://www.adoptabeehive.co.uk/

[jim]

There was a big swarm up the back of Ronague when I was out walking on Wednesday then further down the road about five of the little buggers attacked me, needless to say I'm still alive they are not.

[thebees]

On the tv it said the Israeli bees were aids ridden and had been sharing needles with all the other bees all over the world....or something. (It is an Israeli disease iirc).

[Albert Tatlock]

Tis worrying. We have even been exporting Queen Bees from here recently to support the decline in the UK, and more of us should get into keeping Bees.

 

And getting our farmers to move into those plants that require Bees for pollination - ready for when the market price starts shooting up. No pollination, means various plants dying out or becoming far rarer.

 

The only good news would be the end of the Big Mac.

[Terse]

On the tv it said the Israeli bees were aids ridden and had been sharing needles with all the other bees all over the world....or something. (It is an Israeli disease iirc).

Ah! You're back. Good. Panic over.

[thebees]

Hang on..my memory is not quite the best, I might have been thinking about the frogs, maybe it is them who have the Israeli disease, oooh, no, I think it's the bees. The frogs are having problems too, not sure what it is though, possibly a fungus but what ever it is it is a massive problem, frogs are important to rivers and ponds and mostly that is where we get our water from.