Catching Up Still

[helwen]

I keep meaning to post about this and then getting caught up in other things... our certificates recognizing us becoming Companions in the AODA arrived in the mail earlier this month. We need these for providing proof to the state to apply for licenses in order to do things like marry people. I have to say though, even with thinking about all this beforehand, it's still kind of strange seeing "Rev." in front of my name on a fancy piece of paper.

We'll be picking up the stove sometime this week, so I better get my act together and clear space for everything. Back is still giving me grief, but most of the stuff I need to move shouldn't weigh much.

***
Yesterday daurdabla posted that the varroa mite has made it to Hawaii. Bad news, indeed.

But I also was part of an interesting conversation on Saturday with a beekeeper at the farmers market, who posits an interesting theory. The beekeepers who don't move their bees around so far don't seem to having any problems with CCD. As folks may or may not know, California doesn't have bees and has to import hives to come in and pollinate their crops. Because of CCD this is becoming a more difficult thing to do -- few bees to do the same amount of work. And of course many other places in the country need bees to be driven to them to pollinate their crops as well -- I expect most folks have heard about at least one of the bee/highway accidents that have happened over the past decade or so -- those would be some of these rental bees.

Anyway, the beekeeper I was speaking with thought that the stress of travel and of having to deal with mapping new territory was possibly a contributor to the failure of the bee colonies.

There are of course other things that can cause problems for bees, like the varroa mite, starvation (too much honey being taken out because the keeper didn't figure correctly for an unexpectedly long, hard winter), etc. But this theory seems like a pretty reasonable one for CCD -- placing undue stress for a prolonged period of time on the bees. It's completely against the nature of the bee to be moved repeatedly throughout a year.

Also, one of the symptoms of CCD is for bees to leave to find pollen and never return -- what if travelling is making it harder for them to find home each time? A bee may travel quite a bit in a day's work, but it's always within a certain range of the hive, not hundreds or thousands of miles as happens with the rentals. Think about how long it takes a human to get used to a new place and learn where everything is -- more than a few weeks! And at least we can buy maps, whereas the bees have to create their own each time.

Comments

[hyperbard.livejournal.com]

Question: what about the Black Bee (most notably of Ireland, but it's in other parts of Europe now I believe) They're smaller, but supposedly hardier. Do they have problems with this disease?

[helwen.livejournal.com]

I don't know. Would have to look up more on the varroa mite, to see what their range is. Or look up black bees maybe...

I think the mites are the reason the U.S. tested and just recently (past few years) started having some beekeepers use Russian queens. Although they're essentially just regular honey bees (imported to Russia via people and their beekeepers migrating there), when they got hit by mites the survivors adapted their grooming habits. The Russian queens teach it to the new bees.