Something to bee thoughtful about

[dianeduane]

We take them for granted. We shouldn't.

During my visit to Tapp’s apiary just outside Chapel Hill, I asked him, "I'm wondering, does fifteen billion dollars worth of food a year depend on a bunch of retired hobbyists?"

I fully expected him to tell me I was exaggerating. Tapp turned his head, looked me in the eye and with a straight face said, "Well, yeah."

 

Comments

[dewline.livejournal.com]

There's a fair bit of ongoing concern about apiaries here in Ontario for various reasons, many of them ecological in nature. This would be the first I'd seen mention of the ages of the participants, though.

[megabitch.livejournal.com]

*nod* If it weren't for the beekeepers in the UK, the honeybee would have been wiped out in the 80s. We have one hive now - we had three but lost one last year and merged the remaining into a stronger hive. Last year was a fairly bad year for the local apiaries as well, I don't know one local keeper who didn't lose at least one hive. We'll probably get more hives this year. More honey (which two local shops sell for us), more wax (one local shop sells our beeswax furniture polish as well). Reminds me, I really need to do some candles.

[korenwolf.livejournal.com]

It was a weird year, the hives were swarming at the drop of a hat but not re-queening the original hive particularly easily. If the weather is warm enough tomorrow I'll go up to Penn hill and check to see how they're doing and maybe lob some extra feed on them. Shouldn't be doing the first inspection until late March / early April but it's been an insanely warm winter.

The quince is starting to bud and blossom already and the apple/pear and plum are getting ready to bud.

On the plus side being one of those nuts who keeps bees means having really really well pollinated veg and fruit in the back garden :)

[cee-m.livejournal.com]

Wow. Isn't it amazing how much our world depends on just a few people.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Amazing, and just a tad frightening. If there's any industry that ought to be getting governmental supports from here to high Heaven, it would indeed seem to be the apiaries that most deserve it.

[megabitch.livejournal.com]

Bets the govts don't give a damn. I know the UK govt have just dropped certain things from the relevent enviro/food/agriculture ministry's department that relates to beekeeping - they've basically slashed about a million pounds from the budget regarding the beekeeping inspectors - that's approx a 50% reduction in the numbers available to deal with problems. So a local keeper suspects s/he may have a problem with... oh... foul brood (either European or American - EFB/AFB) which is a nasty nasty thing - chances are there's no local inspector to double check whether the hive needs destroying or not. Maybe the beekeeper is new, and doesn't know... the stuff spreads... more hives die... no more honeybees.

As I said... it's only the efforts of the beekeepers that kept the honeybee in the UK from dying out completely - there are no longer any truly wild hives, they are pretty much all ex-swarms from hobbyists or commercial apiaries.

[korenwolf.livejournal.com]

Not to mention the hive beetle which is the coming threat which no one is entirely sure how to deal with yet.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

Why am I thinking "Sherlock Holmes"?

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Something about retiring to take up bee keeping in Sussex wasn't it?

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

At this rate the country in world with a healthy bee population is going to be New Zealand.. and they are working really hard to keep it that way!

[korenwolf.livejournal.com]

Not for much longer, varroa has got a serious foothold due to some imports to both major islands.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Had not heard that...[but then I'm in the uk, so no surprise]

At this rate the only continent free of it will be Antarctica... and for some reason bee keeping is yet to catch on there!

[korenwolf.livejournal.com]

Oh so am I :) but I tend to keep an eye out for "bee" stories since I started to keep the hives.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

Huh. I've been very interested in the way we're blurring the distinction between professional and hobbyist. (Mostly out of self interest, since there isn't currently a career path for professional dilettantes.) This has primarily because of computers and networking: open source development, bloggers as reporters, etc. Maybe I'll have to start thinking of beekeepers as an auxilliary force.

Further on the honeybee situation...

[dewline.livejournal.com]

...courtesy of CBC News. (http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/02/12/bee-deaths.html)

Now I'm just a tad more nervous.