Bees

This week, the Global Environment Facility, has launched a new $27 million dollar project with the goal of saving animals that are needed to pollinate the many crops of the world. The United Nations Environment Programme will implement the program with the help of worldwide governments including Brazil, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nepal, Pakistan and South Africa. Many national agencies and institutions will help to support this project and protect these key species.

"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four more years.  No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."

The EPA and USDA are looking at problems with honey bees and insecticides. They ’ve found some incredible numbers taken from samples taken last year - one bee, a single, solitary bee, had 25 different insecticides hidden within her tiny body. And she wasn’t even dead. The cleanest bee they found had only five insecticides. Only.

One third of the honeybee colonies in the United States died last winter, according to researchers.  Over the past 25 years, the managed honeybee population of the U.S. has been cut in half…we’re talking about billions of bees.

Interesting look at the use of beeswax in natural beauty products.

New York based Dundee Brewing Company makers of the popular Dundee Honey Brown beer have created a "Save the Honey Bee" program. 

The program is designed to raise awareness to the plight of honey bees and support ongoing research efforts to the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). 

Bees sting. Stingers hurt. Some say they are frightening pests. Why should we love them? A 2006 study found that in the U.S., bees annually pollinate more than $14 billion worth of seeds and crops, like fruit, vegetables, and nuts. In the UK, they pollinate $420 million worth of crops.

They might be giants, but African elephants are now running in fear from one of the continent’s smaller animals—honey bees, enlisted in the fight against crop-raiding pachyderms.

They did a good job. They interviewed a bee keeper that actually works with farmers. I don't think I have ever seen a news report that showed bees doing the work of pollinating our food crops.

Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Rosalind James steps into a Styrofoam shelter surrounded by thousands of wild bees. Dozens buzz past the entomologist as she examines blocks that contain 3,540 holes for solitary bees. ``Bee condos,'' she says. The smattering of stings she's sustained is a small sacrifice for work that may save a $75 billion-a-year slice of the U.S. economy.

Elephants flee the sound of angry bees, with the vast majority turning to run within seconds of hearing the sound of buzzing, scientists said.

The findings are surprising because elephant skin was thought to be so thick that bee stings do not make any impression.

"Worsening State Of Insect Worries Scientists Already Scared About Honeybees"

The bee situation in North America keeps getting scarier and scarier. Keep in mind that this story is about the bumblebee, which is a North American native species.

Cell phone's may be to blame for the decline in Bee populations around the World. The Theory is that radiation from the cell phones is messing up the Bees navigation systems. A most disturbing unintended consequence if this turns out to be true.