Bees Are Bouncing Back from Colony Collapse Disorder

[Noumenon72]

Bees have somebody watching out for them. The insects that have gone missing from our insect traps and windshields are still gone.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/where-have-all-insect...

[rpenm]

People are worried about the wrong bees. Hundreds of native bee species are in decline - possibly due to pesticides and loss of habitat. An enormous number of plants - including many crops - are dependent on native bees for pollination.

[vanattab]

The link is broken. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/where-have-all-insect...

[chaoticmass]

Drive thru Oklahoma at night and you'll have a lot of bugs on your car.

Though as I say that, I think about last time I went thru that state I didn't have as many bugs as I remember in the past....

[mbgerring]

All of these articles only ever focus on commercial bee populations. I'm a lot more interested in what's happening to wild bees.

[jansho]

Nobody mentions this reason to love bees: they make excellent inspiration. I have a big deadline coming up and just moved my desk to face the garden. Watching the bumble bees nosing around the lavender patch is keeping me more industrious than the carrot/stick!

[lostlogin]

Try putting a bit of honey out and watch how many come. They can smell out honey to rob from a long way off.

[pmurT]

Mites have been the largest issue and will likely take decades for the genetics to select out for an uneasy balance. In the mean time, the commercial guys can't keep doing business as usual and have to cleanup their act - they had a nice free ride for a while

[bluejekyll]

The article makes it sound like it's not clear that is the issue. By the end it makes it sound like they really want to say it's pesticides, but the farming industry relies on that so much for "good looking" food that perhaps beekeepers are worried that if they point at that, farmers will be angry with them.

EDIT: to be clear, I'm talking about what was written in this article. I know nothing about the past mite issues in feral bee populations. Not debating that.

[Dowwie]

One source claims that bee populations are bouncing back. I think I'd like to see more scientific sources assert this before I believe the good news

[kneath]

> "…the overall increase is largely the result of constant replenishment of losses, the study showed."

Very misleading headline. The bees are not bouncing back, humans are splitting up stronger hives into weaker hives. Kinda like saying humankind is beating cancer by having more babies in third-world countries.

[radiorental]

This is simply not true.

As other have noted, splitting is a natural process of beekeeping.

however, I've noticed a discernible change in the beekeeping profession in the last 10 years.

To take a step back - there is a huge variation in bee characteristics from hive to hive.

What I've noticed is that package and nuc suppliers (aka bee breeders) are far less likely to treat hives. And it has become near impossible to buy 'traditional' chemical bee disease medications.

The prevailing modus operandi these days is to leverage natural evolutionary processes. I.e. let weak hive fail and therefor let undesirable genes phase out.

[_rpd]

Hive splitting is quite a natural process. New "weak" hives quickly become "strong" hives. A single queen bee can lay hundreds and even thousands of eggs per day. During late spring, hive population doubles every few weeks.

You can read a brief overview here ... http://americanbeejournal.com/beekeeping-by-the-numbers-2/

[civilian]

Ahh, I don't think so. The _rate_ of CCD has decreased since last year. If we were "splitting up stronger hives into weaker hives", shouldn't CCD have stayed the same or increased?

> The number of hives lost to Colony Collapse Disorder, a phenomenon of disappearing bees that has raised concerns among farmers and scientists for a decade, was 84,430 in this year’s first quarter, down 27 percent from a year earlier. Year-over-year losses declined by the same percentage in April through June, the most recent data in the survey.

//edit: but idk, maybe I'm confused here too. At the very least, we've figured out a way to breed bees quickly so that we can outpace CCD?

[tptacek]

Honey bees in the United States are livestock. Their existence on this continent is mediated entirely by our actions.

[bpodgursky]

> humans are splitting up stronger hives into weaker hives

That's not really an accurate way of describing beekeeping procedure. Yes hives are split, but that's how hives reproduce in nature. "Weaker" hives just start smaller and grow.

Not that CCD isn't worth looking into, but it's not like the average hive comes out weaker.

[gwenzek]

Totally agree with you that the title is misleading. Commercial bee hive number increased by 3% year on year, but there is still a lot of CCD. So it's not clear if "Bees are bouncing back" or if beekeepers are getting better at preserving them or if USA just had a nicer weather.

[cableshaft]

Whatever decrease in losses they have from the disorder, my puppy is making up for by eating them. Or at least it seems like it. I have to make sure he doesn't get near any when I take him on walks and he still manages to get a couple here and there usually. I can't believe he hasn't been stung enough to stop going after them by now.

[DrScump]

Has he considered authoring a paper on the subject? I mean, if a cat can publish one[0], it would be embarrassing to the canine race if dogs can't.

[0] http://www.sciencemag.org/news/sifter/philosophy-journal-cor...

[zeofig]

Maybe he gets high off the stings as well as enjoying the flavour.

[mr-ron]

Are you sure they are bees and not wasps?

[macintux]

Best headline I've seen all day, but the piece is much less cheery.

[honestoHeminway]

If only we could breed mites that would die off like those genetically modified mosquitos.

Or mites that only live from mites.

[digitalzombie]

Reddit have a thread about this and apparently it's misleading and that the Bees are still dying.

I can have a cancer survival rate of 15% and get a 2% bounce back with 17% doesn't mean everything is swell.

[ohiovr]

So all those scientists in Nature and the big science journals were just chicken littles. To know the real story, get it from the pesticide makers!

[EGreg]

What about the wild bees?

[lostlogin]

Feral ones are basically all dead here in New Zealand. They don't survive long in the wild. This may not be true where you are.

[donatj]

I know it's completely circumstantial but I have noticed sooo many more bees around my yard this year over the last several that it's given me hope!

[BucketSort]

Good work bees! I was feeling guilty for wishing them all dead one birthday wish after I got stung.