Am I holding on? Will this always be the way?
Look at this lovely wee fella:
I am very saddened! As if things can't get any worse!
Britains honey bees are in crisis. Hmmmm, I think the intro there was a bit flippant, but I'm being serious. There are no wild honey bees left in this country. All wiped out by this little shit:
The Varroa mite! Not satisfied with ruining a lovely harmless animal it alos looks grim.
This is what was reported in the Guardian:
Britain's apiary crisis can be traced back to the Nineties when hives were first struck by varroa destructor - a parasitic mite that feeds off the bodily fluids of bees. Populations plummeted, particularly among the nation's wild swarms which have virtually been eradicated. Only colonies tended by people survive in this country today. New feral colonies are sometimes established but without a keeper to help will only survive for a short time before succumbing to disease.
'The honey bees that buzz around your garden and which help to pollinate your plants now all come from colonies that are cared for by humans,' said Davis. 'Effectively, we have no wild bees left in Britain at all now, only ones that are tended for and protected by keepers.' That is bad enough. However, new strains of varroa, resistant to the chemicals that had been used to treat the condition, have started to infect hives in the past year. Their appearance has triggered renewed alarm, with beekeepers reporting major dips in honey production.
I think it's all very sad. It's little things like this that make me wonder.
They also affect this lovely fella:
Ooops, no that sexy little fella. I meant this:
This friend to everyone gets attacked too. In fact I fear more for the humble bumble bee (what a great sentence!) than the honey bee because they don't produce honey and therefore are not a commercial issue. The evils of this corporate world!
You know I was on a tour of the national gallery this week and the guide was going on aboot the value of the paintings. I think they should sell a load and solve some of the worlds ills. Replace them with good copies and no one will know. We could even pay for research into saving our bees!
Well! Have a lovely weekend everyone, and spare a thought for our buzzin' friends!
I am very saddened! As if things can't get any worse!
Britains honey bees are in crisis. Hmmmm, I think the intro there was a bit flippant, but I'm being serious. There are no wild honey bees left in this country. All wiped out by this little shit:
The Varroa mite! Not satisfied with ruining a lovely harmless animal it alos looks grim.
This is what was reported in the Guardian:
Britain's apiary crisis can be traced back to the Nineties when hives were first struck by varroa destructor - a parasitic mite that feeds off the bodily fluids of bees. Populations plummeted, particularly among the nation's wild swarms which have virtually been eradicated. Only colonies tended by people survive in this country today. New feral colonies are sometimes established but without a keeper to help will only survive for a short time before succumbing to disease.
'The honey bees that buzz around your garden and which help to pollinate your plants now all come from colonies that are cared for by humans,' said Davis. 'Effectively, we have no wild bees left in Britain at all now, only ones that are tended for and protected by keepers.' That is bad enough. However, new strains of varroa, resistant to the chemicals that had been used to treat the condition, have started to infect hives in the past year. Their appearance has triggered renewed alarm, with beekeepers reporting major dips in honey production.
I think it's all very sad. It's little things like this that make me wonder.
They also affect this lovely fella:
Ooops, no that sexy little fella. I meant this:
This friend to everyone gets attacked too. In fact I fear more for the humble bumble bee (what a great sentence!) than the honey bee because they don't produce honey and therefore are not a commercial issue. The evils of this corporate world!
You know I was on a tour of the national gallery this week and the guide was going on aboot the value of the paintings. I think they should sell a load and solve some of the worlds ills. Replace them with good copies and no one will know. We could even pay for research into saving our bees!
Well! Have a lovely weekend everyone, and spare a thought for our buzzin' friends!
Labels: Bees
posted by Spunky Trunks at 1:42 PM
2 Comments:
Last week when it was sunny and I was tired of sitting in my office staring at the computer I decided to nip outside and sit in the sunshine for a chocolate break. I wondered over to sit by the pond with the lovely ladies from catering, one of whom shares my name (something I still occasionally find it had to get my head round).
We were chatting about this and that, about the heron that I’d seen the other day, standing exactly where we were sitting and only a couple of feet away from me at the time, about the moorhen and her two tiny chicks and about the tiny weeny frogs that will soon be risking almost certain death through squishing and desiccation as they try to cross the car park from the pond. I mentioned how I get funny looks from many of my colleagues as I try to sweep all the teeny frogs from around my car before I go home in the evening. And of course that brought up the story of the bumble bee (bear with me, I will eventually get to the point).
So anyway, there was I explaining how I was trying to rescue this poor cold bumble bee last year, and the only bee-suitable flower I could find was nestled between two bushes so there was I on my hands and knees between the bushes when this very confused, and slightly concerned, man who had come out for a quick fag break tapped me on the shoulder…. When the lady with my name cut me short and said, “Oh I don’t bother with that, I just squish them.”
I was absolutely horrified. She squishes bumble bees????! I made her promise (cross her heart and hope to die) that she would never _ever_ do that again. She says she won’t. I hope she means it or the wee bumble bee ghosties will be after her - I didn’t say that though, she’d think I was a loon.
I'm with you H. I can't hurt them, I want to help them.
We have to do some good in this world.
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