African Killer Bees Essay

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Bees Rough Draft What can we actively take part in to stop the collapse of bee colonies? Bees are such a vital part of our everyday agriculture production, however, colonies are diminishing before our eyes. Colony Collapse Disorder is a massive decrease of bees in hives and it is greatly affecting our crops because bees are not distributing the necessary amount of pollen to crops in order for them to grow the maximum, most nutritious produce possible. There are many solutions that may help CCD, such as banning neonics, urban beekeeping, and interbreeding honey bees with African killer bees. The most effective way to decrease CCD is by interbreeding honey bees with a stronger specie of bees labeled African killer bees. The honeybee population …show more content…

The purpose of interbreeding with African killer bees is to make the specie stronger so they are not killed by things such as pesticides and starvation. One strength for interbreeding with African killer bees is explained by Associate professor Kirk Visscher. He performed a study of 60 colonies and concluded the 20 colonies that suffered from CCD were the ones without at least one African killer bee in the colony (Ring 11). This shows that the African killer bees are a stronger specie than honey bees, and can withstand to live through hazardous conditions. Another strength is that African killer bees are more resistant to varroa mite which is a deadly parasite greatly affecting the collapse of colonies (Ring 12). There are only two minimal weaknesses for interbreeding with killer bees. They are more difficult to manage in colonies, and they have a more aggressive attitude and more of a likelihood to sting someone (Ring 11,12). These are insignificant problems because, commonly, some bees in regular honey bee hives are hard to manage, and if they were kept in rural areas managed by professionals, then the bees wouldn’t be able to attack anyone. Interbreeding with African killer bees is the best solution because it is the most cost effective way to solve the numerous problems of …show more content…

This is because of the multiple problems it solves with having minimal drawbacks. This solution allows the specie of the honey bee to become more robust and overcome the problem of dying from parasites in varroa mite and pesticides with only having the deficiencies of them becoming more aggressive and more difficult to manage in colonies. These imperfections are insignificant because the bees will still be kept in rural areas handled by professionals who know how to manage colonies without getting harmed. If we start to interbreed with African killer bees, then our crop production will continue to go up, we will not have to worry about running out of essential fruits and vegetables, and it will boost our economy not just by the revenue of crop production, but by harvesting more honey because of the increasing population due to a stronger specie being

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