The collapse of the honey bee population is an issue that is rarely talked about, and few realize the effect it has on each of us personally. In America the honey bee is responsible for pollinating almost every food that is seen in the grocery store. The population of this interesting insect has been on a decline for over a decade. According to United States Department of Agriculture, “The total number of managed honey bee colonies has decreased from 5 million in the 1940s to only 2.5 million today”. The debate is not if the honey bees are truly disappearing, there is enough evidence to be found that there is a decline in total population. The true question is why are the hives collapsing? Scientist have devoted many hours trying to find the one true cause, no clear answer has presented itself. Amongst the beekeeping community three major reasons for the collapse of the honey bee are the most accepted, which are pest and diseases, the use of poisons such as herbicides and pesticides, and lastly the human impact such as bad beekeeping practices and urbanization. Many bee keepers have been affected by the collapse of the honey bee. In order to identify …show more content…
Some would argue that global warming should be mentioned as a human impact on the collapse of the honey bee; while there is some research done about this particular issue, there is not enough evidence for it to be a widely accepted cause for the issues with honey bees. We do have a very strong impact, though, on these creatures, and we do not even think twice before doing some of the things we do. First, honey bee keepers in an effort to help protect honey bees, implemented use of pesticides within hives and other questionable methods of helping honey bees with pests. This has made these once very independent creatures very dependent on us for
Plague is an infectious disease that can lead to fatality. There was once a plague called pesticides. This plague would kill off dwarves rapidly and painfully thus causing extinction. However, the dwarves were responsible for a third of the food we consume daily. This plague surfaced in the areas where dwarves live and infected many of them. Weeks later, the dwarves begin to die, leading them towards extinction. Because of the extinction, a third of our food is diminished. Nonetheless, individuals would only care about the remaining two thirds of the food leaving people . As a result, many scientists are realizing that pesticides are the reason for the extinction of the dwarves and steadily declining food supplies.
There was also a specific process for the bees that were used and the process of stinging. Only guard bees were taken from the entrance of a hive. The guard bees were located because of t...
It is not unusual for bees to die or colonies to be lost, but the nature and extent reported in the year 2006 was alarming. Statistics gathered in the United States alone show that 50-90% of the bees have been lost so far, due to this scientific phenomenon (Cox-Foster et al., 2007, p. 284). Honeybees play a very major role in the pollination of plants and therefore these huge losses have become a serious concern. There are many reasons that have been floated and acclaimed to be behind CCD and they include pesticides, parasites, electromagnetic radiation, malnutrition, climatic changes, and urban sprawl, among many others.... ...
To most, the honeybee can be an annoying insect that has a powerful sting. Yet, the honeybee is so much more than just another insect. The honeybee is arguably the most vital component in the development of our food crops. With roughly 90 percent of our food crops dependent on the pollination of our honeybees, our food system, agricultural development, and diet rest on the work and well being of these buzzing insects. Unfortunately, since 2006 there has been a major decline in the population of honeybees, and has gotten progressively worse because of colony collapse disorder. The first reported increase of CCD was documented in November 2006 in Florida. By February 2007, several states began reporting major losses associated with CCD, ranging from 30% to 90%. A little over a half decade later in 2012 the attention paid towards CCD has grown substantially with more research being done as CCD continues to get worse. The main culprit for CCD, as research has suggested, is the use of pesticides on our food crops. With major corporations such as Bayer making millions and millions of dollars in profit each year in the distribution of pesticides, it is no wonder that nothing is being done to stop this practice despite evidence linking the use of pesticides and the drastic deterioration of the health of honeybees. With the continuation of the use of deadly pesticides and the vital role bees play in the pollination and development of our food crops, both the environment and our economy will be effected directly and face the potential for catastrophic results.
Honey Bee Population Decline Daisy Childs 11-20-14 Professor Garcia ENG 1027. INTRODUCTION: Apis mellifera, commonly known as the honey bee, are solely responsible for pollinating one-third of the world’s crops, and they are in danger of dying off, according to the article “Natures Dying Migrant Worker,” written by Josephine Marcotty for the Star Tribune. This honey bee population decline poses a huge threat to our environment, farmers, and economy. It is assumed by BBC News writer Zoe Gough in her article,"Wild Honey Bees: Does Their Disappearance Matter?" that all of the wild honey bees in England and Wales are gone.
The lives of humans and honeybees have been intertwined for millennia. For at least 8,000 years, humans have sought honey for applications in disciplines ranging from medicine to the culinary arts. But while humans love honey, honeybees provide a much more valuable service: pollination. As the world’s most prolific pollinator, honeybees are essential to the reproduction of many plant species, which in turn benefits other animals and plants. In fact, humans heavily rely on honeybees to pollinate our own food source, a service that is worth billions of dollars a year. Unfortunately, the honeybee population is in a severe and prolonged decline, often in the form of colony collapse disorder, in which entire colonies are seemingly abandoned by adult bees overnight. Honeybees are an indispensable component of modern agriculture, and a failure to discern and address the many causes of honeybee population decline – both manmade and natural – could have disastrous consequences for the environment and human society.
The disappearance of honey bees is baffling scientists everywhere. Although most people see bees as useless annoying insects, they play an important role in the eco-system. Without bees, agricultural business would cease to exist, so it is vital that bees are saved. Currently, about one-third of the honey bees on the United states have disappeared. It seems that within a few days of having a good, healthy colony of bees, most of the adult population disappears. They can't even find any bodies near the hive. Scientists nicknamed this as CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder). Bees have been disappearing all over the globe. Countries such as Portugal, Poland, Central America, and South America have all reported cases of the phenomenon. When bees get sick, they sacrifice themselves and leave the colony to die to lessen possibility of spreading the disease or affliction to the rest of the hive. What is unique about CCD though, is the sheer number of bees leaving the hive.
High declines in adult bee numbers in some colonies have been reported and this decline is known as colony collapse disorder6. These declines are higher than normal and can go unnoticed by bee keepers because the bees do not generally die in the nest, so the decrease is not immediately obvious. The problem addressed in this paper will be the decline of bees and the effects this decline has on the environment. The solutions proposed for this problem are increasing research, managing farming and spreading awareness. It is important to conserve the bee populations before the problem of decreasing pollinator numbers becomes too great to fix.
United States. Department of Agriculture. Honey Bees and Colony Collapse Disorder. Washington D.C.:, 2013. Web. http://www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=15572.
The first reports of a massive number of bees dying off were reported in the 1990’s, but the disappearances did not gain much attention until the late 2000’s. Scientists were baffled as a large number of seemingly healthy bees abandoned their hives and never returned. The issue of the disappearing bees became so severe that one third of all the honeybee colonies in the United States were lost, and scientists still could not pinpoint an exact cause for the deaths of so many bees, however they were able to come up with a few possible theories. Deeming the decrease in bees, the Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD for short, researchers believed that the mass disappearance could have been caused by a number of interwoven factors, one of which is global warming. Changing climates and weather patterns due to global warming causes certain species of flowers to bloom either earlier or later than usual, which means that bees are not always provided with the pollen and nectar they desire when they emerge from hibernation, and in addition to this, global warming has been known to cause harsh winters and extremely hot summers which adds stress to the honey bee’s life (Bee Facts).
In the winter of 2012/2013, ⅓ of the United States’ honey bees disappeared or were found dead. According to writer Bryan Walsh of the Times magazine, this was a 42% increase over the previous year, which was well above the normal 10% to 15%. The bee population can be replenished over time, but as reported by Jeff Pettis, the research leader at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Bee Research Laboratory, we are very close to having a massive problem on our hands. Even now, farmers barely have enough bees to pollinate their crops, which could lead to food shortages. According to Tom Theobald, a Coloradan beekeeper, “If we don’t make some changes soon, we are going to see disaster.
Albert Einstein was misquoted once in saying: “If the bees disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live.” Even if Einstein might of not said these exact words, there is some truth to them. We won’t necessarily die without bees, like Einstein once supposedly said, but we will live in a world without kiwi, watermelon, cantaloupe, macadamia, etc (palmer). Honey Bees came from Europe in the 1600s, and have become quite important to the United States’ agriculture. The bees have produced honey and pollinate our crops for many decades and it’s been argued that two-thirds of our crops depend on pollination (history). However, the honey bee population has declined by about 70 percent in recent years, and biologists are pretty sure it isn’t because of disease or predators. Biologist believe that chemicals, radiation, and global warming may have a negative effect on the honey bees and are the cause of the
Honey bees are diminishing at a rapid rate due to Colony Collapse Disorder. This is a phenomenon that happens when all the worker bees leaving behind the Queen to fend for herself and the immature bees. Although many people do not view bees as an important part of our ecosystem they actually are. Honey bees are the most important insect for humankind because they pollinate around one third of the fruit and vegetables we eat every day. If we want to preserve them we must first know and understand what they actually do for us. Another big part is making sure beekeepers are well trained in order to bees to thrive. Commercial beekeepers move their bees throughout the United States to pollinate nations the food supply.
Bees are extremely important to agriculture. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, and several grains depend on bees for pollination. Many industries will fall due to the decline of bees. Food will become scarce. Agriculture depends on bees.
Over the past decade bee populations have been dropping drastically. A 40% loss of honeybees happened in the U.S. and U.K. lose 45% of its commercial honeybee since 2010. This is a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in which worker bees from a beehive abruptly disappear in a short time. These data are definitely not meaningless since bees are a crucial part of the reproductive cycle of many foods. The impact bees have on the agriculture and the environment is far more crucial than we may think. Crops rely on bees to assist their reproduction and bring them life. Bees are renowned in facilitating pollination for most plant life, including over 100 different vegetable and fruit crops. Without bees, there would be a huge decrease in pollination, which later result in reduce in plant growth and food supplies. On the other hand, without the pollination progressed with the assistance from bees, the types of flowers According to Dr. Albert Einstein, “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination…no more men”. That’s why bees’ extinction affects people more than we ever think, and could even forebode the doom day of human race.