The Silence of the Bees

[Tamur]

I have a friend who teaches at the University of Montana and was involved in the first set of research into this, funded by the US Army (not sure why). I'll take a crack at those questions from what I know talking to him...

First, the numbers of bees dead or alive are being counted by whom?

My friend and his colleagues weren't counting bees, they were counting domesticated colonies and mapping the CCD hives versus the non-CCD hives, then taking an average to determine bee count.

Second, are only domesticated bees being counted dead and alive?

As far as I know, yepp.

Third, are only certain types of domesticated bees being counted dead or alive?

No. The research I learned about was being done in California, Alabama, Kansas, Szechuan province, Lithuania & Latvia, South Africa and Brazil, and seemed to be a fairly good cross-section of (again) domesticated bees from many different bee-farms and permanently sited apiaries.

Forth, how have the numbers and ratio of both domesticated and non-domesticated bees changed in the last 20 years; year by year?

Good question. The people I know about, again, weren't dealing with non-domesticated.

Fifth, how can one count the numbers of non-domesticated bees?

Exactly the problem. Trying to capture a sample of non-domesticated bees is like trying to determine the number of dolphins in the world's oceans by sampling 10 cubic metres of water in the Adriatic. Where do you start?

Good questions, and it points out some problems with this research. The worst example I was told of was a university in California who had published a study generalising CCD by looking at a single bee provider's hives. That's the sort of science most researchers in this area are (I hope) trying to avoid.

[cmacq]

Tamur

Thanks for your very good answers. I was just talking about this issue yesterday, with a fellow archaeologist. Please, based on your insight what is your opinion?

[Tamur]

Well, there certainly isn't a bullet-proof theory on the table at the moment. I'd love to say I don't have my own pet theory, but what sort of an interested party could hear about this and not pick some side as a favourite?

So...

I don't go in for the infection theories. It seems like that is a symptom, not a cause. Instead I think the cause is environmental.

There are many areas of the world which haven't been affected but which have received bees from the same farms (in Australia) that have significant collapsed in the US. The fact that most of the collapses happen in the US is certainly intriguing.

In less affected parts of the world, bees arrive and are sited permanently or only moved short distances. The US, on the other hand, has many bee farmers who move their bees six or more times per growing season, over thousands of miles. There are holes in this theory just like every other one (e.g. why don't all heavily-moved hives collapse?), but I tend to think that aggressive agribusiness in the US plays a significant (if unwitting) role.

But that is definitely a personal view after hearing about the two dozen other theories.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

The fact that most of the collapses happen in the US is certainly intriguing.

All the handguns?

Why would shifting the bees around them cause their disappearance?

[cmacq]

All the handguns?

Why would shifting the bees around them cause their disappearance?

I don't think that the word disappearance was actually used? Still, there are a few things here that don't seem to add up. Knowing what I do about the American political system of granting federal money, I assumed that the problem, was centered in the US. Again, I return to the possibility that this is yet another 'Fund Raiser?'

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I don't know really. According to wikipedia, it's as if the colony just lost its adult population without further indications of the cause.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_Collapse_Disorder

[cmacq]

Right,
but you will soon learn that very very very often the words and the numbers do not match up; or that the raw data doesn't support the conclusion. Get use to it, as in some scientific disciplines, this scenario is more common than not.