Agreed. Bees are having a tough enough time as it is. They're dissapearing at an alarming rate. And if our top pollinators go extinct, pretty much everything else follows suit. Including us. Please don't kill the bees. And yes, keep your Ts away from the spray. Better safe than sorry.
agreed and 2nd this 312% we had a guy down the block from some family friends in southern MO. yell for me because he knew i kept herps and scorps [fam dont know about T's they are afraid of them] and had me "come down to remove them.." yea no.. lmao i found out what they was and was a bee not a hornet like he said.. well a simple look on craigslist typically will fix this situation. within 5mins i was on the phone with a local breeder and seller and told them what the problem was and he came over and did it.. no charge. some make you pay like 100 bucks if they hafta cut into the house or in a tree. but most will just take the bees as payment. [they can sell queens, sell honey and use the honeycomb for stuff, thats gold!] heck once they smoked them all out and put them in a travel container with alot of the hive. he even broke off some of the honey comb for us to eat brought us all up a 3x3 chunk and said "here try this, itl be the best thing youv ever had in your life" :drool: gotta love these people lmao
man that's cool. I recently discovered the joys of raw unfiltered comb honey. I LOVE eating the comb! so yummy.. I can't even imagine how awesome it would be to be able to harvest honey and honey comb from a wild hive!
i think its safe to say... its the bees knees ;D.. im built like a bear so it makes it almost tempting to just try and steal some from a tree next time i see bees XD mmm itd be worth it XD.. and the comb itself :love: chew it like gum yumm.. and so much healthier XD
Honey is a major sponser of what??The whole reason the media freaks out, is because honey is sold by many of their sponsors
i do believe your right, tho i personally dont condone killing a bee. just because its not like its a wasp its not realy going to bother you, you can safely relocate it.. but your right the crops we have dont need much more pollination then wind, tho some plants to need a bee, but i mean we COULD live without them.. but that doesnt mean we should if we can prevent it.. i think the honey bee thing is more along the line of other animals, including ourselfs are depleating its natural environment and resources.. similar to african bees doings? they are said to be beating our honey bees out of teritory much like you said about euopean and not to mention they are a bit more dangerous then a honey bee... id happily let honey bees live near my house, so long as it wasnt near my T room lol but african bees? no thank you ^_^While honey bees are definitely a welcome part of agriculture, the human race does just fine without them. Many of the major crops we rely on dont even have pollinators, except for wind.
Personally, i feel the whole honey-bee alarmism is just childish and ignorant. The european honeybee is an invasive species in most of its range, and they out-compete the smaller native species for pollen and nectar.
The whole reason the media freaks out, is because honey is sold by many of their sponsors
While honey bees are definitely a welcome part of agriculture, the human race does just fine without them. Many of the major crops we rely on dont even have pollinators, except for wind.
Personally, i feel the whole honey-bee alarmism is just childish and ignorant. The european honeybee is an invasive species in most of its range, and they out-compete the smaller native species for pollen and nectar.
The whole reason the media freaks out, is because honey is sold by many of their sponsors
We are the reason for all of the problems on this planet. We're its only inhabitant that does it and its other inhabitants un-natural harm.
How unfortunate of you to have assumed I know nothing about hymenoptera. Here is a short list of food plants honeybees do NOT pollinate, and/or arent required to pollinate:
I think I accused you of making one of the most ridiculous statements I've ever heard as a farmer and beekeeper. That still stands. What you assume to know I wouldn't even care to waste time guessing about. For the record tossing out the scientific classification order and a handful of facts randomly gleaned from google isn't really impressive .How unfortunate of you to have assumed I know nothing about hymenoptera. Here is a short list of food plants honeybees do NOT pollinate, and/or arent required to pollinate:
Grasses (rice, oats, wheat, other grains) - Wind pollinated
Solanum (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant, tomatillos)
Prickly pear (mostly pollinated by birds and mammals)
Apples, oranges, cherries, other rosids (pollinated by many bee and wasp genera other than Apis)
While I do enjoy honey, the alarmism that suggests we'll die without honeybees is ridiculous in its entirety. We evolved without this genus of bees for millions of years. While honey is definitely important for people who really do rely on it, in regions where sugar is nearly impossible to obtain, we do not need honeybees.. Ive seen many posts like this, I know beekeepers. Many admit that the whole bee hysteria is simply for commercial purposes. If you could afford it, you could just use people to pollinate, ya know, like how everyone hires migrant workers to pick fruit?
When I say sponsors, i mean corporate entities that supply honey. Many big businesses and farms sell honey, and supermarkets like ralphs, stater bros., and their ilk all sponsor media outlets, who, in turn, attempt to scare the general population to ensure they do their part for the bees. (lol) I do enjoy how you listed almonds as an example, which wasnt really necessary, as they're one of the few commercial fruits that actually DO rely on the genus Apis, which is native to their natural range, however that proves you largely ignored my post and emphasis on native species.
Now with this out of the way, here is a list of animals that regularly pollinate just as effectively as honeybees:
#1- Hundreds of genera of true bees native to the USA
#2- Birds - Many species of birds have a fondness for nectar, doves and pigeons are a good example, as they're important pollinators of many plants.
#3- Wasps
#4- spiders- Yes, you read that right- many spiders are known for being fond of nectar, especially salticidae and sac spiders, and pollinate many plants.
#4- flies. millions of them.
Now, this list seems small, but when you count the individual genera within these families, that's quite an enormous list, especially considering native US bees are incredibly diverse.
I had predicted this response, but I'm pleasantly surprised you hadn't relied on the old einstein quote. hahaha.
And no, we arent the reason for all the problems on this planet. What a horrible claim. Invasive species have caused extinction events long before humans arrived. When the oceans receded and north and south america were connected, many north american species invaded south america, wiping out the native fauna. The planet is cyclical, events come and go. The planet's worst enemy is itself. Ever heard of the permian extinction event?
I will however assume you're neither a farmer nor beekeeper. Otherwise you'd know how significant honey bees are to some of the crops you listed like apples, cherries, and oranges. You do realize bees are brought in for pollination to increase production yields on some of those crops you listed... Right? Farmers are fickle, we're not going to pay someone for nothing. If we relied on those natural species like you suggest there wouldn't be nearly enough to go around. Or what was going around would be financially out of reach. That's a mankind problem btw. Personally, I'm glad apples aren't $30 a bag. Is that a scare tactic? Nope, that's fact.
That extinction event is what made human existence possible. Alarmism.. LOLI think I accused you of making one of the most ridiculous statements I've ever heard as a farmer and beekeeper. That still stands. What you assume to know I wouldn't even care to waste time guessing about. For the record tossing out the scientific classification order and a handful of facts randomly gleaned from google isn't really impressive .
There's plenty of reasons to be alarmed about the decline of honey bees. Either you enjoy just shouting hogwash at things you don't understand or care about or you're confused. Although our human existence may not symbiotically depend on honey bees living or dying you're missing the point entirely. Without them yields of 33.33333333333333% of the food most of us eat daily would decrease dramatically. Even suggesting we could hire people to do what bees do on a global scale is hilarious to me. I have no idea what you do for a living but I'll tell you something about manual labor. It's not fun. It's also not easy as an employer to find others who are willing to do it. Immigrants or otherwise. Do you also realize that hand pollination is done because they've destroyed the natural pollinators along with their habitat? It's something they have to do because honey bees and other natural pollinators can't sustain themselves. It's not something they want to do.
You're so misinformed about who and where big corporations get their "honey" from I'm not even going to waste my time with a response. Educate yourself please. You want to know what the general public thinks about bees? Go sell honey with a beekeeper. There's no mass hysteria or media scare tactics. The average person knows nothing about honey bees. Heck, most of them can't tell the difference between a honey bee and a yellow jacket. They know they like honey and know honey bees make it. And that's all most of them want to know. Maybe 1 out of 5 have heard honey bees are on the decline. Out of those 1 in 5 maybe 1 in 25 actually want to know why. Out of those 25 maybe 1 in 100 are concerned. Out of those 100 maybe 1 in .00001 actually make an effort to help or become beekeepers. Fact is, besides beekeepers folks don't normally care about bees. We should though, we can learn a lot from them.
Again. Misinformed. Not a single one of those (including humans) can pollinate on the level of one hive of honey bees. It's nonsense to even suggest it.
But indeed we are. Invasive species for instance. In our history 9 times out of 10 how are those invasive species spread? Mankind. Really? Continental drift, receding oceans, and a extinction event millions of years ago that we can only speculate on is your best argument against mankinds very recent and phenomenally altering effect on our environment?
BTW... Apologies to the mods and thread starter for continuing to veer off topic. I'll gladly take the honey bee talk somewhere else and discuss it until I'm blue in the face if needed.
