Government tells beekeepers to buzz off

[snoopy369]

Hmm, you're right.

Darn experts

[GePap]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Nope. Cross breeding normally produces more killer bees since the killer part is dominant. It's the main reason why two African bee queens could be released in Brazil in the 1950's and today Africanized bees have become the main type of bee in Latin America.

I am with Snoopy and the experts on this. Hell, just saw a show about this in the last month. The attempts are to crossbreed already africanized bees with other bees in Controlled environments.

[snoopy369]

I looked up some papers on this and it looks like that's not true, unless it's a very recent development... but if it is,

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by UnOrthOdOx

The whole "Pollination will cease and we'll all starve" nonsense is pretty naive as well. Native north american species actually polinate much more efficiently than the honeybees. You just don't get enough honey to make them economical for that reason. But if faced with a crisis of polination, they'ld do the job.

(entomology is a hobby)

There are no native North American species. Our honeybees were brought over from England by the Jamestown colonists.

[UnOrthOdOx]

:sigh:

It's not exactly "normal crossbreeding", but it's a way to manage africanization.

http://bees.ucr.edu/sinaloa.html

Queen rearing is probably the key innovation. Mr. Sosa, Mr. Pompa, and the other beekeepers we visited now have queen rearing operations, and stated that a beekeeper has to be a queen rearer. They estimate that it is necessary to rear about one new queen per year per hive managed. Queen rearing enables beekeepers to use colonies headed by a pure European queen, mated to local drones. As a result, the worker bees, who are the offspring of the queen and her mates, are a mixture of pure European bees and hybrids. Because honey bee queens mate with 10-20 males, each colony probably contains a mixture of both types of workers. Approximately two thirds of the colonies headed by these queens are reasonably "gentle" (though not as gentle as most pure European colonies). One third are manageable but exhibit undesirable Africanized bee qualities (excessive defensiveness, excessive brood rearing at the expense of honey storage). These can be identified during routine hive management and given a replacement queen that the beekeeper has reared.

So, crossbred is not entirely the right term (I'm not sure there is one), as it requires constant influx of more European lines. But, the colonies thus managed have displayed better resistance to disease and parasites, and have thus far been immune to CCD. With the drawbacks of not being quite as high in honey production and being more aggressive than pure european lines.

[Sandman]

Other things besides bees pollenate, flies and moths for example.

I tend to agree that the focus should be on producing more rugged bees, rather than fragile, dependent ones. If the price of honey goes up, tough.

[UnOrthOdOx]

Originally posted by Zkribbler


There are no native North American species. Our honeybees were brought over from England by the Jamestown colonists.

There indeed are no native HONEYbees.

There are, however, bumblebees, which a lot of folks confuse with an actual honeybee. These form colonies similar to honeybees, but much smaller size.

They work harder, pollinate faster, and at a lower temp than honeybees do, and can be managed and kept using the same practices as european honeybees. I kept 2 hives myself when I was 12-15, and pollinated 2 local farms with them. One assorted vegetables, one potato farm.

[VetLegion]

The problem with breeding with the Native American bees is that the Native American bees completely lack the genes that cause them to hoard honey, they only produce what they need.

Those are bees Ajahn Brahm would like

[Berzerker]

bumblebees

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by UnOrthOdOx

They work harder, pollinate faster ...

I didn't know that! My sister's first husband was a beekeeper. Thus, I know the real money isn't in honey but in pollination. (I wonder if he knows about the pollination power of bumblebees....I wonder where he is?)

[Wezil]

Killer bees

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by VetLegion

The problem with breeding with the Native American bees is that the Native American bees completely lack the genes that cause them to hoard honey, they only produce what they need.

Those are bees Ajahn Brahm would like

[Theben]

As a result, the worker bees, who are the offspring of the queen and her mates, are a mixture of pure European bees and hybrids. Because honey bee queens mate with 10-20 males, each colony probably contains a mixture of both types of workers.

They're after our women!!!

And they're taking all the jobs!!!!

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Theben
And they're taking all the jobs!!!!

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by DanS
Never said it was a problem. But there's nothing alarming when the government says no.

Since when have we all become appendages of the government? Have we lost all sense of civil society?

Teh government is civil society.