Honestly, from the stance of a hobby beekeeper, I feel like a lot of people don't actually understand how commercial beekeeping functions.
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You will suffer loses from pesticides. But as hobby keepers, we have had 0 loses that appear as result from pesticides.
You will suffer loses from mites. But most hobby keepers know to use stock of Russian/Russian-Mix origin as well as a screen bottom board to curb the effects of both Tracheal and Varroa.
But what I don't think many people realize are the problems with a lot of commercial apiaries. Many of them have no care as to what losses they suffer. The way they farm the bees leads to loss. Many of them go about farming with high yield honey producers that lack natural defense to mites. They medicate the hives, and the mites eventually reproduce for resistance. They truck the bees in to farms to pollinate crops covered in pesticides. They strip the hives of all the pollen and honey on a regular basis and it causes the bees to starve.
In general it is that irresponsible apiaries cause their own losses. As far as the drop in wild bees, that was brought on during the 90s when Varroa and Tracheal were still fresh to the US. Beekeepers exposed wild bees to mites. Most died out, but they did learn something from surviving colonies. The hives found in hollow trees, generally, survived mite infestation. When brood hatched, the mites fell to the ground inside the dead trees and were unable to hitch rides onto healthy bees to get to new larva.(thus the birth of screen bottom boards)
I think many need not worry about the extinction of bees, hobby beekeeping has exploded recently. It was at one point, a few years back, on a sharp decline. Primarily due to the lack of beekeepers willing to change their methods, or stick with the loss of hives with mites. But in the past 10 years Russian bees have been made available throughout the US and have greatly improved the outlook.
Quote:
You will suffer loses from pesticides. But as hobby keepers, we have had 0 loses that appear as result from pesticides.
You will suffer loses from mites. But most hobby keepers know to use stock of Russian/Russian-Mix origin as well as a screen bottom board to curb the effects of both Tracheal and Varroa.
But what I don't think many people realize are the problems with a lot of commercial apiaries. Many of them have no care as to what losses they suffer. The way they farm the bees leads to loss. Many of them go about farming with high yield honey producers that lack natural defense to mites. They medicate the hives, and the mites eventually reproduce for resistance. They truck the bees in to farms to pollinate crops covered in pesticides. They strip the hives of all the pollen and honey on a regular basis and it causes the bees to starve.
In general it is that irresponsible apiaries cause their own losses. As far as the drop in wild bees, that was brought on during the 90s when Varroa and Tracheal were still fresh to the US. Beekeepers exposed wild bees to mites. Most died out, but they did learn something from surviving colonies. The hives found in hollow trees, generally, survived mite infestation. When brood hatched, the mites fell to the ground inside the dead trees and were unable to hitch rides onto healthy bees to get to new larva.(thus the birth of screen bottom boards)
I think many need not worry about the extinction of bees, hobby beekeeping has exploded recently. It was at one point, a few years back, on a sharp decline. Primarily due to the lack of beekeepers willing to change their methods, or stick with the loss of hives with mites. But in the past 10 years Russian bees have been made available throughout the US and have greatly improved the outlook.
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