Among many other things I also am a hobby beekeeper, I began in 2001, had between 2 and 10 populations. Lost my populations several years in a row, a few times it was my fault, beginners’ mistakes, the other losses remain unexplained, even with support by my beekeeping patron (German Web site). I have yet to gain some money, optimism, and energy to purchase new populations and start anew.
What I do know is that European beekeepers had to bear severe losses in the past ten years. Neocotinoids and a few other pesticids are the most probable cause, probably in co-operation with the Varroa mite and other parasites, as well as with industrialized farming and monocultures.
The Neonicotinoids are especially evil … pharma industry apparently just tested for direct lethality, but AFAIK what seems to happen is this: worker bees collecting nectar get in contact with this stuff and then they lose their geo-/topographical memory, they don’t find their way home.
Other problems are that the bees are often treated very badly, especially in the US where many beekeepers are pollinator beekeepers, i.e. they earn their money by hauling around thousands (!) of populations on huge trucks, from one orchard to the other, they don't care sh!t about the bees themselves (and they don’t produce honey) … I’ve seen a documentary and I almost puked when they opened the bee box, it was black and dirty … but the problem is that the bees can’t escape without their (caged or with cut wings) Queen. So, the bees also die of many diseases and of “plain” stress. Honey bees don’t wander around, a population is stationary, it is only when they multiply that the old Queen swarms together with most of the flying staff and leaves the old hive to the new Queen, the brood, all younger maintenance and nursery worker bees and a few older forager bees. But nowadays almost every beekeeper who needs to make a living from this has to move his populations around a lot, thus forcing the bees to take what’s there where he puts them instead of choosing for themselves.
And, there are no wild honey bees any more. There are a lot of bee species, Giant bees and Dwarf bees, etc. (social) and lots of solitary bees, but THE honey bee is a certain species which AFAIK is the most industrious regular pollinator worldwide. And for why this is so … 1. only social bees transform nectar to honey, 2. only these are reliable pollinators because only these are … what's the English for “blütenstet” … if they visit cherry, the visit cherry and nothing else, if they visit apple, they only visit apple. If it weren’t this way, there would be no pollination guarantee, but where there are honey bees, orchards and fields with flowers depending on insect pollination bear splendid fruit.
Well … I’m getting into a deadlock now: I feel this urge to share everything I know about the honey bee and the pending disaster but it’s late, I’m tired, partially I’ll be preaching to the choir and partially I’ll talk to closed ears. So, no, enough for here and now.
Dear Magicwand, I don’t know about your reality bubble, but in my reality bubble there are serious things happening on the planet. Life and ecosystems are very fragile systems, dynamic equlibria, and if you say “My feeling …” I have the inner image of somebody driving towards a crossing at high speed and closing their eyes, saying, “My feeling says it will work out well”. Are you aware of how much crop depends on reliable pollination? You know what pollen is, do you? This birds and bees thing, it’s not really about human sex
BTW it’s not only bees that are dying, read about amphibians. We live at a time where more and more species are endangered, with many going extinct every day, more than new species are arising, and a healthy ecosystem depends on variety, on multitudes of interaction.
Ach, sche!ße.
Greetings, Tom
