<font color='black' size='2' face='arial'>Ive <font size="2">BEEn (groan) keeping a eye on local numbers since you<font size="2"> raised the bee issue a few years ago.<br>
<font size="2">The main reason was that <font size="2">w</font>e have a large number of solitary bees living in <font size="2">our g<font size="2">arden<font size="2"> and I raised <font size="2">the</font> question of such species increasing in number to fill the gap caused by hive collapse.<br>
All I can say is that <font size="2">the</font> numbers living </font></font></font></font></font></font><font size="2"><font size="2"><font size="2"><font size="2"><font size="2"><font size="2"><font size="2"><font size="2"><font size="2"><font size="2"><font size="2"><font size="2"><font size="2"><font size="2"><font size="2"><font size="2">outside have multiplied <font size="2"><font size="2">noticeably </font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font>in <font size="2">our wall<font size="2"> mortar</font>, screw<font size="2"> hole<font size="2">s under the table, keyholes,<font size="2">.....in fact any small hole they can find in anything, anywhere<font size="2"><font size="2">. <font size="2">I was <font size="2">surprised</font> to find about 20 <font size="2">little</font> mud <font size="2">cocoons</font> inside a<font size="2">n electrical switchbox I put on <font size="2">the</font> wall last year.</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><br>
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<div> Additionally I have been on <font size="2">the</font> war path hacking down Rhododendrons (invasive species here) which has greatly reduced the flowers <font size="2">available</font> to them. Its also been a terrible year for weather. So I was honestly expecting them to decline<font size="2"> but far from it.</font><br>
<font size="2">It would seem from my very limited observation t<font size="2">hat</font> <font size="2">the</font> numbers of solitaries is on the up<font size="2">. I wonder if th<font size="2">at is being reflected elsewhere?</font></font></font> tbh im also wondering where my be<font size="2">e</font>s are getting enough food<font size="2"> from?</font><br>
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<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:10pt;color:black">-----Original Message-----<br>
From: spike <spike66@att.net><br>
To: 'ExI chat list' <extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org><br>
Sent: Tue, 1 Jan 2013 22:58<br>
Subject: Re: [ExI] bees again<br>
<br>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">I sent this earlier today but it never went thru. Trying again. s</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"> spike [<a href="mailto:spike66@att.net?">mailto:spike66@att.net</a>] <br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, January 01, 2013 12:11 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> 'ExI chat list'<br>
<b>Subject:</b> bees again</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">Walking today I noticed a grouping of dead bees on the sidewalk, so I went home, returned with a clean Tupperware container, collected about fifty of them. I noticed they were almost all in a feet-down configuration as opposed to on their sides or feet-up. It wasn’t particularly cold last night, with a minimum of about 5C, or low 40s F, clear skies. All stingers were intact, no signs of trauma on the bees. Before I even made it all the way back home, I was surprised to see one bee was alive and apparently well, flying about inside the container. Now, about half an hour after I collected the lifeless bees, several of them (about eight) appear healthy, with another several demonstrating some sign of life, such as a moving leg. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">I don’t know what to make of it. I have never seen a bunch of bees just land in random patterns on the sidewalk like that and go into a deathlike dormancy. I was thinking of going up to Stanford, see if their entomologists had some suggestions, or go over to Lockheed, put them in our chemical spectral analyzer, see if we could detect neonicotinoids or something. Had these bees landed in the grass nearby, no one would have ever observed them. They would be just the colony which mysteriously disappeared.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">If anyone knows anyone who is interested in this, a local university or something, I am willing to mail the bees to them. Open to suggestion.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">spike</div>
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