[ExI] bees again

[Dave Sill]

Check out:

  https://www.google.com/search?q=honey+bee+phenology&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

For a list of bee-tracking activities.

-Dave


On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 6:46 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

>
>
> Knowing that I am a follower of bees, a friend sent me this excellent
> article:
>
>
>
>
> http://news.sciencemag.org/plants-animals/2015/05/new-white-house-pollinator-plan-gives-big-buzz-science?utm_campaign=email-news-latest&utm_src=email
>
>
>
> Back story and an update: we had a group doing informal bee observations
> for several years.  That project came to a sudden end in 2012 when the head
> of that project suffered a personal tragedy and signed off; the dataset was
> lost.  Only a few days later, on New Year’s Day 2013 I saw the biggest mass
> bee death I had witnessed.  I collected about 100 of the dead bees and
> attempted to dissect them for tracheal mites, but my skills proved
> insufficient, for I was unable to see anything with my home microscope.  I
> saw no varroa mites either, or any obvious external distress such as
> tattered wings or indications of injury.
>
>
>
> In a typical season I see about 20-30 dead bees.  I saw about 100 that one
> day.  The spring 2014 bee season I saw far fewer bees than in any season
> before; I saw more Carpenter bees and bumblebees (and other minority
> pollinators) than I saw honeybees.  That was the only season I witnessed
> that.
>
>
>
> Update:
>
>
>
> Now to this year: I see a puzzling paradox.  I have seen more bees this
> spring than usual, perhaps a 1-sigma heavy bee season, but I have seen far
> more bee deaths this year than in any year for about the last 10.  I have
> seen about 150 bees dead or dying this season.  The pattern didn’t match
> the spring 2013 observation, where it was 100 bees all in one location at
> one time.  This year I have noticed a lot of dead or dying bees, all in
> different places and times, where the ones still living appear too weak to
> fly.  This suggests starvation, which is entirely possible considering the
> heavy population this year.  In the dying or dead bees I have examined, I
> saw no indications of trauma or age-related distress.
>
>
>
> It isn’t clear what to think, but now I regret that no one (particularly
> me) got off his lazy butt and set up a website or something to collect
> observations, to step up when Queen Bee stood down.  I suppose I can claim
> I have taken the first steps, by reserving a domain and viewing the HTML
> lectures on Khan Academy.  So at least I now know how to set up a website,
> but haven’t done it yet, oy vey.
>
>
>
> spike
>
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>
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