Bees are under attack as a result of pesticides and disease, and they have been for the past decade. Apiculturists have been raising captive honey bees for commercial purposes to make up for a nearly one-third decline in honey bees. But what if pollination efforts could be causing issues?

New research has found that commercial bees may be causing unwanted side effects for wild bees and other wild insects.

A team of researchers publishing in the Journal of Applied Ecology, found diseases that start in commercial species may jump to more vulnerable wild species. Scientists at the University of Exeter, found that wild insects like bumble bees, wasps, ants, and butterflies may become ill as a result of diseases that non-native captive bees bring in from other places, reported TreeHugger. And when a new place doesn’t have experience with a disease, it has less or no resistance to it. It’s an unwanted result of trying to do a good thing.

Honey bees have been especially hit hard since bee keepers first reported a problem in 2006. One-third of bees have been hit with Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). The disease causes seemingly healthy honey bees to abandon their hives.

According to USDA Agricultural Research Service:

The main symptom of CCD is very low or no adult honey bees present in the hive but with a live queen and no dead honey bee bodies present. Often there is still honey in the hive, and immature bees (brood) are present. Varroa mites, a virus-transmitting parasite of honey bees, have frequently been found in hives hit by CCD.

Scientists think that a variety of issues could be at play here, causing the bees to get sick. A combination of pesticide exposure, parasitic mites, and an inadequate food supply may be causing the bees to disappear.

I wrote last month that President Obama has convened a group of experts to figure out how to save pollinators, namely honey bees. In June, the Obama Administration announced $8 million in funding for farmers and ranchers to establish safe habitats for honey bees who have been victimized by the onslaught of pesticide use.

The health of the honey bee population is a huge deal. Not only is the species at risk, bees also support a lucrative industry. Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion in crop value annually. Crops like tree nuts, berries, fruits, and vegetables depend on honey bee pollination. In California for example, 1.4 million colonies of honey bees are required in the almond industry.

There’s a lot we still have to learn about whether captive bees could really damage wild species, but one thing we know for sure is that the overuse of pesticides nationwide is one of the main reasons why this important pollinator started declining in the first place.

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Close up of a honey bee from Shuttershock

The post Could Captive Honey Bees Be Hurting Wild Bees? appeared first on EcoSalon.

The Center for Food Safety has launched an incredible video series called “Hollywood Food Voices.” First up in the series is Moby, the prolific songwriter, DJ, outspoken vegan…and now, you can add BBF, as in Bees’ Best Friend. Just watch Moby explain about the bees on his property and why protecting them is so important. It’s really heartwarming.  

Check out the Center for Food Safety’s website here.

Find Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

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The post His Name is Moby and He Speaks for the Bees [Video] appeared first on EcoSalon.

 We love bees.

Two years ago we told you how vandals had attacked bee hives at Hayes Valley Farm, San Francisco, resulting in the loss of over 60% of the resident bees. We’ve just heard it’s happened again, as part of a sustained campaign of vandalism over the last 2 weeks. If you want to show them a little support, you can reach them at the Facebook page for their nonprofit organization, SF Bee-Cause.

(Let’s hope they get a camera soon and catch these wretches before they do even more damage).

Bees, it barely needs to be said, are vital elements of the food cycle that keep us alive. Was Albert Einstein exaggerating when he said the end of bees would mean humanity had 4 years left before its own extinction? Let’s hope we never find out. In celebration of this incredible, species-saving creature, here are our best bee-related posts of the last 2 years, from beautifying honey therapy to the Chim Chimney backyard bee-keeping movement sweeping through London…

Check your local ordinances and if backyard beekeeping is legal in your area, determine where you’d put your hives. A sunny spot that’s not directly situated next to a recreational area like a picnic table or playground is ideal. It’s best to plant a hedge or put up some kind of barrier around your bee colonies to prevent vandalism, protect the hive from wind and induce the bees to fly upward when leaving the hive (rather than through your neighbor’s yard.) Speaking of neighbors, you’ll need to talk to them about your plans. As long as none of them are allergic to bees, a little bribery with some honey should put them at ease.

The Buzz On Backyard Beekeeping For Beginners

In the last two years, California’s crops were affected by a mysterious disappearance of bee hives. Known as Colony Collapse Disorder, the worker bees simply fly away and never return. Since October 2006, over 35% of the honey bee population in the United States has vanished. In some states, as many as 90% of bees have disappeared. Scientists don’t know what causes CCD, but theories range from stress due to travel (bees are trucked across thousands of miles, in some cases, to pollinate), or pesticide exposure. A case for local, organic food?

Mysterious Mass Deaths Redux

Recent history: Bees are dying all over the place, “colony collapse disorder” enters the national consciousness, a leaked EPA memo points to a particular pesticide, Army researchers enter the fray. In the midst of all of this news, just as it seems scientists might be closer to identifying the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder, a new mysterious bee die-off is happening – right now – in San Francisco.

I discovered this entirely by chance when I met a fellow cookbook author named Penni Wisner at a professional gathering. The day we met, she had just learned that the beehive in her Lower Castro San Francisco backyard had collapsed, practically overnight.  As she told the story of how the process unfolded, everyone in the room was swept away by the heartbreaking mystery of the hive’s demise.

Exclusive: EPA Ignores Its Own Science And Approves Bee-Killing Pesticide: Mysterious New Die-Off Unfolds

Brightly colored clothing might be fun for summer, but certain hues can bring bees buzzing. If you’re worried about yellow jackets don’t wear bright yellow, orange, florescent red or light blue.

How To ‘B’ At One With Backyard Bees

Conventional beekeepers place sheets made of plastic or wax in their hives for their honeybees to build upon, but the problem is, bees aren’t too fond of plastic and the wax is contaminated by chemicals and pesticides. The hexagonal cell pattern on the sheets is often too large, encouraging the growth of oversized bees that may gather more pollen and make more honey, but are also more susceptible to mites and thus require chemical treatment.

The Backwards Beekeepers – made up of Kirk Anderson, Charles Martin Simon and Michael Bush – believe that this just plain unnatural system is adding unnecessary stress to bee populations. Their own system relies on wood strips painted with chemical-free beeswax taken from their own previous harvests.

Backwards Beekeeping: Natural Care Of Feral Bees

It really started at age five when my grandmother slathered honey on my morning waffle. I distinctly remember my senses awakening. The scent of the honey mixed with the melting butter on the crisp waffle and then the flavor exploding in my mouth. I was hooked at that moment and somehow knew that bees would play an important role in my life. However, it wasn’t until about five years ago when a colony of bees built their home in my garden wall. When I learned that my landlord was set to exterminate them because he was told they were “killer bees,” I called a local beekeeper to help me move them from the garden wall to my newly purchased house. Many exterminators use the term “killer bees” as a scare tactic.

Q & A with Los Angeles beekeeper, Staci Valentine

According to the British Beekeepers Association, the number of registered Chim Chimney Beekeepers in central London has more than doubled within the past couple of years. There are over 2,500 hives and more than 700 beekeepers. The posh are in on it (the queen’s bees are kept at Buckingham Palace) as well as the middle class, who keep bees in allotments and on rooftops. The enthusiasm for London beekeeping and the resulting honey (considered to be among the best in the world) has prompted annual festivals, international beehive design competitions,eco products, and amendments to the school curriculum.

The Chim Chimney swarm has become so avid that last year the North London Beekeepers Association had to start turning away members. The Guardian calls it the latest environmental movement; we’re calling it the new chicken coop.

Chim Chimney Beekeeping: The New Homesteading

Want a centuries-old beauty trick? Tie on your sunbonnets and lean in. (Yes, now I am whispering.) Honey is the secret to everything. Okay, maybe not everything, but it comes pretty darn close. It’s the multi-tasker of natural beauty. Cleopatra made milk and honey baths infamous. Poppea, wife of Rome’s Emperor Nero, used milk and honey to maintain a youthful appearance. And best of all? It is everywhere and it is relatively cheap.

5 Reasons Why Honey Is The Ultimate Beauty Must-Have

Among its clearly outlined beliefs and commitments, Burt’s Bees believes that natural products should be 100 percent natural. Together with the Natural Products Association and other leading Natural Personal Care Companies, Burt’s pioneered The Natural Standard for Personal Care Products, a set of guidelines that helps to define what a “natural” personal care product is and what it is not. Products that fill the bill are branded with a Natural Seal, which indicates that the product has met guidelines related to natural ingredients, safety, animal testing, and packaging. While only half of Burt’s Bees’ existing products qualify as 100 percent natural, the company is open about working toward complicity across the entire product line, and each product’s “percent natural” is clearly indicated on its packaging.

Burt’s Bees also works to ensure safe working conditions in the sourcing of its ingredients, maintain a strong stand against animal testing, and use packaging made with high levels of post consumer recycled materials. The company also pledges at least 10 percent of all burtsbees.com sales revenue to partners through The Burt’s Bees Greater Good Foundation.

Behind The Label: Burt’s Bees

Images: Don Hankins, aussiegal, gregav, hr.icio, Mike Baird, Staci Valentine, vickyb, and alsjhc.

The post From The Vault: Let It Bee appeared first on EcoSalon.

Homeowners and apartment dwellers on both sides of the Atlantic are dipping into the yummy hives of bees.

While Homesteaders on our own turf continue to battle it out over naming rights, urban nature dwellers in Britain are taking “local” and “self-sufficiency” to new heights: their rooftops. It’s a trend that’s migrating stateside, but remember you heard it here first. We’re calling it Chim Chimney Beekeeping®.

As a thank you for reading us each day, you’re free to dump the ®.

Here’s how it all started.

In 2008, the British Beekeepers Association reported that the UK bee population had plummeted by as much as a third, citing causes like parasites, insecticides, loss of flowering plants and pollution. In the United States, meanwhile, we’ve been scratching our heads at the mysterious disappearance of bees as well, a condition that we’ve dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder.

It’s a very serious problem worldwide as bees are responsible for pollinating about a third of the world’s food supply. Unless we want to subsist on wind-pollinated foods like wheat, rice, oats and acorns, we need them in our backyards.

The English, renowned for their stiff upper lips, best foot forward, and superlative gardens, have responded by cultivating thriving Chim Chimney Beekeeping communities. UK-wide, there’s an estimated 274,000 bee colonies that produce more than 6000 tons of honey each year with some 44,000 beekeepers managing them; the biggest buzz, though, is happening in London.

According to the British Beekeepers Association, the number of registered Chim Chimney Beekeepers in central London has more than doubled within the past couple of years. There are over 2,500 hives and more than 700 beekeepers. The posh are in on it (the queen’s bees are kept at Buckingham Palace) as well as the middle class, who keep bees in allotments and on rooftops. The enthusiasm for London beekeeping and the resulting honey (considered to be among the best in the world) has prompted annual festivals, international beehive design competitions, eco products, and amendments to the school curriculum.

The Chim Chimney swarm has become so avid that last year the North London Beekeepers Association had to start turning away members. The Guardian calls it the latest environmental movement; we’re calling it the new chicken coop.

Stateside, a city ordinance banning Chim Chimney Beekeeping in New York was overturned last year. Now more than 100 people are keeping hives of their own. Queens, in particular, has become the city’s honey haven having hosted the first ever inter-borough honey festival in the Rockaways last month.

Hoteliers in Boston have also taken it up. The InterContinental Boston houses about 120,000 honeybees on their rooftop apiary. And in Chicago, there are about 4,000 registered beekeepers.

From our vantage, the Chim Chimney trend is one to watch. It’s beneficial to urban dwellers as it’s a kind of Zen and the Art of Beekeeping pursuit. More importantly, it’s good for the bees. City pollinators fare better than rural ones because of the increased range of forage and relative lack of pesticides. It just might be the solution to our global bee conundrum.

Images: The Telegraph; Capital Growth

The post Chim Chimney Beekeeping: The New Homesteading appeared first on EcoSalon.