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Produce => Kept Animals => Topic started by: landimad on December 22, 2010, 11:52:47

Title: Hopefully!!!
Post by: landimad on December 22, 2010, 11:52:47
A cure has been found to assist in the decline of the Honey Bee population.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9306000/9306572.stm

Lets hope that these vital insects are helped back onto the road to recovery sooner rather than to late.
Title: Re: Hopefully!!!
Post by: Robert_Brenchley on December 22, 2010, 15:00:29
As the article points out, they're a very long way form a solution yet. I've always felt that natural resistance was the way to go, but we're a long way from getting that as well. The real problem isn't the mites so much as the viruses they carry, plus chemical pollution, environmental factors, and other pathogens.
Title: Re: Hopefully!!!
Post by: Mr Smith on December 22, 2010, 15:58:28


              Did the government ever get involved with any research in to the cause of this, because at the time it was making the national headlines and it could of been disastrous for agriculture and fruit growing, :)
Title: Re: Hopefully!!!
Post by: PurpleHeather on December 22, 2010, 17:31:49
Well it looks both speculative and hopeful.

All I can say is that there is tons of honey in the shops, it has not reached a price which is prohibitive (although certain honeys are overpriced) and all our fruits were abundant this summer.

So something is fertilising the flowers and somewhere is producing honey.
Title: Re: Hopefully!!!
Post by: Robert_Brenchley on December 22, 2010, 19:02:39
Research into bee viruses was pioneered here, but cutbacks led to both researchers involved losing their jobs. One of them is still around worlking on bees, I'm not sure what happened to the other.