Any international report on the state of the Bees about?

A report from earlier this year linking the decline to reduced plant diversity in the environment:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8467746.stm

Just updating on bees, no astrology here; in a recent Nexus-magazine the collaps of bee-hives was linked to genetically manipulated crops: as the plant has a changed metabolism, bees feeding on its nectar and pollen will acquire a different metabolism as well, and maybe one that attacks their immunity. If that would be (part of) the truth, let's hope we can stop the spreading gm-crops - if at all possible!
Luckily, when the sun shines (which is rather seldom lately) in our city-garden there are still plenty of bees and little bumble-bees. I love to sit among the flowers with all the buzzing going on, and so does our little cat, chasing after the bees (luckily they 're too fast for him, hehe).

New discovery explains death of Bee-colonies

A small research team from California has shown that the fly Apocephalus borealis , a parasite before known to attack bumblebees and wasps also attack honey bees by planting an egg in them.

The Norwegian researcher Gro Amdam, a professor at Arizona State University, USA has conducted research on bees, and is among the many biologists and farmers who now cast themselves over the discovery.

- The last ten years, the U.S. business of commercial honey bees in a very energetic syrup, not unlike the junk food for people, before they are forced to pollinate new crops. The combination of transport as the bees do not like, and this potential fails the industry can reduce the bees' defense in the face with parasites, says Gro Amdam to Aftenposten.no

I haven't yet had time to look at the astrology of the new developments, but now seems like a good opportunity to update the thread.

Source: Aftenposten

I'd say it would be more to do with the pesticides being used on crops now and, as usual, Monsanto are right in the thick of it:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... redspecies

Thanks for the link to The Guardian!

This thread was started by Deb in August 2009. Pluto was in the 1st degree of Capricorn. Anything regarding polution in the soil, Earth's cust, atmosphere, the breaking down of immune defence system or imbalance in nature could be indicated, I suppose. Hardly a surprise many would say, and how many warnings haven't been given that Mother Nature was likely to react.

Some of the things the scientists have discovered, these are like questions children (infants) would ask. "Don't the Bees react to having their honey taken away from them and replaced with sugar? Don't they get ill from all the poison on the plants?"

stupid headline, but very interesting article, Granny

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/pa ... 58832.html

By Eric Pfeiffer
A fly parasite is being blamed for an epidemic that has struck the honey bee population around the world. The parasite nests in the stomach of the bees and causes them to walk in circles, sometimes pursuing bright lights, before eventually dying.
The Parasitic Phorid Fly Apocephalus borealis is responsible for the zombie transformation, laying its eggs inside the abdomen of the honey bee.
"When we observed the bees for some time, the ones that were alive, we found that they walked around in circles, often with no sense of direction," said San Francisco State University's Andrew Core lead author on the bee parasite study in the journal Plos One.
Bees usually just sit in one place, sometimes curling up before they die, said Core. But the parasitised bees were still alive, unable to stand up on their legs.
"They kept stretching them out and then falling over," he said. "It really painted a picture of something like a zombie."
And while the parasite may be causing immense damage to the honey bees population, there is an upside to their discovery, according to the Mirror, "Scientists discovered the parasite by accident but they believe it may help them discover what is causing colony collapse disorder which is devastating honey bees in Europe and America cutting some populations in half."
The parasite is believed to be new and similar to one currently affecting the bumblebee population. Scientists are still figuring out exactly how the parasite works, but an early theory by San Francisco State Professor John Hafernik holds that the parasite changes the bees' "body clocks," which causes their erratic behavior and deaths.