Dave,
I've been swamped but I saw this post and thought wow.
Obviously the whole issue of phone transmissions effecting Bee's,
people or anything is intense, especially as we can't sense / feel it. Does it cause cancer?

I wish some holy hand grenades could help the Bees. Perhaps surround a colony
and see how it does compared to its neighbor.

cheers
revv

Well there is a theory now for what is killing the bees,
but it is not proven yet.
of course it could just be the big cover up : )

Well here is the article....

newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakin...icle.php

Clue discovered in mystery of vanishing bees

By Mira Oberman
Agence France-Presse

Posted date: September 07, 2007


CHICAGO -- A major clue has been discovered in the case of the disappearing bees which are vanishing by the billions from colonies across the United States, according to new research released Thursday.
No, it isn't radiation caused by cell phones, a change in flowering seasons because of global warming, poisons from genetically modified foods, or alien abductions, said researcher Diana Cox-Foster, who dismissed many of the theories bandied about since the bees began vanishing en masse last year.

But it could be partly due to a virus known as the Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV), unknowingly imported along with live bees from Australia and in royal jelly, a secretion produced by bees, imported from China, according to the study published Thursday in the online edition of Science magazine.

IAPV causes a bee's wings to shiver before it becomes paralyzed and dies, usually just outside the hive.

Researchers believe that the virus may have mutated in the United States or combined with other "stressors" to cause billions of worker bees to die while out foraging for food, the study says.

While the study's authors have not yet proven that the virus causes colony collapse disorder, they found that the presence of the virus in a bee colony helped predict colony collapse 96.1 percent of the time.

Because the virus was found in some healthy bee colonies, the scientists believe it is not acting alone.

Instead, they think colony collapse disorder is caused when a host of factors combine to weaken the worker bees.

A prime candidate is the varroa mite, a parasite that weakens the immune system of bees and is not present in Australia -- where colony collapse disorder has not been a problem despite the presence of IAPV.

"We are concerned about the amount of chemicals coming into colonies that may lead to further stress," Cox-Foster of Pennsylvania State University told reporters.

Another potential stressor is poor access to food due to recent droughts, she added.

Bee keepers first began noticing the sudden disappearance of their worker bees in 2004, shortly after live bee imports from Australia began.

They would open up the hives to find honeycombs filled with food reserves and capped broods but just a few newly emerged adults to attend to the queen.

Nearly a quarter of bee keeping operations across the country were hit by colony collapse over the past winter, claiming an average of 45 percent of their colonies.

The hardest-hit colonies are in large commercial operations which truck their bees across the country to pollinate the nation's fruit and vegetable crops.

Cheap, imported honey had already driven down the number of bee keeping operations in the United States and the spread of colony collapse disorder has raised concerns that there will not be enough bees to pollinate about 14.6 billion dollars worth of crops.

"We've been able to meet the pollinating needs so far but we don't have a large margin," said study co-author Dr. Jeff Pettis of the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) research service.

There are no plans to try to limit the movement of bee keeping operations in order to try to contain the spread of the disorder, he added.

"The value of pollinating and the need to move bees to crops in bloom outweighs the localization need," he said in a conference call with reporters.

And it probably wouldn't work even if they tried, he said.

"It's hard to control the movement of flying insects."

Instead, the USDA is considering a ban on imports from China and Australia and looking into breeding bees resistant to the virus, something Israel has already begun working on.

"We're not going to likely come up with a treatment for viruses in bees so we'll have to manage bee health," Pettis said, adding that the USDA is working with bee keepers to improve nutrition and reduce exposure to parasites and pesticides.

Dave,

A behavior which I have repeatedly observed in working day to day with 'scientists', is that, if one emplaces more than one scientist in a room to discuss one point, consensus is almost never attained. I've seen a few postings regarding the so-called "CCD" anomaly, over the past six months so I did (some small) research of the subject for a couple of weeks. While certainly in no mean stay, can one say that my little study is anything but cursory, it did illustrate, at least in my mind, that while there is something happening, it is not well understood by anyone, academically and otherwise.
.
So, with this point in mind please read the following re; so-called "CCD",

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Colony Collapse Disorder - CCD

Colony Collapse Disorder (or CCD) is a little-understood phenomenon in which worker bees of a beehive or Western honey bee colony abruptly disappear.

Current CCD was originally observed in Western honey bee colonies in North America in late 2006.[1] European beekeepers observed a similar phenomenon in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain[2], and initial reports have also come in from Switzerland and Germany, albeit to a lesser degree.[3] Possible cases of CCD have also been reported in Taiwan since April 2007.[4]

The cause (or causes) of the syndrome is not yet well understood. Theories include environmental change-related stresses,[5] malnutrition, pathogens (i.e., disease[6] including Israeli acute paralysis virus[7][8]), mites, pesticides such as neonicotinoids or imidacloprid, radiation from cellular phones or other man-made devices,[9] and genetically modified (GM) crops with pest control characteristics such as transgenic maize.[10] That the disappearances have almost exclusively been reported from a subset of the commercial beekeepers in affected areas (i.e., not feral colonies or organic beekeepers), suggests to some that beekeeping practices can be a primary factor.[11][12]

From 1971 through 2006, there was a dramatic reduction in the number of feral (wild) honeybees in the US (now almost absent;[13]) and a significant, though somewhat gradual decline in the number of colonies maintained by beekeepers. This decline includes the cumulative losses from all factors such as urbanization, pesticide use, tracheal and Varroa mites, and commercial beekeepers retiring and going out of business. However, late in the year 2006 and in early 2007 the rate of attrition was alleged to have reached new proportions, and the term "Colony Collapse Disorder" was proposed to describe this sudden rash of disappearances.[1]

Limited occurrences resembling CCD have been documented as early as 1896,[6][14] and this set of symptoms has in the past several decades been given many different names (disappearing disease, spring dwindle, May disease, autumn collapse, and fall dwindle disease[15]. Most recently, a similar phenomenon in the winter of 2004/2005 occurred, and was attributed to Varroa mites (the "Vampire Mite" scare), though this was never ultimately confirmed. In none of the past appearances of this syndrome has anyone been able to determine its cause(s). Upon recognition that the syndrome does not seem to be seasonally-restricted, and that it may not be a "disease" in the standard sense—that there may not be a specific causative agent—the syndrome was renamed.[16]"


To read the rest of the article see URL:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colo...e_Disorder

Love

tron


=============================


Bees, cell phone, and "holy hand grenades"
posted: Sat, April 28, 2007 - 4:03 PM
by Dave

We have all heard the latest scare about cell phones killing off the world's bees.
I have plenty of bees where I live but cell phones are blocked in my neighborhood by a slope.

Anyone having good results with placing "holy hand grenades" near cell phone towers?

===========================

Colony Collapse Disorder
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Have questions? Find out how to ask questions and get answers. •Jump to: navigation, search

Honey bees entering a beehive.Colony Collapse Disorder (or CCD) is a little-understood phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive or Western honey bee colony abruptly disappear.

CCD was originally found in Western honey bee colonies in North America in late 2006.[1] European beekeepers observed a similar phenomenon in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain[2], and initial reports have also come in from Switzerland and Germany, albeit to a lesser degree.[3] Possible cases of CCD have also been reported in Taiwan since April 2007.[4]

The cause (or causes) of the syndrome is not yet well understood. Theories include environmental change-related stresses,[5] malnutrition, pathogens (i.e., disease[6] including Israeli acute paralysis virus[7][8]), mites, pesticides such as neonicotinoids or imidacloprid, radiation from cellular phones or other man-made devices,[9] and genetically modified (GM) crops with pest control characteristics such as transgenic maize.[10] That the disappearances have almost exclusively been reported from a subset of the commercial beekeepers in affected areas (i.e., not feral colonies or organic beekeepers), suggests to some that beekeeping practices can be a primary factor.[11][12]

From 1971 through 2006, there was a dramatic reduction in the number of feral (wild) honeybees in the US (now almost absent;[13]) and a significant, though somewhat gradual decline in the number of colonies maintained by beekeepers. This decline includes the cumulative losses from all factors such as urbanization, pesticide use, tracheal and Varroa mites, and commercial beekeepers retiring and going out of business. However, late in the year 2006 and in early 2007 the rate of attrition was alleged to have reached new proportions, and the term "Colony Collapse Disorder" was proposed to describe this sudden rash of disappearances.[1]

Limited occurrences resembling CCD have been documented as early as 1896,[6][14] and this set of symptoms has in the past several decades been given many different names (disappearing disease, spring dwindle, May disease, autumn collapse, and fall dwindle disease[15]. Most recently, a similar phenomenon in the winter of 2004/2005 occurred, and was attributed to Varroa mites (the "Vampire Mite" scare), though this was never ultimately confirmed. In none of the past appearances of this syndrome has anyone been able to determine its cause(s). Upon recognition that the syndrome does not seem to be seasonally-restricted, and that it may not be a "disease" in the standard sense—that there may not be a specific causative agent—the syndrome was renamed.[16]











=============================


--------------------------------------------------

CELL PHONE RADIATION MAY BE KILLING BEES


Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame
for mysterious world wide 'colony collapse' of bees

By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross
Published: 15 April 2007

It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.

They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.

The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.

CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.

Other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west England, but the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insisted: "There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK."

The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".

No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites, pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks.

German research has long shown that bees' behaviour changes near power lines.
Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a "hint" to a possible cause.

Dr George Carlo, who headed a massive study by the US government and mobile phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the Nineties, said: "I am convinced the possibility is real."

The case against handsets:

Evidence of dangers to people from mobile phones is increasing. But proof is still lacking, largely because many of the biggest perils, such as cancer, take decades to show up.


Most research on cancer has so far proved inconclusive. But an official Finnish study found that people who used the phones for more than 10 years were 40 per cent more likely to get a brain tumour on the same side as they held the handset.

Equally alarming, blue-chip Swedish research revealed that radiation from mobile phones killed off brain cells, suggesting that today's teenagers could go senile in the prime of their lives.

Studies in India and the US have raised the possibility that men who use mobile phones heavily have reduced sperm counts. And, more prosaically, doctors have identified the condition of "text thumb", a form of RSI from constant texting.

Professor Sir William Stewart, who has headed two official inquiries, warned that children under eight should not use mobiles and made a series of safety recommendations, largely ignored by ministers.

Dave,

Reading the remainder of the article in Wikipedia I found additional interesting information.

Love

tron-ee

From URL (under "Electromagnetic Radiation" heading:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colo...e_Disorder

Enjoy....

"Electromagnetic Radiation and Mobile/Cordless phone radiation?

In April 2007, news of a University of Landau study appeared in major media, beginning with an article in "The Independent" that stated that the subject of the study was mobile phones and had related them to CCD.[9] Cellular phones were implicated by other media reports, but were in fact not covered in the study, and the Landau researchers have since emphatically disavowed any connection between their research, cell phones, and CCD, specifically indicating that the Independent article had misinterpreted their results and creating "a horror story".[70][71][72].

The 2006 University of Landau pilot study was looking for non-thermal effects of radio frequency ("RF") on honey bees (Apis mellifera carnica) and suggested that when bee hives have DECT cordless phone base stations embedded inside the hives (instrumentation telemetry), the close-range electromagnetic field ("EMF") may reduce the ability of bees to return to their hive; they also noticed a slight reduction in honeycomb weight in treated colonies.[73] In the course of their study, one half of their colonies broke down, including some of their controls which did not have DECT base stations embedded inside the hives.

The team's 2004 exploratory study on non-thermal effects on learning did not find any change in behavior due to RF exposure from the DECT base station operating at 1880-1900 MHz.[74]

Many possible biological effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic fields have been postulated but it is generally accepted that the most significant effects are thermal.[75] The amount of RF radiation routinely encountered by the general public is too low to produce significant heating or increased body temperature.[76]

At present the link of either cordless or cellular phones to CCD is entirely speculative, and no research has been done to suggest or demonstrate such a link between the two phenomena. Regardless, such an explanation is not compatible with the historical and present patterns of CCD appearance, which have been intermittent and sudden."