<i>"Fascinating article I didn't know there was such a large business in a renta-bee-pollinations."</i> Beekeeping is one of those myriad little niche industries no one ever thinks about. The big commercial beekeepers have 2,000 to 10,000 hive colonies. Each hive has 20,000 to 60,000 bees in a colony. Moving 400 of those at a time involves forklifts, flatbed trucks and working at night. Last week sometime, one of those trucks overturned on a freeway in California. Made national news. Some of the big commericals run five - ten trucks of 400 hives per at a time. Those bee farms ship hives up and down the coast, early spring thru late summer pollinating at $100 to $200 per box each stop. Drop them off, pick them up two - four weeks later, on to the next stop. Blueberries and cranberries in the north, strawberries and melons in the south, fruit orchards all over, pecans in particular for California. Honey produced is sold in bulk to packagers by 55 gallon drums. Bee pollen, wax and propolis (bee glue) are by-products. Selling starter packages of bees for $75 - $100 and queens for $20 to $100 are also sideline income. Big beekeepers could easily clear high six to mid-seven figures per year with a handful of family workers and some seasonal employees. Big produce farms and orchards depend on those guys for pollination, or their production = income suffers. The beekeepers who come up with strains of bees that can withstand current pestilence & stress are poised to reap big rewards. Bees multiply quickly, the problem today is keeping them alive more than one year. Accomplish that, raise 2000 ~ 5000 hives of hardy strain and a small operation can reasonably expect to earn $250k to $1mil or so at today's prices for pollination, package bee sales and honey / wax byproducts. Trust me... there are motivated people out there searching for solutions from all angles. Chances for a total honeybee collapse exist and are real, but it's not like everyone is standing around idle at the scene. Expect there to be solutions that will save bees... just at a much higher cost of production, passed along to the consumer at every stop as usual. That's enough bee facts in a trading forum. Let's get ready for a productive week in our respective charts
Haha, Are you capable of making a post without blaming Bush for every single problem on earth? Everyone already knows hes a crappy president. Let me guess, the bees (especially Canadian bees) liked the Clintons better, right?
Thanks for the highly educational and well written posts. I think I learned more about bees from your posts, than I learned during my undergraduate studies in Biology. Thanks again, and good trading to you. - Spydertrader
The organic beekeepers are reporting zero Colony Collapse Disorder. The big commercial units are using pesticides inside the hives, feeding bees antibiotics, stressing the bees further by trucking them all over, etc. Bees are being pushed beyond their natural limits. Their immune systems are stressed and cannot fight mites and pathogens like they once were able to. http://www.informationliberation.com/index.php?id=21912
http://www.helenair.com/articles/2007/03/18/business_top/e01031807_01.txt A little better article than the CBS gotcha journalism. Threads like this are a lot like New traders. All emotion Being in the aerial application business, dealing with bees on a daily basis, I am concerned over this. Hopefully they do find the cause whatever it may be. If its the nicotinoids, hopefully, they ban them, if it something else, hopefully they find out what.
<i>"The organic beekeepers are reporting zero Colony Collapse Disorder."</i> True... we are part of that organic group and haven't suffered any CCD at all. Instead, our bees are dying from things that the medical treatments help abate. Many organic beekeepers suffered 100% colony losses this winter to the newer, more virulent strain on nosema (bee dysentary) Organic beekeepers are trying to breed strains of bees resistance to five major afflictions, two are parasites and three are bee diseases (none affect honey, wax or people) CCD is an entirely different issue. We organic growers know exactly what is decimating our bees. Overcoming that thru selective breeding efforts with nil time on the clock is our challenge.
Yes as a matter of fact the Clinton Bee's are the only bee's we allow over the border. You can tell them by the pissed off wife bee that is always following closely right them. Canadians LOVE Billy Bee honey