I truly do not see any difference between CCD in bees and health issues rising in every commercial animal product industry related to health. I would offer a simplistic perspective (true answers are often simplistic once understood) :
"Science" is taking a wrong approach to understanding and solving the problem. Science is looking for the "cause" in the form of something that is now happening that wasn't happening before. Whether that be a new virus, bacteria, pesticide, it doesn't matter, the list is endless. The problem is that they are looking for a "cause". This is a extremely shortsighted and naive view of nature, but it is identical to the thinking that has brought down animal health and food nutrition over the last few decades. CCD is NOT caused by any single entity nor even collection of entities or conditions. Rather, the cause is in the system. Let me explain.
Anytime man has drifted away from nature's time tested principles and methods, negative issues have arisen. Anytime man has strived to "improve on production" or decrease cost in animal product production, negative side effects have occurred. This is evident in every animal industry you look at today (chickens, turkeys, eggs, pork, lamb, etc). Science in America (implemented largely through educational institutions) has strived to improve profit at all costs, and costs have been rising constantly.
To understand CCD in bees, lets do a comparison between nature and modern beekeeping:
1. Forced cell size - Common bee hives today include a "foundation" for the bees to build their honeycomb on. This foundation sets a definite size of the cells of the honeycomb. This is done to improve honey production by increasing the cell size. It works by providing about a 30% increase in honey per hive. The down side is that it is unnatural and damaging to the bees
- The larger size limits the creation of "drone bees". these drones do not make honey so limiting them is seen as a good thing to increase honey production. However, the drones serve a vital purpose in nature of spreading the genetic of the hive amongst other hives. This spreading of genetics is similar to that of all animals and even people. If a family intermarried and created offspring, the genetic pool shrinks and the result is genetic defects coming through. This is exactly what happens in bees, as the drone population shrinks, genetics become less diverse, and all the hives in the region become genetically weak in any number of ways, including disease and parasite resistance.
- The larger size cell takes longer for worker bees to cover once the queen lays an egg inside. That extra time (hours) allows more chance for mites to enter the cell with the egg / larva and cause damage. Therefore mites are much more of a problem, and can actually be devastating. This is often treated by beekeepers by using chemicals. (more in a later point)
2. Chemicals - Once problems arise from any source, the industrial method of treating those problems is through use of unnatural chemicals. These chemicals all have side effects (as do medicines we take as humans, antibiotics in farm animal feed, etc) The chemical itself weakens the colony more and often can get impregnated into the honeycomb or wood of the hive for a lasting effect.
3. Re-use of honeycomb - it takes time for bees to produce honeycomb, this time is time that is not spent producing honey. Therefore to industrial beekeeping it is advantageous to re-use honeycomb by extracting the honey without damaging the comb, then reinsert the comb into the hive. Production improves. The side effect is that anything that got into the wax honeycomb ( a great attractor of everything) is left in the comb to weaken the bees for generations. This also has an accumulative effect, as if chemicals are use, every use adds to the chemical load already in the honeycomb.
4. Hive placement - Industrial beekeepers often place multiple hives in a location, not something the bees would do in nature. This makes it more efficient for the beekeeper (increased profits) but the problem is that if the hives are weakened by all the reasons above, and you locate multiple hives in a small area, you are increasing the chances of weak hives spreading genetics with other weak hives. chemical loads increase and become commonplace. Without wild bees to balance the genetics, the colonies slowly degrade over time.
5. Resistance - Another result of common chemical use is the issue of resistance. Just as we see in antibiotic use on animal feed, and pesticide / herbicide use in fields and gardens, chemical use in bees breeds resistance in those things the chemicals are used for. this requires heavier and heavier doses to achieve the same affect. ( a primary difference between herbs and modern medicine.. another blog post). This effect, over time, increases the negative effects of all of the above.
6. Specific honey types - Go to the store and you see all sorts of honey.. wildflower, clover, etc. But wait.. ask yourself how is this possible if bees naturally travel 5 to 10 miles from the hive to collect pollen? there are several approaches to this problem, but the point here is that all of these approaches fundamentally change the nature of the honey for the bees themselves. Think about this... bees make honey as their food source during the winter. The honey comb stored away for winter naturally contains honey created during all sorts of different "blooms" and thereby different color, flavor, and yes nutritional qualities. By removing the honey artificially during the year to produce different types for sale, the bees are left with only one type of honey at the end of the season (unless the beekeeper specifically manages this by leaving some honey of each type for bee consumption). This is the equivalent of making the bees over winter on one specific food instead of a variety of foods, limiting their nutritional intake for months compared to what nature intended. Just as in animals and humans, limiting nutrition produces weakness and less resistance to disease.
So you can see here a case building that points a finger at industrial bee production, and production increase methods as the cause of colony collapse disorder. If science find a single "cause" for CCD, even if that cause if removed, a new one will pop its head up soon thereafter and the cycle repeats. This is the process used by modern science, and is exactly the process used in the popular kids game.. Whack-A-Mole. Does this make sense? Why not instead realize that changing nature for the express purpose of increased profits IS in fact the cause of most of the evils and problems in the animal / farming industry. It is the changing of nature instead of working with nature that causes this.
As a case in point, bees kept in natural hives (top bar / warez hives) and follow natural beekeeping principles do not seem prone to any of the problems affecting industrial bees (mites, ccd, etc).
Bottom line, CCD is not any different in my mind than the similar conditions affecting the industrial food system all over the world. It is not a problem with bees, nor beekeeping, it is a problem with the industrial food system that is weakening animals, plants, and humans by increasing profits at all costs. One answer to all of these woes is small, local, sustainable farms working with nature instead of against nature. Find one today and buy your food from there to the greatest extent possible!
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