Bees and beekeepers

At www.thegwpf.com/how-capitalism-saved-the-bees/ … although not strictly climate change the doom mongering is generated by the same people that wail about global warming. It concerns the bee apocalypse which had its origins in the US. It concerns US beekeeping practises and not those of the UK. In the US bees are big business and bees are transported around the country from orchard to orchard in the spring (New York State, California, Oregon etc) and in the summer to the Mid West states. It is a way of life that came about as a result of honey bees having an origin in Europe and not in the US, introduced by early immigrants from the UK. Conversely, in the UK beekeeping is also undertaken by farmers (but as our orchards went into terminal decline when we joined the EU this is less the case) but is mostly done by hobbyists as a part time job. Beekeepers are fairly active and honey is produced for sale to the market – by professionals and amateurs alike. It is however not on the commercial scale of what occurs in the US. Beekeepers charge farmers in the spring but in the summer their profits are from the honey produced. Beehives are trucked around the US and beekeepers have what is described as a mobile lifestyle. Commercial beekeeping is big business, worth $700 million a year. Hence, when colony collapse order broke out beekeepers faced bankruptcy – particularly after the doom mongers claimed farmers would not be able to grow crops again as honey bees are so vital. In reality, lots of other insects such as wasps and bumblebees as well as bats and birds pollinate plants in North America. What they cannot do is pollinate the mass planting of commercial farmers. In fact, bumblebees are in decline, and therefore honeybees are more important than ever. Whilst the journalists and doom sayers wailed and gnashed their teeth in woe and disaster, it seems the intrepid beekeepers were made of sterner stuff – it was their way of life and means of making a living. They simply started new colonies, and probably cut down on the corn syrup, and there are more bees now in the US than ever there was. There is no shortage of honey bees. Hives are currently thriving – but not a lot of doom mongers mention this. Nice read. Makes you glad you are human and can adapt. Now, what was it they have been saying about Brexit ….?