What Are the Bees Telling Us?

bee eating (Photo credit: acidpix)

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By Dr. Mercola

Honey bees are responsible for producing one-third of your fresh fruits and vegetables, but they're disappearing at a startling rate.

Since the mid-2000s, honey bees all around the world, including the US, have been dying in unprecedented numbers—many hives literally disappearing without a trace—in a mysterious phenomenon dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us?,1 created by Taggart Siegel, takes us on a journey through the catastrophic disappearance of bees and the mysterious world of the beehive. This engaging and ultimately uplifting film weaves an unusual and dramatic story of the heartfelt struggles of beekeepers, scientists, and philosophers from around the world including Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk, and Vandana Shiva. Together they reveal both the problems and solutions in renewing a culture in balance with nature.

It also explores the ancient relationship between man and bees—a relationship that, historically, was considered nothing less than sacred. Returning to life in balance with nature is the ultimate solution, and when it comes to bees, it's something we'll have to do lest we risk perishing right along with them.

Some 130 different kinds of crops require honeybees to transport pollen between flowers, prompting fertilization and jump-starting the production of seed and fruit. As they buzz around in flight, the bee's hair develops static electricity.

When a bee lands on a flower, this static charge attracts pollen to the bee like a magnet. Honey bees from one hive can visit more than 100,000 flowers in a single day. Without honey bees, farmers would have to resort to pollinating their crops by hand, which is no quick and easy task...

Honey Bees Are Crucial for Our Environment and Survival

In an interview with The Press, a daily newspaper in New Zealand, Taggart Siegel revealed the inspiration behind the film:2

"I had no idea about the importance of honeybees until I read an article in 2007 that bees were not only so crucial to our environment, but that they were dying out on a mass scale...

The article had a quote attributed to Einstein which scared me enough to get me to pick up my camera and dedicate the next three years of my life to this film. The quote read, 'If bees die out, man will only have four years of life left on Earth.' Even though this quote has been since disputed, it had a lasting effect on me, and the truth is that bees are so vital to our planet that we can't afford to lose them."

Despite the somber topic, Queen of the Sun is not a downer by any means. On the contrary, it's filled with the heart of eclectic and passionate characters that inspire hope and gratitude for these most important of agricultural workers.

For example, there's historian Yvon Achard, who recites poetry to his bees and tickles them with his mustache, and Sara Mapelli, who once danced with 12,000 bees on her body (she's the bee-covered woman shown on the DVD cover).

What's Killing the Bees?

The collapse of bee colonies is probably multifactorial, rather than a response to one individual type of toxic assault. That said, certain pesticides calledneonicotinoids have been identified as having a particularly devastating impact on bee health and survival.

Bee colonies began disappearing in the US shortly after the EPA allowed these new insecticides on the market. Even the EPA itself admits that "pesticide poisoning" is a likely cause of CCD. Two prominent examples, imidacloprid and clothianidin, are used as seed treatments in hundreds of crops, and virtually all of today's genetically engineered Bt corn is treated with neonicotinoids.

One of the observed effects of these insecticides is weakening of the bee's immune system. Forager bees bring pesticide-laden pollen back to the hive, where it's consumed by all of the bees. About six months later, their immune systems fail, and they end up contracting secondary infections from parasites, mites, viruses, fungi, and bacteria.

Monoculture—the practice of growing of just one type of crop on a massive scale—is another major contributing factor, as there is no such thing as monoculture in nature. In the past, farms were highly diversified, with all sorts of animals and vegetation cohabiting on the land. Today, fields of corn and soy stretch for hundreds of miles.

As it turns out, pests thrive in monoculture, so massive quantities of pesticides are required to keep them in check. Monoculture also cuts down on the variety of nutrition the bees get. In some areas, bees simply cannot survive due to lack of food.

While experts are still trying to understand the complexities involved in CCD, they do agree about one thing: if we allow this to continue, our global food supply is at risk... And, as stated in the film:

"Colony collapse disorder is the bill we're getting for all the things we've done to the bees. You could call it colony collapse disorder of the human being too."

Reclaiming the Sacred Relationship with Bees

As stated in the film, the solution to this pervasive and downright life threatening problem lies in renewing a culture that operates in balance with nature. As stated by the filmmaker:3

"In 1923, Rudolf Steiner, a scientist, philosopher and social innovator, predicted that in 80 to 100 years honeybees would collapse. His prediction has come true with Colony Collapse Disorder where bees are disappearing in mass numbers from their hives with no clear explanation.

...On a pilgrimage around the world, 10,000 years of beekeeping is unveiled, highlighting how our historic and sacred relationship with bees has been lost due to highly mechanized industrial practices."

Supporting organic beekeepers is one way you can help turn the tide and increase the number of healthy bee colonies, which are so crucial to our food supply. Organic beekeepers take a far different approach to beekeeping than large migratory operations. They have fewer hives, and they don't truck their bees around for pollination. They also don't feed their bees the sugar syrups and artificial pollen substitutes typically used in large-scale commercial bee operations. As stated by Michael Pollan, "Nothing is more viscerally offensive than feeding the creators of honey high-fructose corn syrup."

What You Can Do to Help Protect the Bees

Queen of the Sun has a section on their website4 devoted to things you can do to help protect our honey bees. Here are some suggestions for actions you can take:

• Support organic farmers and shop at local farmer's markets as often as possible. You can "vote with your fork" three times a day.
• Cut the use of toxic chemicals in your house and on your lawn, and use organic pest control.
• Better yet, get rid of your lawn altogether and plant a garden. Both flower and vegetable gardens provide good honey bee habitats. It's also recommended to keep a small basin of fresh water in your garden or backyard, as bees actually do get thirsty!
• Become an amateur beekeeper. Having a hive in your garden requires only about an hour of your time per week, benefits your local ecosystem, and you can enjoy your own honey!  As Queen of the Sun shows, many city dwellers are becoming adept smalltime beekeepers.

For educators, there's a free PDF,5 written by Waldorf teacher Lauren Johnson, which you can download and use as your curriculum. It also contains a guide to creating your own urban beehive tour. You can also host a screening of Queen of the Sun. For more details and instructions, please see the Queen of the Sun website.6 There you can also sign up for their newsletter for timely updates. If you are interested in more information about bee preservation, the following organizations are a good place to start.

• Pesticide Action Network Bee Campaign7
• The Foundation for the Preservation of Honey Bees8
• American Beekeeping Federation9
• Help the Honey Bees10

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Many Garden Plants Are Treated with Bee-Killing Pesticides

bee eating (Photo credit: acidpix)

By Dr. Mercola

There are about 100 crop species that provide 90 percent of food globally and, of these, 71 are pollinated by bees. In the US alone, a full one-third of the food supply depends on pollination from bees. I mention this to stress the full ramifications of bee die-offs, which continue unabated.

Last winter, beekeepers across the US reported losing anywhere from 40 percent to 90 percent of their hives, and many of the 6,000 almond orchard owners in California could not find enough bees to pollinate their almond trees, at any price, this year.

According to Friends of the Earth,1 50,000 bumblebees were recently found dead in a Target parking lot in Portland, Oregon. The pesticide dinotefuran, a so-called neonicotinoid, was found to have been applied to nearby trees prior to the “massacre.”

In July, tens of millions of dead bees were found on a farm in Ontario, Canada. In this case, the deaths were thought to be linked to the dust coming off neonic-treated corn seeds that were being planted.

A general consensus among beekeepers is that the bee die-offs are most definitely related to toxic chemicals, and nicotine-related compounds called nicotinoids in particular.

Lawsuit Filed and Bill Introduced to Protect Bees...

Nicotinoids were initially introduced as a new form of pesticide in the 1990s, as widespread pest resistance rendered many older pesticides useless. The disappearance of bee colonies began accelerating in the US shortly after the EPA allowed these new pesticides on the market in the mid-2000s.

Today, they are the most widely-used pesticides in the world. In California alone, there are nearly 300 registered neonicotinoid products available. In addition to foliage applications, many seeds are now also pre-treated with neonicotinoids, which are water-soluble and break down slowly in the environment. Virtually allgenetically engineered Bt corn crops grown in the US are treated with neonicotinoids.

In May, American beekeepers and environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its failure to protect bees from these toxic pesticides.

France has already banned imidacloprid for use on corn and sunflowers after large losses of bees were reported as a result of exposure to the pesticide. They also rejected Bayer´s application for clothianidin, and other countries, such as Italy, have banned certain neonicotinoids as well.

The European Commission also recent­ly announced it will suspend the use of three neonicotinoids (clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam) on flowering plants in EU countries as of December 1, 2013. The US, however, has not followed suit... In fact, the EPA has decided to delay action on nicotinoids until 2018!

In July, following the travesty in Oregon, US Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and John Conyers (D-Mich.) introduced the “Save America’s Pollinators Act” (H.R. 2692).

This bill would suspend the use of neonicotinoids on seeds, soils, and bee-attractive plants until such time that the EPA has reviewed all of the available data. The Oregon Department of Agriculture has already issued a prohibition of cosmetic use of pesticides containing dinotefuran for the remainder of this year, as a precautionary measure.

Tests Tie Bee Die-Offs to Pretreated Plants Sold at Garden Centers

Now, a first-of-its-kind pilot study2, released by Friends of the Earth and its allies, reveals that many homeowners unwittingly contribute to the problem by purchasing so-called “bee friendly” garden plants sold at Home Depot, Lowe’s, and other garden centers —i.e. plants that attract bees—that have been pre-treated with pesticides that could in fact be lethal to the bees.

As it turns out, more than half of the plants tested were found to have these toxic pesticide residues. Contaminated plants included tomatoes, squash, salvia and flowers that would be attractive to pollinators. As reported by Friends of the Earth3:

“The pilot study, co-authored by the Pesticide Research Institute, found that 7 of 13 samples of garden plants purchased at top retailers in Washington D.C., the San Francisco Bay Area and Minneapolis contain neurotoxic pesticides known as neonicotinoids that studies show could harm or kill bees and other pollinators...

'Our investigation is the first to show that so called ‘bee-friendly’ garden plants contain pesticides that can poison bees, with no warning to gardeners,' said Lisa Archer, director of the Food and Technology Program at Friends of the Earth. 'Bees are essential to our food system and they are dying at alarming rates. Neonic pesticides are a key part of the problem we can start to fix right now in our own backyards.'”

What You Can Do to Protect Bees on Your Home Turf

The study makes a number of recommendations for garden retailers, wholesale retailers, home gardeners, as well as cities, counties and states, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Congress. Home gardeners and institutional purchasers such as schools, private companies, and hospitals, for example, can:

• Plant only neonicotinoid-free plants on your property and around your facilities (e.g. land­scaping around parking lots, grounds and gardens).
• Let your local nursery manager know that you will only purchase neonicotinoids-free plants, and ask the manager to forward your request to their corporate headquarters, plant growers and suppliers.
• Ask your landscaping company to avoid all neonico­tinoids and pretreated plants. Also, make sure they are not using the organophosphate pesticide trichlorfon, and avoid using Roundup to control weeds around your home or business.
• Practice bee-safe pest control: Avoid using pesticides that are toxic to bees in your garden. Read the label and avoid using products that contain ac­etamiprid, clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam as active ingredients. Instead, use alternative approaches such as providing habitat to attract beneficial insects that prey on pests. Insecticidal soaps or oils and other eco-friendly pest control products can also be used if need be.
• Check the products you already have, and if they contain any of the nicotinoids mentioned above, please dispose of them properly or take them back to the store where you bought them. The pesticide diazinon (sold under the brand names Diazinon or Spectracide) has been banned from residential use, but there might be some left in your old garden shed, so check for this one as well.

Ecosystem Threatened by 'Gross Underestimate' of Toxicity of Neonicotinoids

While the effects of neonicotinoids pose an immediate threat to our food supply by killing bees, they also pose a grave danger to other animals in the food chain. According to recent research by the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), one of the leading bird conservation organizations in the US, the use of neonicotinoids in seed treatments is also responsible for the death of birds, terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates, and other wildlife.

ABC commissioned the world renowned environmental toxicologist Dr. Pierre Mineau to conduct the research, which resulted in a 100-page report4 titled “The Impact of the Nation’s Most Widely Used Insecticides on Birds.” Mineau’s report reviews 200 studies on neonicotinoids, including industry research obtained through the US Freedom of Information Act. The report concludes that neonicotinoids “are lethal to birds and to the aquatic systems on which they depend.” Even more disturbing, contamination levels in both surface and ground water around the world are already beyond the threshold found to kill many aquatic invertebrates. According to this shocking toxicology assessment:

• A single kernel of corn treated with this type of pesticide can kill a songbird
• A single grain of wheat or canola treated with the neonicotinoids Imidacloprid can be fatal to a bird
• As little as 1/10th of a neonicotinoid-coated corn seed per day during egg-laying season can affect a bird’s reproductive capability

In response to these findings, the American Bird Conservancy is calling for a ban on the use of neonicotinoids as seed treatments, and wants all pending applications for neonicotinoid products to be suspended pending an independent review of the products’ effects on other animals besides bees.

As reported by the ABC5:

“It is clear that these chemicals have the potential to affect entire food chains. The environmental persistence of the neonicotinoids, their propensity for runoff and for groundwater infiltration, and their cumulative and largely irreversible mode of action in invertebrates raise significant environmental concerns... The serious risk to bees should not be understated, as one-third of the US diet depends on these insect pollinators. The ABC assessment makes clear, however, that the potential environmental impacts of neonicotinoids go well beyond bees.”

Four Toxic Pesticides Get EPA Advisory Label

Fortunately, there are some signs that the insistent and dire warnings are finally starting to seep through to the EPA. On August 15, the agency issued a press release6 announcing a new advisory label for four of the most widely used neonicotinoids: imidacloprid, dinotefuran, clothianidin and thiamethoxam. The advisory label states in bold red letters: "This product can kill bees and other insect pollinators." The labels also provide information on exposure routes and spray drift precautions. According to the press release:

“In an ongoing effort to protect bees and other pollinators, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed new pesticide labels that prohibit use of some neonicotinoid pesticide products where bees are present. 'Multiple factors play a role in bee colony declines, including pesticides. The Environmental Protection Agency is taking action to protect bees from pesticide exposure and these label changes will further our efforts,' said Jim Jones, assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.”

Take Action NOW to Help Save the Bees, and Our Food Supply

Pesticides have a dramatic impact on the health of our ecosystem. Neonicotinoids kill insects by attacking their nervous systems, and these pesticides are known to get into pollen and nectar, thereby posing a grave hazard to beneficial insects such as bees. Truly, the stakes couldn’t be any higher, with at least one-third of the US food supply being dependent on these pollinators.

While many pesticides may contribute to the problem, neonicotinoids have been implicated as one of the primary culprits in the mass die-off of bees, and have subsequently been banned in some countries. The United States, however, is not among them. We absolutely need to press Congress and the EPA to get their act together... As stated by Nichelle Harriott, staff scientist at Beyond Pesticides7:

“The bees and beekeepers are telling us they can’t wait until 2018 -- and neither can we. Retailers, EPA and Congress need to step up their efforts to protect pollinators.”

Although the EPA has not yet taken action, there is still much that can be done to pro­tect bees across the nation. The report released by Friends of the Earth and its allies shows that more than half of the “bee-friendly” home garden plants found in garden centers like Home Depot and Lowe’s are in fact toxic to bees, yet sold without any warning to gardeners. Please join us in asking the CEOs of Lowe’s and Home Depot, Robert Niblock and Frank Blake, to pull all bee-killing pesticides from their shelves and stop selling neonicotinoid-treated plants.

“Europe has already banned bee-harming pesticides, and top retailers in the U.K. are refusing to sell them. Now Home Depot's and Lowe’s CEOs need to make the same commitment here,” Friends of the Earth says.

Please, take a moment right now to sign your name to the letter to Home Depot and Lowe’s on Friends of the Earth’s Action page.

 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/09/03/garden-plants-pesticides.aspx  Link back to Mercola.com site.

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Apis Mellifica or Apis Mel, Homeopathic Remedy

Not exactly a great video, but it gives an idea of what Apis Mellifica is used for.  Homeopathy is a very old form of medical treatment.  We are not here to argue whether or not homeopathy is a valid form of medicine or not.  We have used it with mixed results that lean heavily towards the positive and zero negative.

Here is the history of this one remedy.

Apis Mellifica - Homeopathy from Chuck Thompson

Please left click on the icon at the bottom right hand side of the container in order to read the book more easily.  This will open the book into a full screen view.
You are free to download a copy for yourself from our SlideShare site.  You will have to log into SlideShare with either a Facebook account or a LinkedIn account or just create a new free account.  Our works can also be embedded into your website as well.  The embedding code is on our SlideShare site.

dose globules de 1 gramme (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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