# Bees are still dying: how screwed are we? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 15, 2013, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bees-are-still-dying-how-screwed-are-we/658377 "2013-05-15T05:25:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bees-are-still-dying-how-screwed-are-we/658377/41 "2013-05-15T17:25:08Z")
The people who sell locally produced honey at the farmer’s market have told me that CCD mainly attacks huge apiaries, probably because the bees are too genetically similar, and they haven’t seen this in their own hives. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bees-are-still-dying-how-screwed-are-we/658377/42 "2013-05-15T17:52:17Z")
[Here](http://perc.org/sites/default/files/ps50.pdf) is a study (pdf) that says CCD is not that big a deal. There are just as many bee colonies as there were 20 years ago before CCD and the price of replacement queens has not gone up that much. Except for almonds pollination prices are not up that much either. It seems that beekeepers are able to replace the lost colonies and for now it is not that big a deal. The reason almond production is affected is both because they need to be pollinated and the acreage of almond trees planted has doubled in the last 20 years. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bees-are-still-dying-how-screwed-are-we/658377/43 "2013-05-15T20:20:40Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Dumb question: can insect species which have only one female breeding member like bees be “bred”? Yeah, just picture the whole colony as being the organism and the queen (and drones) as being the genitals - they’re the hive’s way of having sex with another hive. (You could even say that drones are the queen’s way of having sex with another queen, since they have only her genes.) ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bees-are-still-dying-how-screwed-are-we/658377/44 "2013-05-15T21:03:26Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > [QUOTE=Agricultural Research Service] > Honey bees are not native to the New World; they came from Europe with the first settlers. [/QUOTE] I’m imagining a tiny lunatic in a broadbrimmed hat on a tiny 17th century ship shunning the crew and other passengers and every now and then getting out a bulky, yet nearly empty leather purse and crooning “_Soft now, my beauty: soon we shall be free._”, then inserting whatever it is that would sustain an adult bee for the voyage over. Sucks to the pickpockets. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bees-are-still-dying-how-screwed-are-we/658377/45 "2013-05-15T21:39:11Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > Very interesting! Are the \*native \*N.A. bees also endangered? If the imported European honey bees died out here, could the native ones do the necessary pollination? Do the European ones produce more or better honey? It’s not a matter of honey, that’s pretty much a nice extra- there are much more relevant factors: _Apis mellifera_ shows very high ‘crop fidelity’, that is, they will largely only visit blossom of one species per foraging trip, which makes them much more efficient pollinators than most species. Most pollinating insects will meander around visiting random flowers and uselessly spreading pollen between plant species; fine for them, not so much use for plants. Honey bees also form much, much bigger colonies than the US’s native bees, which are mostly solitary; honey bees can live in colonies over 60,000 strong, which can be maintained over multiple years (native species generally don’t form colonies at all, and if they do it’s only of a few hundred for one summer), and they can be moved around so they’re in place exactly when needed. Current monoculture practices would not allow a wild insect species to live in sufficient density to perform the same role as honey bees; nectar from any one crop is only available for a few weeks of the year, so there’s nothing to feed the pollinators the rest of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bees-are-still-dying-how-screwed-are-we/658377/46 "2013-05-15T23:28:07Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > In 5 years someone will be a billionaire after inventing self-replicating mechano-bees. [Yes, those would be a sure-fire success.](http://beachmount.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/las-abejas-de-bronce-by-marco-denevi-translated-to-english/) ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bees-are-still-dying-how-screwed-are-we/658377/47 "2013-05-16T20:16:25Z")
If all the bees die, it would be the first time we have managed to exterminate a specie of insect. The bees will bounce back from whatever is happening. I predict in ten years we will look back on this like we do Y2K now. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bees-are-still-dying-how-screwed-are-we/658377/48 "2013-05-17T05:57:10Z")
Damn, I know a lot more about bees than I did ten minutes ago. Thanks, **Martin Hyde, Section Maker:Jupe, Filbert** and anyone else I might have forgotten. ---
**Author:** ![Pazu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pazu/32/15522_2.png) [@Pazu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pazu)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bees-are-still-dying-how-screwed-are-we/658377/49 "2013-05-17T19:54:27Z")
> [@Stan\_Shmenge](#): > > If all the bees die, it would be the first time we have managed to exterminate a specie of insect. The [Xerces blue](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerces_Blue) already holds that dubious honor (at least as far as American butterflies are concerned). ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bees-are-still-dying-how-screwed-are-we/658377/50 "2013-05-17T20:00:53Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > In 5 years someone will be a billionaire after inventing self-replicating mechano-bees. Yeah, yeah, release the dogs, or the bees, or the dogs with bees in their mouths and when they bark they shoot bees at you… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bees-are-still-dying-how-screwed-are-we/658377.md?page=2)