Now what are we going to be afraid of?
- Thread starter Walter
- Start date
Allow me to keep the ball in play here:
Dangerous ladders that cause carnage in every community they infest..... Probably responsible for global warming to boot
I thought we had an infestation of snakes in town a couple of days ago. Then I realized I was walking past the courthouse.
Yup. Pride week is over, you can go back to being ashamed for another 51 weeks.
Full disclosure: I own an apiary.
The actual numbers bandied about lately without me citing a particular source put US colonies lost to CCD and not replaced at around 1 million over the past five years or so. The hard numbers have seen a reduction from roughly five million to four million overall. The 2013 USDA figure above shows 2.6 million colonies producing honey and in 2014 an increase to 2.7 million which presumably forms the crux of the article.
What the article neglects to mention is the other 1.3 million colonies used for pollination which make up the remainder of the total inventory and while more colonies may be dedicated to producing honey the overall numbers of colonies have dropped by 20%. Thus the data is cherry picked to fit/support a predetermined conclusion which in this case is a message of everything is just fine and dandy.
If honey prices continue to climb more of the remaining colonies will convert their production to honey from pollination and that is simple economics. This means some vegetable and fruit crops that previously were pollinated in the US have likely moved to Mexico or Central and South America.
Honey from pollination does not produce as much lbs per colony and in the case of things like almonds (where more than a million colonies are "pimped" each year alone) the honey itself is unfit for human consumption. Honey from northern clover fields is the premium white. In Alberta an average colony produces about 150 lbs per season. In Florida, the honey is darker and more bitter (by Canadian standards anyway) and a colony produces more in the range 40 lbs per season.
I found the article to be shoddy at best and very misleading for the layman. CCD remains a serious problem with no clear solution. the problem is a long way from being resolved.
Timothy's and clover is damn good honey but I'm partial to buckwheat honey. If you were local I'd be seeing you about 40L worth. I make kick *** mead and a wheat and honey vodka. I'm looking into setting up a small distillery to keep me busy in winter. I have no shortage of grain.