- A beekeeper near DeLand believes that someone is poisoning his honey bees after finding dead bees all over his property, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.
The Journal went on to say that the beekeeper, Horace Bell, believes that his bees were poisoned, especially as some of the people in his area are not a fan of the bees. He also has noticed plenty of bees behaving abnormally, including undertaker bees moving dead bees away from the hives.
Bell is reportedly offering a $30,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever is killing his bees.
About seven million bills could have died just from this incident. Overall, honey bee colony deaths are said to be on the rise. The Journal said that their survival rate can related to pesticides, mites, loss of habitat, poor beekeeping practices and a decrease in the diversity of crops.
This story was written in Orlando, Florida.
FreezeFrameEnding on July 30th, 2019 at 18:56 UTC »
Stuff like this needs to be taken seriously, especially. Bees are responsible for vast amounts of the food we eat, and we're not doing enough to protect them by a long shot. If we want to survive, we need bees.
Edit: I said it elsewhere, but even if honeybees specifically are not great for the environment, we should still be concerned if they're dying all of a sudden. Because whatever is affecting them could be affecting other bees in the area.
Edit 2: Look, those folks who keep talking down the importance of bees or ignoring that they do not exist in a vacuum and would therefore indicate a harmful presence to other species would inevitably have a laughable pikachuface.jpg thing going on. And I love a good laugh, but this particular dialogue is worrisome.
CaseyJonesEnginsNear on July 30th, 2019 at 18:53 UTC »
This could easily be a farmer switching up pesticides/weed killer, happened to two of our colonies. We lost about 60,000 bees (about 2 colonies) in a bout a week. Found out some time later that all the farms had sprayed the week before. The problem is that bees can travel upwards of 2 miles for food from the hive. Haven't had any issues this year, but it was around august when it happened last year.
Knight-in-Gale on July 30th, 2019 at 18:49 UTC »
Seriously, what kind of evil motherfuckers does these shit?
This news isn't the only ones out there regarding beekeepers getting their bee colony getting vandalized/destroyed.
Do these fucktards not realize the consequences of having no bees in this planet?