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Last August I heard one scientist in the UK found that actually some of the bee's immune systems were failing and they were falling prey & dying of disorders (illness/parasites) that would not normally kill them.
I'm not sure anybody really actually knows why this is happening. It's hard to say - my first thought is that it's something to do with our toxic pest controls, though maybe there are little-understood aspects to pollination that we have unwittingly disrupted through genetic engineering of plants. Maybe the climate is weirding them out. Or maybe aliens are doing it.
Anyway, here's a link to Colony Collapse Disorder info
If Worzel Gummidge and the Third Doctor had a fist fight - who would win?
The Brief Piping Signal of the Honey Bee: Begging Call or Stop Signal?
[Quote
For over 40 yr, investigators have recognized that the brief piping signal plays a role in the foraging operation of a honey bee colony. The function of this signal, however, remains uncertain. The main objective of this study was to determine whether, under normal foraging conditions, bees following waggle dancers produce brief piping signals to beg nectar samples from the dancers. We made observations on waggle dancers and their followers in an undisturbed colony whose foragers gathered nectar and pollen from flowers. We found that waggle dancers do often receive brief piping signals, that the bees producing these signals are generally dance followers, and that these signals increase a waggle dancer's tendency to stop dancing. We also found, however, that the brief piping signal is clearly not a begging call; 0 of 41 waggle dancers that received a piping signal from a dance follower gave a nectar sample to the bee that produced the signal. Our results support the hypothesis that the brief piping signal is a stop signal; it serves to shut off waggle dancing. But why some dance followers pipe the dancer they are following, thereby inhibiting her dancing, remains unclear and warrants further investigation.
Is this Honey to the Bee? Only Richard Dawkins knows for sure...
Daleks don't accept apologies! YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!
Honeybee hives everywhere are being deserted, with only a few dead bees left in them. From what I understand, it's either a virus/bacteria as Magpie described (most sound theory, I think), or something to do with cell (mobile) phone transmissions (most ironic theory)... I can't recall them right now, but there were other ideas out there as well.
Did you say "74,384,338 to 1 against"? That's my lucky number!
Tuesday, April 08 2008 @ 11:20 AM EDT
