How Close Are We to Saving the Bees?

A world without bees would… sting, to say the least.
» Follow Olivia on Instagram: @OliviaPavcoG

Beekeepers are losing 40-45% of their colonies each year, so scientists, farmers, and engineers are foraging for answers and creative solutions to save the bees. But how close are we?

A lack of bees would impact more than just our ability to access honey. Without bees, up to 1/3 of crops could be affected. A world sans bees could jeopardize our entire economy, health, and your second cup of coffee.

The last time you heard about bees in the news, it might have been connected with colony collapse disorder, or CCD. CCD was a series of strange, sudden disappearances of entire colonies––where workers left behind a queen, some young, and plenty of food.

And while scientists haven’t pinned down what the cause of CCD is, researchers agree it is a combination of the perilous Ps.

The perilous Ps (parasites, pathogens, pesticides, and poor nutrition) combined are a major threat to bee health.

While being able to monitor bee hives in real time with sensors like Nectar is helpful in uncovering which one of the four Ps is potentially affecting the colonies, we also need to figure out how to prevent the problems from happening in the first place.

Some ideas include helping bees fight off different viruses by providing them with a super vitamin and improving bees' nutrition.

Learn more about the perilous Ps, the technology being created to monitor hives, and what is being done to help save the bees, on this episode of How Close Are We?

#Bees #Technology #Beekeepers #HowCloseAreWe #Seeker #Science

Read More:

The Super Bowl of Beekeeping
"On a hot February afternoon in Chowchilla, about 45 minutes north of Fresno, Johnston pulled up to an orchard in bloom. The trees appeared from afar to be still, but they were in fact vibrating with activity. 'The almond pollination is the Super Bowl of beekeeping,' Johnston told me. His family has been in the bee business for 110 years."

Nectar Puts Sensors in Hives to Help Save the Bees
"Nectar wants to modernize beekeeping, which hasn’t changed its traditional methods for the past 100 years. Those traditional methods are manual and disruptive, with beekeepers physically opening up hives each week to check in on them, which agitates the bees and reduces their honey production. Once inside the hive, beekeepers usually rely on inaccurate, “gut” reactions to the look, sound and smell to determine its overall health."

Extracts of Polypore Mushroom Mycelia Reduce Viruses in Honey Bees
Waves of highly infectious viruses sweeping through global honey bee populations have contributed to recent declines in honey bee health. Bees have been observed foraging on mushroom mycelium, suggesting that they may be deriving medicinal or nutritional value from fungi. Fungi are known to produce a wide array of chemicals with antimicrobial activity, including compounds active against bacteria, other fungi, or viruses. We tested extracts from the mycelium of multiple polypore fungal species known to have antiviral properties. Extracts from amadou (Fomes) and reishi (Ganoderma) fungi reduced the levels of honey bee deformed wing virus (DWV) and Lake Sinai virus (LSV) in a dose-dependent manner. In field trials, colonies fed Ganoderma resinaceum extract exhibited a 79-fold reduction in DWV and a 45,000-fold reduction in LSV compared to control colonies. These findings indicate honey bees may gain health benefits from fungi and their antimicrobial compounds.

____________________
How close are we to solving some of humanity's biggest challenges? We go in search of experts, dive into the facts and comb through the research to find out just how close we are to changing the world

Seeker explains every aspect of our world through a lens of science, inspiring a new generation of curious minds who want to know how today’s discoveries in science, math, engineering and technology are impacting our lives, and shaping our future. Our stories parse meaning from the noise in a world of rapidly changing information.

[Seeker]

Correction: The video states that commercial beekeepers might have as many as 1, 000 hives when, in fact, the biggest beekeeper Nectar works with has up to 10s of 1, 000s of hives. That’s A LOT of bees!

[Stinkys]

France is on the right track by banning pesticides that are known to affect bees.

[catalinacurio]

Many Londoners have flowers and bee hives on the roof. Without bees we are in big trouble. 🐝

[thomasfholland]

This was wonderful to watch. Finally! Not another doom and gloom. TY

[abraxasnl]

Thank you for this video rather than “how close are we to killing all the bees?”. A bit more uplifting, this 😊

[EronDG]

Remember that any forms of help no matter how small can go a long way <3

[breakfastfordinner]

Bees are also being impacted by the harmful effects of EMF signals. They’re experiencing collany collapse because of our cell signals. If you’re a bee keeper I’d recommend you get your hives Shungite stones which are very effective at blocking EMF signals.

[teresaellis]

Things we can do: plant more local wildflowers and use pollinator friendly gardening techniques.

[stove]

So long as corporate lobbies run our government, we'll never do anything about the pesticide issue

[matadorprime]

I'm doing my part. I think there is a colony of bees close to my house (or maybe far) that have chosen my small pond as their source of water. I have water hyacinths, water lillies, and cattails. Love seeing those bees come and go all day long.

[yorusuyasoul]

How to saves bees? Ask ilmango for bee farm

[Slender]

Did you know that the species of bees we are trying to save actually are an evasive species, and effectively spreading diseases to other species of bees (including bumblees) (there are over 20, 000 species of bees) who also pollinate flowers?
I found this through multiple nature article publishers, including Nature, (an extremely famous nature article publisher).

[sdrawkcabdaernacuoy]

I'm glad to hear about the progress that has been made towards saving the bees.

[Master_Therion]

7:10 Morgan Freeman has a 124 acre bee sanctuary.
Everyday, with his god-tier voice, he tells them:
"We call you busy bees. So get busy living or get busy dying."

[JohnnyDunn]

Did anyone notice that researcher handling the hives with nothing but a t shirt on lol I wouldn't walk in there without 2 body suits on lol respect to him walking in there with jeans and a t shirt lol

[exsgamingchannel]

Notice how they said pesticides were an issue, and proceeded to not talk about it at all? Hmm...

[dominicjose]

0:45 nope...it's when Mojang came out with 1.15

[grenishsinxRgold]

We need to just push a bit more to save the lives that are alongside our own on this planet.

[sebastianelytron]

I tried to save my bee, took her to the doctor. It doesn't look good...




Doc said she has hives 😢

[SweetAznLuvah]

I heard from a really good friend. That round up is not made for only killing weeds. It initially is meant to target honey bees. Because someone created vegetables and fruits that don’t need bees or something on these terms.