Plight of France's honey bee
By John Laurenson; Tuesday, 14 October, 2003
From BBC News, at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3178400.stm
In a normal summer, Provence is full of fields of blue lavender and the air is a-buzz with bees. But this year's heatwave has left the lavender - along with the thyme, rosemary and pink heather - shrivelled to nothing. Provence is the hardest hit region of France but this has been a bad year for almost every one of France's 80,000 beekeepers. Honey production from their 1.3 million hives is down by more than half this year with hungry bees forced to eat sugary preparations laid out by the beekeepers in order to survive.
Until recently, the normal death rate for bees during the winter months was one in 10. Now, says Vincent Clair of the French National Bee Surveillance Unit, the death rate is six in 10.
Opinions are divided about the causes of the rise in bee mortality.
"The most likely theory today is that the massive use of pesticides are weakening the colonies so they are becoming more vulnerable to big diseases such as varroa destructor and other viruses," says Mr Clair.
But others say beekeepers themselves are partly to blame. "But encouraged by so-called scientists and other modernisers, some beekeepers have been importing bees from all over the world, crossing them with local bees... playing the sorcerer's apprentice... in order to increase their honey production," Mr Douai says. "It's upset the natural balance and now we're paying the price."
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Matthew Shepherd, Pollinator Conservation Program Director
The Xerces Society
4828 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR 97215, USA
Tel: 503-232 6639 Fax: 503-233 6794
Email: [log in to unmask]
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The Xerces Society is a nonprofit organization
dedicated to protecting the diversity of life
through the conservation of invertebrates.
For information and membership details,
see our website at www.xerces.org
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