Bees, Butterflies, Insects / Films / Movies / Films & Videos

Who Killed The Honey Bee? BBC

by Jennie Richards · Published June 8, 2020 · Updated July 15, 2021

“Are bees the canary-in-the-coal mine?”

Bees are dying in the millions every single year. It is an ecological disaster and crisis that threatens our food supply and global agriculture. This documentary explores the reasons behind the decline of bee colonies across the globe, investigating what might be at the root of this devastation.

Honey bees are the number one insect pollinator on the planet, responsible for the production of over 90 crops. Apples, almonds, berries, cucumbers, nuts, cabbages and even cotton will struggle to be produced if bee colonies continue to decline at the current rate. Massive bee die-offs and empty hives have been reported from as far away as Taipei. The film investigates the problem from a global perspective, traveling from the farm belt of California to the flatlands of East Anglia to the outback of Australia. The filmmakers talk to the beekeepers whose livelihoods are threatened by colony collapse disorder (CCD), the scientists entrusted with solving the problem, and the Australian beekeepers who are making a fortune replacing the planet’s dying bees. The film also looks at some of the possible reasons for these massive bee die-offs — is it pesticides and herbicides sprayed on our food crops, is it the Varroa Mite parasite, or the agriculture system practiced today of planting only single or mono crops?

It’s clear from the film, that bees cannot live in the environment we are giving them today. They are showing us directly what humans are doing to the environment. This straightforward documentary is a good introduction to Colony Collapse Disorder and the history of commercial beekeepers.

Film Length: 59 Minutes

Release Date: April 2009

More About Bees

Read Colony Collapse Disorder: What Is It, And Why Does it Matter? Pollenity

Watch The Wonder of Bees with Martha Kearney, You Tube video

Read Economic Impacts of Colony Collapse Disorder, Science Daily

What You Can Do

Each of Us Can Make a Difference to the Survival of Bees – By creating a healthy environment for bees where we live.
Make a Bee-Friendly Garden – Plant as many wild flowers and flowers as possible in your garden. Gardens can be established in small spaces like balconies or in container pots. Plant flowers in patches or clusters, go for year-found blooms, and avoid hybrid flowers that have no pollen. Here’s how to build a bee-friendly garden.
Avoid Using Harmful Pesticides – Synthetic pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides are very harmful to bees. They can endanger their health and survival. Instead, use beneficial insects such as praying mantises and ladybugs in your garden. Avoid using any chemicals belonging to the neonicotinoid family at all costs!
Become A Beekeeper – Learn how to keep hives and help people in your area do the same.
Bees Need Trees – Trees are an important source of food for bees. And they are essential to a bees habitat. They provide nesting material, shelter and food for bees. Trees are vital for bees.
Create A Bee Bath – Fill a shallow dish or bowl with clean water, or use a shallow bird bath, and put it in your garden, deck or patio, near your flowering plants. Place pebbles or stones in the water to prevent the bees from drowning.
Create Homes For Bees Around Your Residence – Roughly 70% of bees live underground, and another 30% of bees live in holes inside of trees or hollow stems. Bees like undisturbed land. You can keep an untouched, protected plot of land for them in your garden.
Build a Bee Condo – Carpenter and Mason Bees are solitary pollinators and by building or buying a bee condo, you create a home for them to live. Here’s a video on how to build a bee condo and article about building bee houses in The Old Farmer’s Almanac.
Find Space for a Beehive in Your Garden – Work with your local beekeeper and consider these things to determine if you have adequate space and interest for this.
Sponsor A Hive – The Honeybee Conservancy is working to install stocked honeybee hives and solitary bee homes in communities across the U.S. and Canada. More about how to sponsor a hive.
Support Your Local Beekeeper – You can do this by buying local-made honey and beeswax products. Local only. Avoid buying commercial honey, honey from China or imported honey.
Spread the Word! – Be a Bee Ambassador by educating friends, family and your community on how to help bees.

Image by RENE RAUSCHENBERGER from Pixabay

Quotes from the Film

“One in every three bites of food people eat is pollinated by honey bees.”

“Without bees, our food production will collapse, and we may be on the brink of this disaster right now.”

“In less than four years, we lost 800,000 bee hives in the U.S. And throughout Europe, the problem is even worse.”

“Without bees taking pollen from one tree to another, you would not get any apples or fruit.”

What is causing this global catastrophe? Why are bees dying? Why now? Why all at the same time?

“When bees were placed in intensive agriculture areas, from April to October, all the colonies collapsed. There’s no other explanation except that the pesticides and insecticides killed them.”

“The reason bees are dying is intricately tied to the way humans are living on our planet. Our farming practices have dramatically changed in recent decades. By devoting vast areas to single crops and dousing the ground with pesticide, the habitat for pollinators has been destroyed. Wild bees have been eradicated, and now crops are dependent on beekeepers and domestic honey bees.”

“It was in August 2006, beekeepers first saw a serious problem with the bees. Bees had disappeared, just vanished. Within two weeks, a leading beekeeper lost 360 out of 400 bee hives.”

“Many of the beekeepers that farmers relied on reported losses of up to 90 percent of their hives.”

“In the U.S. researchers identified a list of symptoms that they called Colony Collapse Disorder, including:

The Queen is still present
There is still honey and pollen in the hive
Very low adult bee population
Still bees present, showing the colony was strong before collapse
Bees were dying outside the colony

“I don’t want to lose any bees, that’s why we want to keep their stresses down. That’s why I’m giving them plenty of carbohydrates and protein.”

“Research showed that there is a pathogen present in over 96 percent of vanished hives: Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus. This virus was found to also be present in healthy bees too. Already weak bees are very susceptible to dying. What was weakening these bees?”

“In the 1900s, farmers no longer needed wild or native bees, because they already had begun transporting honey bee hives to farm crops in the U.S.”

“The almond crop in California would not happen without bees. More than 1 million hives are required to pollinate the almond trees in February, that’s the majority of hives in the U.S.”

“90 percent of beekeepers’ income is from the almond crop in California.”

“Commercial bees experience many stresses, including being transported long distances to meet the demands of different crops. Today, hives are moved more often than in previous years.”

“These beekeepers really do care for their bees.”

“This is a bee holocaust right here. If you don’t see it yourself, it’s monsters in the closet.”

“PESTICIDES – Beekeepers started pointing the finger to pesticides. DDT had a devastating effect on wild bees decades ago.”

“I think pesticides need to be used with great care and good judgment. We have simple laws that should be followed, but they are completely ignored.”

“We have had new pesticides that have appeared on the market, that have not been properly evaluated independently to determine their impact on the bees. The pesticides are tainting the pollen with toxins, and are affecting the brains of growing bees.”

“New pesticides now are done by seeds that are distributed throughout the plant, affecting the bees.“

“It is considered that low level and lethal doses of pesticides are hindering the bees ability to return to the hive.”

“France has banned many pesticides, including Gaucho 600 – a neonicotinoid chemical or imidacloprid.”

“Bees are at risk from not one pesticide, but a whole cocktail of pesticides – an enormous amount of them, causing the bees to vanish. Pesticides in every class that are being used – Insecticides, Fungicides and Herbicides.”

“In just one bee, researchers found 25 different chemicals, many toxic.”

“The horrific thought, is not just one pesticide, but the whole toxic soup of pesticides is pushing bees over the edge.”

“A super parasite called the Varroa Mite is also contributing to massive honey bee die-offs, and increasingly they are resisting treatment for this virus.”

“It’s quite possible that honey bees will disappear from the United Kingdom if we don’t do something about it.”

“Colony Collapse Disorder is not the only problem bees are facing. They are battling Varroa Mite and other diseases. But science is failing at keeping them alive. Bees cannot live in the environment we are giving them. The bees are showing us directly what humans are doing to the environment.”

“Are bees the canary-in-the-coal mine?”

“We need to create an environment that is healthy for bees, not just now, but for generations to come.”