Bees

[Disgruntled Intern]

Cool and scary.

[STM]

Holy shit ok here goes!

@ Strike Witch: CCD is caused by disruptions in the bees sense, notably in American areas like California, probably because the Americans force the bees to eat only one type of plant and move em around to the next crop (apples to nectarines to oranges to hazelnuts etc) Bees don't like to be strapped to a car on top of a truck and three hundred other hives then moved about forty miles.

@ MoxCo - No idea on workers (I forget) but drones have 16 so workers probably have 32 because a queen gives birth to boys n girls by choice. and fertilisation (males are unfertilised so 16 ((no sperm))

@ Oddey Q1 - A bee would keep collecting honey from the flower it was on then when it realised there where no more bees or it was lost, it would fly around by itself till it died of the cold at night.
Q2 - A honey bee is highly eusocial, and lives in colonies of up to 60,000, a bumble bee lives in vastly smaller colonies and live in holes in the ground, a bee hive will live in a tree naturally.
Q3 - Quite a bit, they collect 300 milligrams a journey, roughly 40 journeys a day, life of four weeks 12,000x28=336,000 milligrams so they would probably eat a few grams a day?

@Ridg3 A bee lives under the rule of the colony, not the queen so their independence is limited to what they know, just like North Koreans.
A female bee (worker) pheromone if I am correct in what I think you mean, smells like well, not a lot, we have no where near enough sensitive nosels!

@OANST - It only works in isolated cases where bees have evolved with these predators, most bees will simply sting intruders because they have no fear of death. Like the banzai!

[Splat]

'Nosel' is a much cooler word than 'nose'. I propose we try and change the dictionary to match Scrabtrapman's accidental but fortunate spelling mistake.

I was gonna ask a question but then my internet died and it didn't post, and then i forgot, and the someone else asked the question instead. But are you saying CCD is caused solely by hive disruption? What causes this other than Americans, and can we do anything to help? Also, can you make us a graph showing exactly how dead the human race would become if bees were to go extinct?

[STM]

twasn't an accident Splat

Ok, not solely, no one is entirely sure what causes CCD, but this may be one reason.

And on point 2, we wouldn't be that dead, we have wind dispersed cereal crops but many would die of starvation.

(u did ask me to make the graph therefore, it's shit!)

|------------- bees die here
|...................--------------------
|...............................................-------------------- : VERDICT: A bit dead
|________________________________________________

graph in relation to availability of food after bee extinction.

Some parts of China there are NO bees what so ever so they hand pollinate crops

[Splat]

many would die of starvation.

Some parts of China there are NO bees what so ever so they hand pollinate crops

So what you're saying is... If bees went extinct, America would crumble and China would be left as the most powerful nation on Earth?

And basically everything everywhere was manufactured in China, giving them bountiful opportunities to plant cunningly disguised evil bee traps in every country of the world?

I think we need the old James Bond back...



A Jar of Dead Fish Productions wishes to apologise for the appalling racism in the above post; Chine megalomaniacal super-villains are people, too.

[STM]

err,

[shaman]

Do different types of bees produce different kinds of honey?

Honest, serious question.

[OANST]

Mexican bees would produce spicy honey if they weren't so lazy.

[shaman]

Polish bees are the only species recorded to practise stealing the jobs of worker bees from other hives.

[OANST]

African bees make honey from chickens.

[shaman]

American bee queens are turning black for the first time in history.

[OANST]

Israeli bees make honey from the tears of Muslims.

[shaman]

Yeah, but you know how the British Bees feel about the Muslim bees.

[OANST]

They want to rape them?

[used:)]

I didn't even bother reading the thread and this is still probably the best thing that's been posted.

[Nate]

I didn't even bother reading the thread and this is still probably the best thing that's been posted.

At last, Sesame Street teaches American kids the correct way to speak English.

[enchilado]

Two bumps in the front? Sounds good to me.

[Dixanadu]

Man, I fucking LOVE bees.

And jam.

[MeechMunchie]

Do different types of bees produce different kinds of honey?

Honest, serious question.

Different flowers do. Borage Flower honey is paler and thicker than some other kinds. I can't remember any others though.

[STM]

Stop answering for me bitch!

There's my multi flower honey which is a thick orange
Clover, translucent white
etc

[Phylum]

Can you tell what sort of honey is produced from the characteristics of the flower, or is it trial and error.

Also, you didn't answer Shamans question; if 2 different species of bees collect pollen from the same flower, will they make the same honey.

[STM]

oh sorry, yes probably

erm and yes you can work out what the honey will be from the characteristics of the flower...sort of. I think that over the years we worked it out by mono-flower honey, like when colonies where only around one flower (example rape seed) the bees will only collect that plants pollen and you can see the honey's characteristics (In RS's case terribly sticky and easily setting.) If its a multi-pollen honey you can either get it tested scientifically to find out each separate pollen type or simply rely on the characteristics of the honey to find out what the majority of the pollen in the honey is.

-sorry if that's a bit garbled, I feel ill.

[enchilado]

-sorry if that's a bit garbled, I feel ill.

Don't worry, it was just as understandable as usual.

[Crashpunk]

This would be a whole different thread if the Wasps were dying out.

[STM]

Yes by the way since you revived the thead. I GOT AN A*! No shit! Go me. But seriously, wasps are almost equally as important as bees pollinating wise!

[Dixanadu]

Except wasps are annoying cunts.

[Mac Sirloin]

I have learned more about Bees in the space of about four minutes than any other subject in my entire life.

[STM]

Good, then my work here is done. Now then, I'm off to Mars before this thread degenerates.