A bee eats the nectar of a flowering crocus in Zurich
Keystone
Bee colonies in Switzerland and Liechtenstein diminished by 30% over the winter, according to a survey of 1,000 Swiss beekeepers.
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swissinfo.ch and agencies/jmh
Published on Monday, the survey by an umbrella organization of beekeeper associations known as Apisuisse blamed the decline on a parasitic mite, insecticides and other environmental factors.
It’s a trend that adds to European and American farmers’ longtime
worries about the declining population of honeybees, a key crop pollinator that originated in Europe.
Bees play an important role in global food production by carrying the pollen from flowering plants, but there have been widespread reports of so-called colony-collapse disorder. Only a few of the 20,000 bee species are honeybees, which are cultivated in hives.
Buzz kill
Among the challenges to bee farming is lack of land, spread of disease, parasites like the varroa mite and the use of fungicides, herbicides and pesticides.
Over the winter more than 20% of the bee colonies were lost – of those, 14% did not survive and 6.8% had problems with queen bees, meaning the death of the colony. Another 9.9% were too weak in the spring of 2017 to develop into strong colonies, Apisuisse said in a statementExternal link.
“In strong colonies, only seven of the ten settlements in the fall of 2016 were still available in spring for pollination and honey harvesting,” it said.
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Pollinators like bees play a much greater role in plant evolution than previously thought, according to a University of Zurich study.
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Throughout the northern hemisphere beekeepers have been struggling to maintain adequate numbers of honey bee colonies for crop pollination and honey production due to dramatic increases in colony deaths each year. “Alongside introduced parasites, it is believed that agricultural chemicals may play a role in these issues,” says lead author Geoffrey Williams of the University…
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The film More than Honey by Markus Imhof, a Swiss director, is about the disappearance of bees all over the world. But it’s also about the intelligent and social behaviour of bees. Its images are fascinating and shocking at the same time. It’s also thanks to the big success of this documentary that the number…
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swissinfo.ch: With More Than Honey you have made a film critical of the bee business. Do you still eat honey? Markus Imhoof: Yes, almost every day. The bees aren’t responsible for the situation. swissinfo.ch: What does honey represent for you? M.I.: It incorporates the best of nature. Like a diamond you can eat. swissinfo.ch: You…
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The past few years have been tough for bee colonies almost everywhere. For example, colony collapse disorder was a massive problem in the United States in 2007. But this year has proven disastrous for honeybees and their keepers in Switzerland. A study of a thousand Swiss hives shows that 50 per cent of the bees…
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His film captures the breeding of queen bees in minute detail, ventures to a laboratory to witness a bee brain scan, and discovers the dangerous prospects of a hive facing an infection through mites. It explores issues facing bees today, from the manufacturing of artificial hives to the migration of killer bees from Brazil to…
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Worrying diseases include the varroa mite and foulbrood. The number of apiarists is also dropping, with their average age being around 70. (All pictures by Tomas Wüthrich.)
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