this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2025
520 points (99.2% liked)

News

36118 readers
3263 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.


Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, blogs, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.


7. No duplicate posts.


If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.


All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Summary

The U.S. beekeeping industry is experiencing unprecedented losses, with hundreds of millions of bees dying over the past eight months.

Blake Shook, a leading beekeeper, called it "the worst bee loss in recorded history."

Researchers remain uncertain about the cause, pointing to potential factors like habitat changes and weather patterns.

Beekeeping operations are struggling to survive, raising concerns about food security and the sustainability of crop production.

all 41 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 50 points 11 months ago (1 children)

couldn't be all the pesticide in over use?!

couldn't be that these bee's are invasive and not native to the land...

couldn't be that diversity is actually fucking essential?

[–] Gates9@sh.itjust.works 15 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] Vandals_handle@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

Neonicotinoids also bioaccumulate and are responsible for declining numbers of insectivore birds. This results in a viscous circle leading to the use of more Neonicotinoids.

[–] pennomi@lemmy.world 37 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Millions of bees is not very many. That’s like one smallish operation.

I’m sure it’s actually a much bigger problem than the numbers they have.

Edit: ah I see now, the article says hundreds of millions of bees, and this post missed a couple words.

[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Still technically millions. Could have said dozens, as in millions of dozens I suppose as well.

[–] x00z@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago

A few bees, as in 20 gazillion.

[–] datavoid@lemmy.ml 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

this post missed a couple words.

So did the article's title

[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Honestly, It's a pretty major fuck up. It makes the headline inaccurate by 2 orders of magnitude...

Cause a million bees is what... A dozen hives? I just googled it and it's literally my body weight in bees. Which now that I've said it out loud, is sort of terrifying, but you know what I mean.

[–] brrt@sh.itjust.works 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

my body weight in bees. Which now that I've said it out loud, is sort of terrifying

Not sure I understand correctly, did you imagine your body made out of bees? If so and if you like reading sci-fi you might enjoy Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Dogs of War.

[–] bradorsomething@ttrpg.network 3 points 11 months ago

If I saw his body-weight in bees walking down the sidewalk in a skin suit, I would high five him, no question.

[–] Gates9@sh.itjust.works 32 points 11 months ago (3 children)

We are the extinction event

[–] Franklin@lemmy.ca 18 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Yup. The wealthy have us fighting culture wars while they strip the planet.

[–] Onsotumenh@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 11 months ago

Had quite a few arguments with climate change trivialising friends/relatives. The classic "the climate is always changing" and "earth has been warmer"... The one point that seems to stop at least some in their tracks was this:

You know I studied geosciences? Do you know what we call the periods in earths history where climate was changing as fast as it currently does? We call them global catastrophes and extinction events!

[–] Ashenlux@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 11 months ago

I have come to the same conclusion. The realization comes with lots of fear and anxiety, but also a bit of peace. The earth has gone through many mass extinction events and recovered, so hopefully it will do the same after this. It is interesting that this extinction event is caused in part by a species living on it that can see what is going on, had opportunities to prevent/mitigate it, and chose not to.

[–] yournamehere@lemm.ee 27 points 11 months ago (1 children)

who needs eggs or honey if you can have rollingcoal and chaosfacism?

[–] slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I now eat even more meat, so the vegans don't win.

[–] yournamehere@lemm.ee 0 points 11 months ago

imdb tt0387808

mike judge is a prophet

[–] sexy_peach@feddit.org 25 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] Chocrates@lemmy.world 29 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's the European honeybee no doubt. The native species may even do better with this loss, but it doesn't fix the pollination issue for our food.

[–] exasperation@lemm.ee 17 points 11 months ago

The native species may even do better with this loss

Not if the native species are also susceptible to the same cause of death. If that's the case, the European honeybee deaths could be an indicator, correlated with the uncounted deaths of the native species.

[–] roguetrick@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago

Doesn't matter in my opinion when it comes to the western honeybee. They're not native to the Americas. But they're specifically citing beekeepers.

[–] Billonthehill@lemmy.world 23 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Bee-keeping is about the most intensive form of agriculture that we humans have, with one species (and a couple of close relatives) providing pollination for just about every major insect-pollinated crop on the planet. It is particularly extreme in the US. We ship a large proportion of all the hives in the USA to California for the annual almond crop flowering. Then we ship them all back to where they came from. It is a perfect set up for spreading diseases and parasites. In the process of all this, we are depriving native pollinators of sustenance. So the one alternative source of pollination when the bees die has already been decimated every single year.

[–] altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

The Earth has moved.

Gray, aged bees were moving chaotically, struggling to reconstruct the hive how only they remember, were taught to build.

The resulting pattern of squares, triangles, decahedrones was insane, and seeing this, Roland knew, their hive won't last long.

[–] TheOneAndOnly@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is that a Dark Tower reference?

[–] altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 11 months ago

Yup. One of my favorite little moments in the series. It just stirs you wrong that the best builders of our world can't do this anymore.

[–] MoreFPSmorebetter@lemmy.zip 14 points 11 months ago

On one hand I'm allergic to bees (not deadly but definitely dangerous for me), but on the other hand I kinda want the world to continue to have life on it.... It's a real struggle who I'm rooting for here.

Kidding kidding.

[–] OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml 9 points 11 months ago

Bees are such good pollinators that we can't still decipher how they know how to travel so efficiently.

[–] Goretantath@lemm.ee 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I literally saw a dead bumble bee out on the pavement yesterday.. soo not good..

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Believe it or not, bees aren't supposed to be immortal. Dead bees on random pavements are just sign that bees exist around somewhere.
Not good would be not finding anyone, dead or alive.

[–] GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 11 months ago

Curiously enough, the dolphins had long known of the impending demolition of Earth and had made many attempts to alert mankind to the danger. But most of their communications were misinterpreted as amusing attempts to punch footballs, or whistle for titbits, so they eventually gave up and left the Earth by their own means - shortly before the Vogons arrived. The last ever dolphin message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double backwards somersault through a hoop, whilst whistling the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’. But, in fact, the message was this “So long and thanks for all the fish”.

[–] Bellingdog@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

ATC cuts are taking their toll on all flying craft.

[–] My_IFAKs___gone@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

I think Black Mirror came up with a solution of sorts to this.

[–] The_Worst@feddit.nl 6 points 11 months ago

Just keep using Roundup, nothing to see here, move along.

[–] blakenong@lemmings.world 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

What about the other beekeepers

[–] kamenlady@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

We all know there is only one beekeeper...

[–] blakenong@lemmings.world 1 points 11 months ago

Morgan Freeman?

There is probably lots of things effecting the bee population. Maybe it's time to look for alternatives and create reservations to insure the bees survival.

Or we could put all our eggs in one basket. It's not like all the baskets of eggs aren't going into a truck and driven off a cliff, when talking climate change.

[–] x00z@lemmy.world -5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I got a call from a friend who had 20,000 beehives at the start of the winter, and he's at less than 1,000. He said 'This is it, I'm done.'

Maybe leave them their honey for the winter instead of taking it and replacing it with shitty sugar water?

[–] PotentialProblem@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 months ago

It’s pretty obvious when your hive dies from starvation.

I lost my hives this year due to me being a newish beekeeper and some very aggressive yellow jackets doing too much damage to my hives…. before I intervened