Honey Bees Bounce Back In Nebraska, Iowa

[OmahaBlueDog]

Source: KETV Omaha

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Honey bees are making a comeback in Iowa and Nebraska, researchers said.

A mild winter and warm spring are contributing factors in the rise in population, University of Nebraska Entomologist Marion Ellis said.

"The bees have gotten stronger than they usually are this early, so that means there could be quite a few more honey bee swarms this spring," he said.

Ellis said that, despite what entertainment media often shows, swarms of bees are not much of a danger.

Read more: http://www.ketv.com/news/30944154/detail.html

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[freshwest]

1. Love it. Thanks for the good news.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

2. I'm with you, freshwest!!

I absolutely love the Hunnies

[freshwest]

3. I love them, too. Up here where I live now, they're mostly 'mason bees,' which are smaller.

That's one of the best pictures I've seen of a honey bee.

It seems to show her personality!

Thanks.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

13. I know...isn't she cute?

I'm always anthropomorphizing critters.....she does look like she's just holding onto that petal, thinking, "Oooooooweeee, this is gonna be good! Num num num num!"

[Nictuku]

4. Swarm in my yard

Over the weekend there was a honeybee swarm in my yard. It was kind of scary at first, their buzzing was so loud.

After a while they seemed to lite on the live oak tree that is kind of hollowed out at the bottom.

No wonder there is tons of honeybee activity around here lately. I think I saw a bunch of their scouts the day before.

I just kept my distance (and the pets), I'm pretty sure they have moved into the oak tree by my driveway.

[annm4peace]

5. that is wonderful

I hope you plant some flowers to help feed them and make they strong.

I lived on the upper floor of a two story building. the bottom level was a beauty shop built in the 30's.
anyhow one whole wall was a beehive. they had told my land lady that the colony had been in there so long that if they killed them or got rid of them the wall could collaspe and there would be a worse problem with ants and other insects.

If you put your ear to the wall you could hear them. Once in awhile some bees would get in my bedroom but they would go straight to the window to get out. Sometimes they wore themselves out before I could get the window open and able to get them to go down to where they could get outside and they would die.

One time I was looking out the window the colony was swarming in a cloud about 5 feet from window.. then they went around the side to where they entered the wall. that side of the building was a wisteria bush.. that wound along a tressels.

in the 3 years I lived there I never knew of anyone getting stung.

[madokie]

9. I'd love to be in your place

We are seeing some on the honey suckle blooms now so maybe we'll see an increase in bees. The last three years we didn't have any squash on our plants because they're wasn't any bees to pollinate them. This is great news.

[grantcart]

10. Was it about this size?

Last week we noticed a number of bees just outside our hotel window and notified the desk.

The next day one had gotten inside of our screen. We carefully captured it and released it.

Within a few minutes a swarm twice the size of this one had formed.

Unfortunately it had become a real danger to the guests of the hotel.

They started to breach our room and the hotel called the exterminators after they rushed us into another room.

We went back after the exterminators and found enough bees to fill a gallon container.

We wondered if the freed bee went back and told the rest that the place checked out and the people were really friendly.

Ironic Karma indeed.

[lonestarnot]

6. Get down bees!

[shcrane71]

7. I've seen quite a bit of bees already this season

And even a bumblebee. Those are my favorites.

[Javaman]

8. That is until monsanto starts their crop dusting with clothianidin.

It's still early string in Nebraska. Monsanto still has plenty of time to due lots of damage.

Read up on clothianidin and see how it was banned in Germany and France (but not the U.S. of course) because it kills honey bees.

[4_TN_TITANS]

11. "not much of a danger."

My girls like to pet the backs of honey bees that are busy digging in flowers for pollen. The bees are too busy with their task to care about being touched.

[Kermitt Gribble]

12. My first thought was that this research came from the firm monsanto recently bought.

http://naturalsociety.com/monsanto-bee-collapse-buys-bee-research-firm/#ixzz1sUCsUIfh

[hedgehog]

14. It makes sense that the bees that are around today

would be descendants of those that survived whatever killed all the rest. In other words, natural selection has responded by producing an insect resistant to the pesticide in wide use.