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Photo by Corwin Bell	Articles Bee Troubles Changing Industry ~insidebayarea.com By Aaron French, June 3, 2008 Additionally, her hives have no artificial foundation — the stamped honeycomb template beekeepers use to regulate size. Larger combs equal more honey and more money, but Roll believes this can stress the bees and make them susceptible to disease. Finally, her hives are shaped in a half-hexagon, the natural shape bees use to make their combs. "They are called top bar hives," she explained. First developed for the third world as a low-cost alternative, they have become a symbol among a growing group of independent thinkers who are challenging traditional beekeeping methods. Using such techniques, small-scale beekeepers are less apt to experience Colony Collapse. US Loosing Bees and Beekeepers ~ USA Today By Heather Collura, April 11, 2008 "Just by having a hive or two, you can be a tremendous asset," he said. Tarpy also said "backyard bees" hold the key to solving the Colony Collapse Disorder mystery. "More genetic diversity is very, very crucial," Tarpy said, "and because of that hobby, beekeepers are a genetic reservoir for diversity." Getting real buzz out of new role! ~by Amy Salter, Ormskirk Advertiser, Feb 21 2008 “It seems beekeeping is becoming somewhat ‘trendy’,” he said. “I think more people want to get in touch with nature now and you can put as much or little time into it as you want. Plus you don’t need to live in a suburban area, it’s often better if you don’t.” Read More... Give Bees a Chance ~ Ode Magazine, Janurary 2008 Some good points about CCD, one of the better articles we have seen on the subject: "the pesticide fluvalinate creates resistance in the mite and disrupts the bees’ homing behaviour and ability to navigate. A bee that can’t find its way back home will eventually die. Pesticides used on food crops and other crops can affect bees, even at sub-lethal doses. Exposure can produce a kind of pesticide intoxication that makes the bees appear “drunk” and disrupts navigation, feeding behaviour, memory, learning and egg-laying Read More... Backyard beekeepers are vital to the pollination of trees and flowers ~ Victoria Rouch, Mar 21, 2008 Local beekeeper Barry Harris said that given the startling decline in honeybees, town leaders have an environmental responsibility to promote beekeeping throughout the town, not just in select districts. Harris said honeybees are not aggressive, and peacefully coexist with humans in suburban and even urban areas. "Backyard beekeepers are vital to the pollination of trees and ornamental flowers," he said. Wilmington attorney Duke Lineberry, who keeps bees both at his home and behind his office on Wrightsville Avenue, echoed Harris' sentiments. Lineberry said his bees have never bothered the neighbors, and the hobby is rewarding. "One season has made a difference in the yard," he said. "It's a fun hobby; it's very intellectual. And it's our small way of giving back to the environment." Read More... Beekeepers strive to meet farming needs ~ MyrtlebeachOnline.com, March, 12 2008 Successful beekeeping is like performing the most intricate waltz; you need technical skills, but intuition is the most important part. And more people in southeastern North Carolina are attracted to the dance - from professionals to hobbyists - as interest in environmentalism and the local food movement grows. A beekeeping association is forming in New Hanover County, and a beekeeping school began classes in March in Ogden. "[Beekeeping is] growing by leaps and bounds because thereare no wild bees out there anymore, and people are doing a lot of backyard gardening and all the blueberries and truck farming crops in that area of the state have to have bees brought in for pollination," says Bill Sheppard, an apiary inspector for the N.C. State Beekeepers Association. More than 2,000 members belong to the association, making it the nation's largest. Read More... Wayne Esaias: Buzzing About Climate Change ~ Earthobservatory NASA "When you grow a large crop for agriculture, you might have hundreds acres of, say, cucumbers all being managed to bloom at the same time, to be harvested at the same time, for efficiency,” Esaias explains. That kind of uniformity isn’t natural for native pollinators, which need a diverse and season-long food supply. Read More.. Edward O. Wilson: Saving Earth From the Ground Up ~ Washington Post June 30, 2007 "It's a bad thing when any species is at risk," Wilson said of CCD. "But in a sense it's the Katrina of entomology." It has brought a public awareness to the plight of pollinators, which Wilson calls "the heart of the biosphere." Read More.. Edward O. Wilson: “This planet can be a paradise in the 22nd century.”~ Wilson’s prediction that 30 percent to 50 percent of all species would be extinct by the middle of the 21st century was meant to provoke -- and it did. With the human population expected to reach 9-10 billion by the end of the century and the planet in the middle of its sixth mass extinction -- this time due to human activity -- the next few years are critical in maintaining anything near the current level of biodiversity. Read More.. Rudolf Steiner the time will also have come when a fairly great number of representatives of humanity will be ripe to acknowledge the supersensible worlds of which the speaks today. Such a phenomenon as that of the bee-life in connection with what can be known of the supersensible worlds offers a wonderful answer to the great riddle of existence. These things are of great importance from yet another side. It will become increasingly indispensable to grasp the nature of the group souls, and such knowledge will play a great role even in the purely external evolution of humanity. Read More Links Edward O. Wilson - 2 time Pulitzer Prize Winner, TED Prize BackYardHive.com - Resource for backyard Bee Guardians, how to get started


	Videos
	Edward O. Wilson receives TED Prize ~ As E.O. Wilson accepts his 2007 TED Prize, he makes a plea on behalf of his constituents, the insects and small creatures, to learn more about our biosphere.


	Books
	(If you are interested in any these books please refer to the column on the left) Edward O. Wilson: The Diversity of Life ~ "As extinction spreads, some of the lost forms prove to be keystone species, whose disappearance brings down other species and triggers a ripple effect through the demographics of the survivors. The loss of a keystone species is like a drill accidentally striking a powerline. It causes lights to go out all over." Edward O. Wilson The Diversity of Life ~ "Organisms possessing common ancestry rise to dominance, expand their geographic ranges, and split into multiple species. Some of the species acquire novel life cycles and ways of life. The groups they replace retreat to relict status, being diminished in scattershot fashion by competition, disease, shifts in climate, or any other environmental change that serves to clear the way for the newcomers. In time the ascendant group itself stalls and begins to fall back. Its species vanish one by one until they are all gone. Once in a while, in a minority of groups, a lucky species hits upon a new biological trait that allows it to expand and radiate again, reanimating the cycle of dominance on behalf of its phylogenetic kin."

	John Alcock: Animal Behavior: An Evolutionary Approach, Third Edition ~ " If a sun compass were the only mechanism available to bees and pigeons their homing abilities should be severely affected by cloudy weather. But both species can forage and navigate successfully on totally overcast days. Thus these species have more than one compass mechanism, one of which may be sensitivity to the weak lines of magnetic force created by the earth’s magnetic field….Both pigeons and honeybees have magnetic compounds concentrated in certain tissues of their bodies; these compounds may be part of a magnetism detector."
	Quotes
	"We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces. " Carl Sagan



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