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This may actually affect availability of Brazilian honey in the US (and prices).
Is my math wrong or is that something in the neighborhood of 8,000 to 10,000 hives, in three months, for a whole country? We lose almost a million hives a year. If you want to grab headlines, they would read: "U.S. loses 40 to 60 trillion bees last year"This may actually affect availability of Brazilian honey in the US (and prices).
When I had no bees and used to buy organic honey - it was mostly all from Brazil.
Economically speaking, maybe good for the US beekeepers.
But the impact on Brazilian ecology is terrible - the pesticides.
were do those numbers come from?Is my math wrong or is that something in the neighborhood of 8,000 to 10,000 hives, in three months, for a whole country? We lose almost a million hives a year. If you want to grab headlines, they would read: "U.S. loses 40 to 60 trillion bees last year"
The U.S. loses between 3 to 5 trillion bees a month. And that is due to colony loss, not natural attrition of an insect with a very short life-span.
I really don't know if this is a significant number or not. This could be just a few large bee farmers who got poisoned in Brazil. It would be nice if the article had put in some way to contrast against the entire amount of managed bee colonies in Brazil. 500 million bees could be a lot. Or it could be almost insignificant.
Don't worry, the Chinese will take up the slack, somehow.This may actually affect availability of Brazilian honey in the US (and prices).
When I had no bees and used to buy organic honey - it was mostly all from Brazil.
Economically speaking, maybe good for the US beekeepers.
But the impact on Brazilian ecology is terrible - the pesticides.
I was estimating between 40,000 to 60,000 bees per colony? 500,000,000 / 50,000 = 10,000 colonies. Those would be strong colonies so, if you take it to 30,000 bees/colony you would be looking at about 17,000 colonies. We have single operations in the US with >40,000 colonies.were do those numbers come from?
I suppose Chinese will repackage the honey in Brazilian warehouses and sell in the US as "organic honey".Don't worry, the Chinese will take up the slack, somehow.
Alex
Is my math wrong or is that something in the neighborhood of 8,000 to 10,000 hives, in three months, for a whole country? We lose almost a million hives a year. If you want to grab headlines, they would read: "U.S. loses 40 to 60 trillion bees last year"
The U.S. loses between 3 to 5 trillion bees a month. And that is due to colony loss, not natural attrition of an insect with a very short life-span.
I really don't know if this is a significant number or not. This could be just a few large bee farmers who got poisoned in Brazil. It would be nice if the article had put in some way to contrast against the entire amount of managed bee colonies in Brazil. 500 million bees could be a lot. Or it could be almost insignificant.
I can't make up my mind what to make of your replies. Rather than commiserate with Brazil's misfortunes, you instead quote your own country's losses for comparison - but rather than perceiving those numbers as being a serious cause for concern, you appear to be viewing them as some kind of standard against which other country's losses ought then to be judged. I find that mode of thinking really quite extraordinary.:scratch:If we have roughly 2.3 million managed colonies in the US and we lose 40% per year (Bee Informed Partnership), that is 920,000 colonies lost annually.
Then you misunderstand the thinking. I don't know how many managed hives are kept in Brazil. Wouldn't one need to have a basic understanding of this number in order to determine whether 500 million bees is significant? Thus my conclusion, that it could be a lot of bees, or it could be insignificant.I can't make up my mind what to make of your replies. Rather than commiserate with Brazil's misfortunes, you instead quote your own country's losses for comparison - but rather than perceiving those numbers as being a serious cause for concern, you appear to be viewing them as some kind of standard against which other country's losses ought then to be judged. I find that mode of thinking really quite extraordinary.:scratch:
LJ
And yet a million bees is probably pretty accurate. I tell folks the same thing, about a million.Psm1212,
I understand what you are saying. A few days ago someone asked me how many bees I have. I said, "about a million." They looked at me as though I was lying. Then I laughed, clapped them on the shoulder and said, "No, I'm just kidding, I have 26 colonies of various sizes." To them, that was not such an outlandish claim.
Alex
Brazil is generally a mess now that they too have a "populist", pro-business elected leader.With the greatest respect - you guys are missing a key point. The story is NOT about the 500 million - .... The story is based around Brazil lifting it's pesticide regulations and so stockpiles of pesticides banned in other countries can now find a ready market..........
LJ
Not just meat, "organic" honey from Brazil needs to be banned too.It's an idea that Finland has already floated. On Friday, the Nordic country's finance minister called for the European Union to "urgently review the possibility of banning Brazilian beef imports" over the Amazon fires.