Honey Bee behavior predicts coming natural disaster
One of nature’s tiny creatures is more sensitive to the dangers, and the changes, around us than we are. The honey bee seems to be able to sense weather changes, and respond in time.
This is a letter describing the disappearance of the honey bees 2-3 weeks before Hurricane Gustav, and then Ike in Louisiana, in August, 2008. They just returned now, in November, after the hurricane, when it was safe.
Fema set a deadline for picking up debris and tree limbs and will only pass one more time with their dump trucks. So, I helped my brother Ronnie cut up some large tree branches still resting on his trailer this past Sunday. And today, (Tuesday), with me being busy working on a paint job, my brother decided to come over to my side of the street to gather up tree branches and twigs that I had already cut.
This is interesting, similar to your post about frogs gathering before earthquakes occur. When I had painted a local church statue a strange phenomenon happened. A ball of honey bees swarmed above the statue of Mary I was painting and then a minute later they swarmed in the top of a tree about 10 ft. away for another minute, and then they left as quickly as they had arrived.
A few weeks later as I pondered about that event I went out into my yard to observe a natural bee hive inside the base of a tree in my front yard that had been there for years. But the bees had moved away. This was about two or three weeks before Hurricane Gustav came, I even told my brother that the bees had moved away. I waited and waited, and not a single bee could be found.
The next few days and weeks I had looked again. Still no bees. At the time my brother and I had just concluded that it was a natural occurrence, that for whatever reason, the queen bee had moved the hive away. We forgot about it.
But today as we approached the familiar tree with holes at the base and one a little higher up, we both noticed something peculiar. The bees are back! My brother speculated that perhaps somehow, they sensed something was endangering them (the hurricane) just weeks before the storm hit?
The pic I enclosed is the pre-storm bee-hive. Today we saw the same hive with maybe one tenth the number of bees, ….but they are definitely back!
Science related articles on Bee Biology
A few mechanisms that may help bees sense a change in the weather:
1. Honey bees can sense changes in air pressure, but these are often not directly linked to the storms.
2. Second, the hairs on the bee’s backs are sensitive and would be affected by electrostatic buildups in weather clouds.
3. Finally, bees respond strongly to solar radiation… not simply to the intensity of light, but a more rounded response. Whether this is a direct stimulus, or a secondary effect due to the influence of solar radiation on plants’ ability to produce nectar is unknown. Under good flight conditions (reasonably calm and warm with flowers in blossom), the overall flight activity of a bee colony is reported to almost synchronize with changes in solar radiation levels.
Effects of meteorological factors on defensive behavior of honey bees
The main results show how the defensive behavior of honey bees is highly dependent on weather factors. Eliminating genetic variance, the following meteorological variables account for 92.4% of the variation in defensive behavior:
solar radiation intensity,
relative humidity, and
Albert Einstein made the statement, “ If honey bees become extinct, human society will follow in four years.” He was speaking in regard to the symbiotic relationship of all life on the planet.
Many people would be surprised to know that 90% of the feral (wild) bee population in the United States has died out. Recent studies in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have shown that bee diversity is down 80 percent in the sites researched, and that “bee species are declining or have become extinct in Britain.”
European beekeepers observed similar phenomena in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, and initial reports have also come in from Switzerland and Germany, albeit to a lesser degree.
Possible cases of CCD have also been reported in Taiwan since April 2007.
The cause or causes of the syndrome are not yet fully understood, although many authorities attribute the problem to biotic factors such as: mites and insect diseases Other proposed causes include environmental change-related stresses, malnutrition and pesticides, and migratory beekeeping.
It is being called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and is causing agricultural honeybees nationwide to abandon their hives, and disappear. This is raising worries about crops that need bees for pollination.
Bees have done quite well for millions of years, in the last 60 years that began to change. In recent years, beekeepers have been losing 25 percent of their hives each winter. Thirty years ago, the rate was 5 percent to 10 percent
There are no bee bodies; they simply all disappear, all adult bees are simply gone, sometimes leaving a queen and a few young hatched workers. This is unheard of, since normally a bee colony will do almost anything to protect its queen.
The hive is left intact, with capped cells of honey and bee bread.
What does bee behavior tell us about our future wellbeing?
During a natural threat, like a hurricane, the bees left. They came back when it was safe again. This is on a local level.
But where are the bees going on a national level, when they do not come back at all? Where are they migrating to?
What does this mean? Is nature trying to tell us something? Our agriculture and food production is dependent upon bee pollination.
It is good that in Louisiana, the honey bees came back to their original nest a few months later, after the 2 hurricanes. But it is not good that honey bees are disappearing from entire nations, on a global level.
Possible meanings to all this:
Seeing Bees, or other creatures, leave may indicate:
1. a coming adverse environmental change (weather, disease, chemical), which humans will eventually detect as well.
2. a current adverse change that is only detectible by bees, but not humans.
So, we might need to think about what atmospheric changes are occurring now, that might be interpreted as adverse, not just for them, but for us also. What is “in the air” that is dangerous to the bees, that they need to “leave?”
3. This disappearance of the honey bee will decrease the global food supply, as bees are need for pollination of food plants. The 3rd seal of Revelation described a black horse, which represents famine on the earth. Perhaps, this tiny creature’s behavior is a clue that the black horse is getting ready to ride.
4. In case of future weather or environmental dangers, look around you, and see how nature is responding. If the honey bees, or other creatures, are fleeing the area, this is a good sign that you should do this also. Leave when they do, and you might just save your own life.
Additional reading (well done):
“No Bees, No Food”