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PostSubject: Bulgaria MPs Agree GMO Amendments to Protect Bees   EU: Ban Bee Poison. Save the bees! Icon_minitimeWed Feb 17, 2010 5:41 pm

[size=75:117vmiob]novinite 17 February 2010


Bulgaria MPs Agree GMO Amendments to Protect Bees

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he Bulgarian Parliamentary Committee on the Environment has agreed that GMOs will not be allowed within 7 kms of organic farmland, and 10 kms away from permanent, registered beehive clusters.

The committee has adopted these changes to the Law on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) at the proposal of Evdokiya Maneva, Deputy Minister of Environment and Water.

The eco-ministry had originally suggested a restriction of 7 kms for both organic farmland and beehive farms, until Peter Kurumbashev, a Coalition for Bulgaria MP, had suggested the distance from apiaries be increased to 10 kms.

Ilia Tsonev, a beekeeping industry representative agreed that this was a reasonable distance from stationary apiaries.

Having heard the opinions of MPs and NGOs, Nona Karadjova had agreed to the extended barrier.

"
At the moment, throughout the country, the cultivation of GMO types permitted in the EU is allowed, and no one has asked himself where the bees fly. This goes beyond any boundaries of responsible behavior,"
the eco-minister commented. She asked again why, in 2008, cotton had been omitted from the prohibited list for field trials with GMO cultures.

The committee of MPs also supported a proposal for the introduction of larger, more distinguishable lettering on product labels that indicate GMO content.

Socialist MPs had earlier urged the government to withdraw the legal changes, and had criticized the 5-year moratorium on the spread of GMOs proposed by the ruling GERB party.

"
Our impression is that the moratorium is another "
fake"
running of the government before the wind, not even in this case knowing where the wind is blowing from. We asked that this point be removed from the agenda, because we need to know first what we are prohibiting, what kind of law we are adopting, and only then to know why we are introducing this moratorium,"
said Petar Korumbashev of the BSP.

Meanwhile, the Initiative Committee of parents and citizens handed the Speaker of Parliament, Tsetska Tsacheva, an e-petition containing almost 16 000 signatures protesting against the amendments to the GMO Law. The petition insisted on keeping the ban in the law for the release of GMOs into the environment, as well as in protected areas and 30 km around them.

The Speaker said that GERB was willing to consider very precisely the wording of the changes between the first and second reading of the law, and that it would strictly comply with existing national and international acts,

Tsacheva later attended the deliberations of the Committee on amendments to the law, and invited representatives of the Initiative Committee, along with members of the Parliamentary Committee on Environment and Water, to comment on the texts of legislative changes.
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PostSubject: Disappearing bees syndrome reaches Bulgaria too   EU: Ban Bee Poison. Save the bees! Icon_minitimeWed Apr 13, 2011 4:15 pm

[size=55:3pm04hn1]BNR

Disappearing bees syndrome reaches Bulgaria too

The mass decreasing of the number of bees around the world is an alarming trend. As Einstein used to say, when the bees start disappearing then the human race will follow them too.
The syndrome was first noticed in the USA then in several West European countries. It looks like it has already reached Bulgaria too. Bee-keepers are truly alarmed by the unexplainable disappearing of bee families that started mid-2010.

“Bulgarian bee-keepers are really troubled by the particularly high death rate among bee families - Deputy Chair of the Union of Bulgarian Bee-keepers Simeon Todorov says. – We are not experts and we don’t know what exactly is happening, since this is the first time. There are regions, where bee-keepers have lost literally 50 percent of the bee families. These are the areas around the towns of Mezdra and Vratsa in Northwest Bulgaria. It is true that bee families suffer the greatest losses at the end of the winter, but these have never been that huge.”

Bee-keeping in this country is more like a hobby than an industry. Tens of thousands of Bulgarians take care of beehives, mainly for the needs of their families and relatives. Several of those work for the market and even take their honey abroad, where it has earned a reputation. Ilia Deshev is one of those bee-keepers that cannot explain what is happening.

“The death toll has never been that high, some 50 percent – he complaints. – I prepared them for the winter as usually, with 15-26 kg of honey per family. Now, in the spring, I discover that the honey is still there and most of the bees are gone. My colleague from the town of Troyan told me that only 50 out of his 200 beehives survived last year. We definitely need some scientific advice here.”

However, scientists don’t know what is happening either, since Bulgaria is the only European country, where there is no department in bee-keeping, Prof. Philip Stanchev explains. Veterinarians with no special training deal with the problem. Most of them think it is a question of contagious diseases that usually lead to the so-called winter mortality. However, bee-keepers disagree.

“Bees started to disappear in the summer. This is not winter mortality – Simeon Todorov explains. – We monitor the condition of beehives every day and we have found out that bees simply don’t breed. This is the main problem. That is where we need help from the scientists. The mother usually lays some 1,000 eggs per day and the same number of old bees die. The population is renewed each 35 days in the summer. Thus we are short of 30,000 bees for each 3 weeks. This is the main problem – there are no new bees.”

Scientists haven’t found an acceptable solution to the syndrome of disappearing bees so far. It threatens the whole ecological balance and bad days expect our planet if the situation remains unchanged. Bees maintain natural biodiversity with their presence and do a great ecological service to mankind.

“Bees do a great silent job while pollinating plants – Eng. Ilia Iliev, one of the amateur bee-keepers in Bulgaria says. – Exactly pollination is the main contribution of bees, and not honey. Data says that the contribution of pollination to agriculture is 25-100 times higher than the revenues from honey products. The society should pay to the bee-keepers for this ecological service.”
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PostSubject: Re: Disappearing bees syndrome reaches Bulgaria too   EU: Ban Bee Poison. Save the bees! Icon_minitimeWed Apr 13, 2011 4:21 pm

In the Borders in England, we have seen more larger Bees this year than last so I hope this is a good sign. g
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PostSubject: Re: Disappearing bees syndrome reaches Bulgaria too   EU: Ban Bee Poison. Save the bees! Icon_minitimeTue May 10, 2011 1:52 pm

Does anyone know if any studies have been done on the possible relationship between non-breeding of bees, and mobile phone coverage for instance? We keep putting more and more electro-magnetic interference and the like into our surroundings without having the slightest idea how it may affect other life forms. It would be interesting to know. Can any of you think of any such invisible hazard that may be concentrated in the Mezdra &
Vratsa area, more than elsewhere?
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PostSubject: Re: Disappearing bees syndrome reaches Bulgaria too   EU: Ban Bee Poison. Save the bees! Icon_minitimeTue May 10, 2011 1:59 pm

I read this article in the Telegraph only today.

The growing use of mobile telephones is behind the disappearance of honey bees and the collapse of their hives, scientists have claimed. Their disappearance has caused alarm throughout Europe and North America where campaigners have blamed agricultural pesticides, climate change and the advent of genetically modified crops for what is now known as 'colony collapse disorder.' Britain has seen a 15 per cent decline in its bee population in the last two years and shrinking numbers has led to a rise in thefts of hives. Now researchers from Chandigarh's Punjab University claim they have found the cause which could be the first step in reversing the decline: They have established that radiation from mobile telephones is a key factor in the phenomenon and say that it probably interfering with the bee's navigation senses.

They set up a controlled experiment in Punjab earlier this year comparing the behaviour and productivity of bees in two hives – one fitted with two mobile telephones which were powered on for two fifteen minute sessions per day for three months. The other had dummy models installed.

After three months the researchers recorded a dramatic decline in the size of the hive fitted with the mobile phone, a significant reduction in the number of eggs laid by the queen bee. The bees also stopped producing honey.

The queen bee in the "
mobile"
hive produced fewer than half of those created by her counterpart in the normal hive. They also found a dramatic decline in the number of worker bees returning to the hive after collecting pollen. Because of this the amount of nectar produced in the hive also shrank.

Ved Prakash Sharma and Neelima Kumar, the authors of the report in the journal Current Science, wrote: "
Increase in the usage of electronic gadgets has led to electro pollution of the environment. Honeybee behaviour and biology has been affected by electrosmog since these insects have magnetite in their bodies which helps them in navigation.

"
There are reports of sudden disappearance of bee populations from honeybee colonies. The reason is still not clear. We have compared the performance of honeybees in cellphone radiation exposed and unexposed colonies.

"
A significant decline in colony strength and in the egg laying rate of the queen was observed. The behaviour of exposed foragers was negatively influenced by the exposure, there was neither honey nor pollen in the colony at the end of the experiment."


Tim Lovett, of the British Bee-keepers Association, said that hives have been successful in London where there was high mobile phone use.

"
Previous work in this area has indicated this [mobile phone use] is not a real factor,"
he said. "
If new data comes along we will look at it."


He said: "
At the moment we think is more likely to be a combination of factors including disease, pesticides and habitat loss."


The UK Government has set aside £10 million for research into the decline of pollinators like bees, but the BBKA claim much more money is needed for research into the problem, including studies on pesticides, disease and new technology like mobile phones.

According to the University of Durham, England's bees are vanishing faster than anywhere else in Europe, with more than half of hives

dying out over the last 20 years.

The most recent statistics from last winter show that the decline in honey bees in Britain is slowing, with just one in six hives lost.

This is still above the natural rate of ten per cent losses, but a vast improvement on previous years.

There has been an increase in the number of thefts of hives across the world and in Germany bee-keepers have started fitting GPS tracking devices to their hives.
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PostSubject: Re: Disappearing bees syndrome reaches Bulgaria too   EU: Ban Bee Poison. Save the bees! Icon_minitimeTue May 10, 2011 3:06 pm

I think that the problem is more than likely to be Pesticides we use so much of it these days and lets not forget its a poison. EU: Ban Bee Poison. Save the bees! 2581928987
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PostSubject: Re: Disappearing bees syndrome reaches Bulgaria too   EU: Ban Bee Poison. Save the bees! Icon_minitimeTue May 10, 2011 3:11 pm

This is really serious we do not know what else the mobile phones will be affecting on our planet do we. :Very sad:I agree with the pesticides side of things to, this is killing lots creatures, we used to see lots of frogs and toads, ponds and streams full of frogspawn hardly see any now. EU: Ban Bee Poison. Save the bees! 927475117
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PostSubject: Re: Disappearing bees syndrome reaches Bulgaria too   EU: Ban Bee Poison. Save the bees! Icon_minitimeTue May 10, 2011 5:26 pm

Blink wrote:
I read this article in the Telegraph only today.

The growing use of mobile telephones is behind the disappearance of honey bees and the collapse of their hives, scientists have claimed. Their disappearance has caused alarm throughout Europe and North America where campaigners have blamed agricultural pesticides, climate change and the advent of genetically modified crops for what is now known as 'colony collapse disorder.' Britain has seen a 15 per cent decline in its bee population in the last two years and shrinking numbers has led to a rise in thefts of hives. Now researchers from Chandigarh's Punjab University claim they have found the cause which could be the first step in reversing the decline: They have established that radiation from mobile telephones is a key factor in the phenomenon and say that it probably interfering with the bee's navigation senses.

They set up a controlled experiment in Punjab earlier this year comparing the behaviour and productivity of bees in two hives – one fitted with two mobile telephones which were powered on for two fifteen minute sessions per day for three months. The other had dummy models installed.

After three months the researchers recorded a dramatic decline in the size of the hive fitted with the mobile phone, a significant reduction in the number of eggs laid by the queen bee. The bees also stopped producing honey.

The queen bee in the "
mobile"
hive produced fewer than half of those created by her counterpart in the normal hive. They also found a dramatic decline in the number of worker bees returning to the hive after collecting pollen. Because of this the amount of nectar produced in the hive also shrank.

Ved Prakash Sharma and Neelima Kumar, the authors of the report in the journal Current Science, wrote: "
Increase in the usage of electronic gadgets has led to electro pollution of the environment. Honeybee behaviour and biology has been affected by electrosmog since these insects have magnetite in their bodies which helps them in navigation.

"
There are reports of sudden disappearance of bee populations from honeybee colonies. The reason is still not clear. We have compared the performance of honeybees in cellphone radiation exposed and unexposed colonies.

"
A significant decline in colony strength and in the egg laying rate of the queen was observed. The behaviour of exposed foragers was negatively influenced by the exposure, there was neither honey nor pollen in the colony at the end of the experiment."


Tim Lovett, of the British Bee-keepers Association, said that hives have been successful in London where there was high mobile phone use.

"
Previous work in this area has indicated this [mobile phone use] is not a real factor,"
he said. "
If new data comes along we will look at it."


He said: "
At the moment we think is more likely to be a combination of factors including disease, pesticides and habitat loss."


The UK Government has set aside £10 million for research into the decline of pollinators like bees, but the BBKA claim much more money is needed for research into the problem, including studies on pesticides, disease and new technology like mobile phones.

According to the University of Durham, England's bees are vanishing faster than anywhere else in Europe, with more than half of hives

dying out over the last 20 years.

The most recent statistics from last winter show that the decline in honey bees in Britain is slowing, with just one in six hives lost.

This is still above the natural rate of ten per cent losses, but a vast improvement on previous years.

There has been an increase in the number of thefts of hives across the world and in Germany bee-keepers have started fitting GPS tracking devices to their hives.

Let us hope that some answer can come of all this study, it is one thing to discover the cause of the problem, but it appears to be difficult to put into place a solution.

c c
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PostSubject: Re: Disappearing bees syndrome reaches Bulgaria too   EU: Ban Bee Poison. Save the bees! Icon_minitimeTue May 10, 2011 11:31 pm

Quite so! When I was a young Mum we didn't even have a landline, we used the phone box down the street. Now it seems everybody can't live without one, not to mention mobile broadband and personal networking to your home devices wherever you are. I know we can't turn back the clock but the fact is we lived just as satisfactorily without all this stuff, we don't have it because we need it, but only because we can. That's the irony of it! Paper and pen served perfectly well, and they never crashed or got hacked into by viruses!
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PostSubject: Re: Disappearing bees syndrome reaches Bulgaria too   EU: Ban Bee Poison. Save the bees! Icon_minitimeWed May 11, 2011 7:08 am

No Bees=No Pollination=No food=Death! Sorry to put a dampener on it but it's true......
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PostSubject: Re: Disappearing bees syndrome reaches Bulgaria too   EU: Ban Bee Poison. Save the bees! Icon_minitimeWed May 11, 2011 11:48 am

Yes. But how many people will take this seriously enough to change their way of life voluntarily? I.T. is a billion pound industry, like the pharmaceutical and chemical businesses, they don't let go of profits without a huge dirty fight. Remenber the arthritis drug Opreyn, which was found to cause horrible and extremely painful, lifelong side effects? But even knowing this, the makers went on producing and selling it to people for TWO MORE YEARS till it was banned. They had to be FORCED to stop!

Last time the Earth was destroyed by flood, the time before by fire, we have been told that next time it would be our technology that destroyed us. Most took this to mean atomic war, but that didn't happen, now most people don't pay any attention to such predictions and have forgotten they were ever made. The tragedy is that our technology can be used for wonderful things, and gets sqandered on trivia. When you think back to what a wonderful invention television was, and look what it's mostly become today, doesn't it make you want to weep!
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PostSubject: BEES !!!   EU: Ban Bee Poison. Save the bees! Icon_minitimeTue May 17, 2011 10:08 am

We have a BIG bee palaver!! Yesterday as usual I was at home with our baby son, Yasmin was at nursery and Toby was at work. I went into the kitchen and there were bees all over the place!!! I went upstairs and Yasmin's bedroom was also full of bees!! They seem to be coming through the chimney, through the loft, through the wood burner, through the spot lights etc etc.... All that buzzing was rather scary to say the least. Toby came home and noticed outside there were loads of bees hanging around our chimney. The local’s recon that the 'Queen Bee' must have gone down our chimney and the rest have followed. He lit the fire and sprayed the loft which was FULL of bees!! Unfortunately the bees are still getting in!! He has put something on top of our chimney to block it. Toby has arranged for someone to come and try and get rid of them but not until tomorrow. EU: Ban Bee Poison. Save the bees! 3135333095

The locals in our village keep telling us to be careful because if the 'Queen Bee' stings us we'll die.....mmmm, I've googled it and cannot find information to confirm that.
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PostSubject: Re: BEES !!!   EU: Ban Bee Poison. Save the bees! Icon_minitimeTue May 17, 2011 10:12 am

Crikey Tys ... go steady and keep your eyes open. I hope you get rid of the nest tomorrow.

The only real difference between a queen bee sting and a normal bee sting, is the Queen doesn't leave the 'stinger' behind, she can just keep on stinging you!
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PostSubject: Re: Disappearing bees syndrome reaches Bulgaria too   EU: Ban Bee Poison. Save the bees! Icon_minitimeThu Jun 02, 2011 5:33 pm

Thankfully we have no more bees!! We had an expert come over and smoked the bees ..... as well as us out!! It was a funny little device he used that had smelly smoke pump out of it ... and lots of it!! He put it up the chimney and down it. It left an awful smell in the house. We left all the windows open but it even came through the ceilings....

Sooo needless to say that we thought that was the end of it ... but for a few days after we still had lots of bees appear!! Although they have now gone so I take it that was expected.

Oh and by the way, our bedrooms still smell of that stuff now!! Bizarre!!!
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PostSubject: Re: Disappearing bees syndrome reaches Bulgaria too   EU: Ban Bee Poison. Save the bees! Icon_minitimeThu Jun 02, 2011 6:33 pm

Ah bless, thank goodness they have all gone - You are very brave staying in the house - me I would have been off like a shot. Hopefully the smell won't last too long at lease there are no bees g

Oddy s
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