US Honey Bee death statistics in...

[SUBMAN1]

36.1% hive loss this year. :cry:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24500059/

-S

[bookworm_020]

Don't worry, you can buy pure strain Euopean honey bees from us! Got to love the fact that the Australian government made Kangaroo Island a bee sancury so many years ago. Yes I Know it was before federation, but it still counts!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_Island

[Platapus]

The economy and agribusinesses will be in a world of hurt if the bee population continues to decrease. :down:

[Platapus]

Reminds me of the sheep ranchers we had in Utah about a hundred years ago when I was stationed there.

The ranchers exterminated the coyote population because they were eating the sheep (having seen Utah sheep and Utah coyotes it would take a bunch of them to kill a sheep. Utah has some tough sheep!)

Ut oh. Now the land is over run by Jack Rabbits. Jack Rabbits are eating all the range grass and the sheep are starving.

Solution: Start spreading poison to kill the Jack Rabbits.

Ut oh, Sheep like to eat poisoned grass and die

Solution: Put up fences ($$$$) to keep the sheep away from the poisoned grass

Ut oh, Jack Rabbits don't like eating poisoned grass when there is nice fresh grass on the other side of the fence.

Solution: Build rabbit proof fences ($$$)

Ut oh, Sheep kept in confined areas over feed on the ground and the grass won't grow back.

Solution: Open up the areas for the sheep to graze

Ut oh open ranges are not only still poisoned but heavily diseased because the poison killed all the other little animals. Sheep start getting sick.

Oh and the Jack Rabbits? They are feeding on the left over grass that is too sparse to support the sheep.

No one bothered to tell the ranchers that coyotes eat Jack Rabbits. And the ranchers were too stupid to do any research to find out that coyotes would only eat sick and dying sheep, not healthy sheep (sheep are quite capable of defending themselves. Especially Utah Sheep. Sheep with an ATTITUDE!).

Sometimes the ranchers are the stupidest people in the world. You would assume that a rancher understands about nature and the interdependences? Wrongo!

They interfere with the natural cycles and don't bother trying to understand nature. Successful ranchers work WITH nature, not against it.

Every year the poor rancher would whine and moan about their plight. No sympathy from me idiots! I applauded every time one of the ranches went on the auction block. I hoped that the next owners would pull their heads out of their arses and actually learn about ranching.

Just before I rotated out, I heard that there was a new and innovative plan to help the ranchers -- reintroducing coyotes. It appears that coyotes like to eat Jack Rabbits :damn: :damn: :damn:

[SUBMAN1]

Reminds me of the sheep ranchers we had in Utah about a hundred years ago when I was stationed there.

The ranchers exterminated the coyote population because they were eating the sheep (having seen Utah sheep and Utah coyotes it would take a bunch of them to kill a sheep. Utah has some tough sheep!)

Ut oh. Now the land is over run by Jack Rabbits. Jack Rabbits are eating all the range grass and the sheep are starving.

Solution: Start spreading poison to kill the Jack Rabbits.

Ut oh, Sheep like to eat poisoned grass and die

Solution: Put up fences ($$$$) to keep the sheep away from the poisoned grass

Ut oh, Jack Rabbits don't like eating poisoned grass when there is nice fresh grass on the other side of the fence.

Solution: Build rabbit proof fences ($$$)

Ut oh, Sheep kept in confined areas over feed on the ground and the grass won't grow back.

Solution: Open up the areas for the sheep to graze

Ut oh open ranges are not only still poisoned but heavily diseased because the poison killed all the other little animals. Sheep start getting sick.

Oh and the Jack Rabbits? They are feeding on the left over grass that is too sparse to support the sheep.

No one bothered to tell the ranchers that coyotes eat Jack Rabbits. And the ranchers were too stupid to do any research to find out that coyotes would only eat sick and dying sheep, not healthy sheep (sheep are quite capable of defending themselves. Especially Utah Sheep. Sheep with an ATTITUDE!).

Sometimes the ranchers are the stupidest people in the world. You would assume that a rancher understands about nature and the interdependences? Wrongo!

They interfere with the natural cycles and don't bother trying to understand nature. Successful ranchers work WITH nature, not against it.

Every year the poor rancher would whine and moan about their plight. No sympathy from me idiots! I applauded every time one of the ranches went on the auction block. I hoped that the next owners would pull their heads out of their arses and actually learn about ranching.

Just before I rotated out, I heard that there was a new and innovative plan to help the ranchers -- reintroducing coyotes. It appears that coyotes like to eat Jack Rabbits :damn: :damn: :damn:Thats a good story. Many morals can also be learned from it. ie. Quit messing with what already works or you'll just gum everything up!

-S

[August]

Except allowing coyotes to flourish cause this:

Coyote Nearly Drags Toddler Away In Chino Hills

http://cbs2.com/local/Chino.Hills.Girl.2.714894.html

[Platapus]

Collateral damage :rotfl:

[bookworm_020]

The Joys of people introducing creature that don't belong or removing ones that should stay!

Australia has a history of this.

When the first europeans got going in Australia and wanted something to shoot at, they didn't want to shoot at the roo's (too big, to fast, and skippy might attack!:D) So they imported a dozen rabbits, they managed to shoot six of them but they missed the others, we now have millions of their offsping causing problem (but less so with some of the management plans that have been used)
After having fun with rabbits, they decided they wanted a proper fox hunt, so in came the foxes, and again they missed knocking them all off (the booze gave the foxes a fighting chance!) and they've been a problem ever since.

Then there are the others, Camels - out of 250 different species of plant life in the desert they can eat 248 of them! At leat we are now exporting them back to the middle east!

Cane toads- to help get rid of one pest with introduce another, guess what? it didn't work. Now causing problems in three states, they only benift that these ugly buggers can give is help with your golf swing!:up: (and a nick name for state!)

[nikimcbee]

They used to have those jack rabbit round ups in Ida-ho.

You herd the jackrabbits into a circle then club them to death.

[Platapus]

What a terrible and cruel thing to do :down: