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According to a report issued at Apimondia by the International Federation of Beekeepers Associations, honey bee colony losses in some countries are as high as 60 percent. The global average is about 20 percent.
According to various scientific and environmental groups, global warming, parasites, pesticides, stress, viruses and poor beekeeping practices are among the suspected causes of colony loss.
At the 45th annual Apimondia International Apiculture Congress in Istanbul, a company testing its product in five countries, unveiled a scientific breakthrough that could help curb the global epidemic of honey bee colony loss, according to researchers. BeesVita Plus, a first-of-its kind, anti-oxidant-rich, organic nutritional system that researchers say bolsters the immune systems and significantly improves the health of honey bees -- billions of which face annihilation due to the unexplained syndrome of colony losses worldwide.
Istanbul, Turkey / West Palm Beach, Fla. --- At the 45th annual Apimondia International Apiculture Congress in Istanbul, a company testing its product in five countries, unveiled a scientific breakthrough that could help curb the global epidemic of honey bee colony loss, according to researchers. BeesVita Plus is a first-of-its kind, anti-oxidant-rich, organic nutritional system that researchers say bolsters the immune systems and significantly improves the health of honey bees -- billions of which face annihilation due to the unexplained syndrome of colony losses worldwide.
According to a report issued at Apimondia by the International Federation of Beekeepers Associations, honey bee colony losses in some countries are as high as 60 percent. The global average is about 20 percent.
Global Pandemic
“Around the world, honey bee colony loss is a pandemic; millions of honey bees are dying,” explains Lee Rosen, CEO of West Palm Beach, Florida, USA-based Healthy Bees, LLC, (www.HealthyBeesLLC.com) maker of BeesVita Plus . “No one knows the cause, but clearly nutrition plays an important role.”
According to various scientific and environmental groups, global warming, parasites, pesticides, stress, viruses and poor beekeeping practices are among the suspected causes of colony loss.
Rosen continues, “There are tests showing that BeesVita Plus strengthens the immune system of the honey bee, thereby lessening colony loss.”
Precision Patty
BeesVita Plus is a pre-packaged dietary supplement patty that is placed in honey bee colonies. Honey bees eating BeesVita Plus, opposed to typical sugar water solutions fed by most beekeepers; receive precise amounts of essential nutrients and anti-oxidants that improve health.
Remarkable Research Results
Bees VitaPlus is being tested in laboratories and fields by beekeepers, biologists, at agricultural research centers and by government agencies in America, Argentina, Brazil, Italy and Turkey.
Researchers at the United States Department of Agriculture Honey Bee Lab in Beltsville, Maryland compared test results measuring damaging free radicals in honey bees given a water solution of BeesVita Plus mixed with the pesticide Paraquat and bees given a sugar-water solution mixed with the deadly chemical. The results showed, “reduced oxidative potential” – in other words, bees fed BeesVita Plus showed signs of more efficient resistance against the damaging effects of the pesticide, according to the lead USDA researcher.
Another USDA study also concluded that BeesVita Plus contained as much as 38 times more anti-oxidants than the leading honey bee feeding solution currently available on the market today.
Tests on honey bees that consumed BeesVita Plus showed that there were no traces of the formulation in their systems. This means the bees fully digested and absorbed the all-natural formulation without any residue being passed on to the end-consumer in honey and pollen products.
“BeesVita Plus is a revolutionary advent in honey bee health, in more than a decade, which may give beekeepers and their bees a fighting chance to save colonies that are under attack from environmental and man-made forces,” says Philip McCabe, president of the IFBA. He is an Ireland-based beekeeper.
Honey Bee Statistics
The worldwide honey bee population is estimated at 83.4 million colonies, according to the International Federation of Beekeepers Associations, which organizes Apimondia.
China is the leading honeybee and honey producer in the world with an estimated population of 10 million colonies. Turkey claims to have the second-largest number of colonies at 7.9 million.
According to Bee Culture Magazine, the United States has the 10th most honey bee colonies in the world.
Colony Losses
The United States has some of the highest colony loss rates, according to Bee Informed, a not-for-profit consortium of U.S. university bee biologists. These staggering losses have resulted in lower yields of certain crops dependent on honey bee pollination and higher honey prices. Some blame American colony loss rates on the use of pesticides in the U.S. that have been banned by other countries.
Honey bees are crucial to the world’s agriculture industry. Bees pollinate an estimated $15 billion of crops, ranging from almonds to zucchini, each year, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.
The average retail price of American honey in August 2017 was $7.26 per pound compared to $3.83 in August 2006, according to the U.S. National Honey Board.
Beekeepers Losing Hives
“When I started my beekeeping business more than 40 years ago, my honey bees lived for two months, now they don’t even live for two weeks,” says David Hackenberg, Founder & CEO of Hackenberg Apiaries of Dade City, Florida and Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, USA, “So we’ve got to find something that feeds our bees to make them healthy. That’s why I’m experimenting with BeesVita Plus.”
Hackenberg, co-chairman of the U.S. – based National Honey Bee Advisory Council, says, “Initial indications show that bees are attracted to BeesVita Plus, unlike other feeding products that we have previously tested.” He adds, “This is an encouraging and important signal since our bees typically don’t even look at the (man-made) stuff we try to feed them. ”
Necessity: Mother of Invention
BeesVita Plus creator, Francesca Del Vecchio, PhD, is a genetic biologist and family farmer. She says, “I invented BeesVita Plus out of necessity; when bees in the agricultural community where I live in Italy started dying in masses.”
Del Vecchio continues, “I am a scientist and so I started looking for answers in my laboratory. The result led me to create the exclusive BeesVita Plus formulation that I am now bringing to the world to help save honey bees.”
Convenience
Many beekeepers, especially during the winter months, when pollen and nectar are non-existent, feed their hives sugar-water or handmade sugar cakes as a replacement. “These are moderately effective mixtures that consume time and labor to make and feed to the colonies,” explains Rosen. “What beekeepers tell us is they need a pre-packaged product that they are confident contains everything needed to help put energy-burning fat on honey bees while providing healthy nutrients.”
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Beekeepers Critical of Government & Pesticide Companies
Upward of 12,000 beekeepers are attending Apimonda. Many, especially those from the United States, complain that government agencies in most countries fail to implement solutions to curtail colony loss. Many are critical of pesticide makers. They charge those companies with downplaying the impact of pesticides on honey bee deaths.
Many U.S. and other beekeepers seek stronger regulations that include preventing the use of systemic, nicotine-based, neonicotinoid pesticides that are sprayed on the soil and absorbed by plants, which, through pollination, eventually poison honey bees’ neurological systems. The bees are paralyzed and drop dead in the fields because they cannot navigate their ways back to the hive.
Protests Against Powerful Pesticide
According to many bee biologists, initially nicotine-based pesticides were praised for their efficacy in killing crop-eating insects and their low-toxicity levels that supposedly would not harm many beneficial insects, including bees. However, recent research points to potential toxicity to bees and other beneficial insects through contamination of nectar and pollen by neonicotinoid insecticides used in agriculture.
Although these low level exposures do not normally kill bees directly, they may impact some bees’ ability to forage for nectar and learn and remember where flowers are located, and possibly impair their ability to find their way home to the hive, according to biologists. The bees are unable to navigate while in-flight.
Stressful Pollinator Transport
Beekeepers transport their hives, in colony boxes, to farms where honey bees fly from plant to plant -- pollinating crops. Honey bees pollinate more than 40 crops including almonds, apples, blueberries, cherries, citrus, cotton, melons, pumpkins, tomatoes and more. Critics charge mass transportation of hives causes deadly stress. Truck-driving beekeepers say they drive the latest air-ride technology vehicles to transport bees, thus, minimizing stress.
21st Century Beekeepers
According to the USDA, in 1940, there were more than 6 million beekeepers in the U.S. USDA says it is developing a program to identify and recruit young people interested in honey bees; assuring a new breed of American beekeeper in the 21st century. Other countries face the same challenges and are creating similar youth programs.
BeesVita Plus
Headquarters: Miami Beach & West Palm Beach, Florida.
BeesVita Plus is a patent-pending product that requires no special U.S. and many other government approvals because it contains already-evaluated natural elements. It is manufactured and packaged near St. Paul, Minnesota.
The product is sold in pre-packaged 800 gram patties. The product is available in a box of 32 patties, priced at $320.00.
BeesVita Plus is also sold in varying size bags of water-soluble powder-mix.
The consumption rate of each patty varies depending on how many bees are in the hive and how hungry they are. During fall and winter months the consumption rate of each patty increases due to the lack of pollinating and nectar-rich plants close to the colony from which the bees can draw food.
www.BeesVitaPlus.com / www.HealthyBeesLLC.com
Source
Healthy Bees, LLC
1. Soundbite (English) Lee Rosen, Chairman & CEO, Healthy Bees, LLC & BeesVita Plus
“Colony loss, worldwide, is a pandemic. No one knows the cause but clearly nutrition plays an important role. There are tests showing that BeesVita Plus strengthens the immune system of the honey bees, thereby, lessening colony loss.”
2. Soundbite (English) Asli Oskirim, Phd, Co-Director Bee Health Laboratory, Hacettepe Üniversitesi
“According to preliminary results of other, uh, countries, BeesVita Plus, improved honey bee colonies’ health.”
3. Soundbite (English) David Hackenberg, BeesVita Plus Field Tester, CEO, Hackenberg Apiaries & Co-Chair Honey Bee Advisory Board
“When I started out 40 years ago, my honey bees lived for two months. Now they don’t even live for two weeks. So we got to find something to feed our bees to make them healthy. That’s why I am experimenting with BeesVita Plus.”
“The good news about it is, the bees eat the stuff. I mean we’ve tested a lot of stuff and the last couple of years the bees didn’t even look at it.”
“This is a crisis the honey bees are in. The government has even said that it’s a crisis but the government is not doing anything for us. They turned their backs and go the other way.”
4. BeesVita Plus Product Shots
5. Field Testing Formulation & Mixing
6. 45th Annual Apimondia, International Apriculture Congress, Instanbul, Turkey
7. Beekeepers
8. Honey Bees
9. Dying Honey Bees
10. Hackenberg Apiaries, Dade City, Florida & Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
11. Laboratory Research
12. Climate Pollution
13. Pesticides
14. Parasitic Destructors
15. Agricultural Textures
16. Honey Production
4 October 2017
