Cazza
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Fell asleep around 9.30p.m. What did I miss?
Cazza
Cazza
Program about bees on bbc 2
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I slept from c 9:35 to 9.50pm .. and speaking to my wife missed the "rigging bees up with aerials so we know where they are going" bit.
So nothing really..
charlievictorbravo
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Dear Sleepyheads
What you guys missed was a trail about research currently being undertaken by Professor Dave Goulson who is aiming to find out how much Neonic is absorbed by bees going about their normal foraging at various locations in Sussex and somewhere in Scotland. The sampling is currently being done and analysis will start in September, so watch this or that space.
It seemed to me that this research is quite important because nobody knows how much Neonic is absorbed by bees, except possibly the chemical giants and they aren't saying, so its results could slay the dragon of Neonics or prove that they're the least evil pesticide for farmers to use and they do not kill bees.
I thought the programme overall was pretty good. Whilst I thought it did overplay the varroa issue to some extent, non-beekeepers I've spoken to since Friday thought it was informative and interesting. One hour of prime-time television exposure can't be bad for bees and beekeepers!
What you guys missed was a trail about research currently being undertaken by Professor Dave Goulson who is aiming to find out how much Neonic is absorbed by bees going about their normal foraging at various locations in Sussex and somewhere in Scotland. The sampling is currently being done and analysis will start in September, so watch this or that space.
It seemed to me that this research is quite important because nobody knows how much Neonic is absorbed by bees, except possibly the chemical giants and they aren't saying, so its results could slay the dragon of Neonics or prove that they're the least evil pesticide for farmers to use and they do not kill bees.
I thought the programme overall was pretty good. Whilst I thought it did overplay the varroa issue to some extent, non-beekeepers I've spoken to since Friday thought it was informative and interesting. One hour of prime-time television exposure can't be bad for bees and beekeepers!
Pugmitch
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The trouble with this type of programme is that us beeks expect far more in the way of detail to satisfy our interest in the subject. Unfortunately, like it or not, the target audience was the general public who currently are - rightly so - anxious to help the poor old bee decline. Current interest amongst the public about bees, of whatever subject, is high and frankly the BBC is just ticking another box of meeting 'public demand'
Did the programme tell me, a beek, anything new....no! However my friends and neighbours who watched the programme have pestered me incessantly with 'did you see the programme on bees'? It's getting tedious now!
Oh am I a little cynical? Too right. the Beeb doesn't do anything unless it's to encourage demand and meet it's political bias....of which there's too much these days.
Good programme? Debateable.
Did the programme tell me, a beek, anything new....no! However my friends and neighbours who watched the programme have pestered me incessantly with 'did you see the programme on bees'? It's getting tedious now!
Oh am I a little cynical? Too right. the Beeb doesn't do anything unless it's to encourage demand and meet it's political bias....of which there's too much these days.
Good programme? Debateable.
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Surely you don't think the BBC has a political bias? To the Tories of course?
(Bastards in all Sexes?)
itma
Queen Bee
As a programme for the general non-beekeeping public - it was very good. They learned stuff - maybe even what a honeybee looks like!
From the beeks' point of view, it was good in that it had little or nothing to complain about - there were NO glaring factual inaccuracies and different viewpoints and opinions were shown to the general public.
It wasn't setting out to educate those with a knowledge of the subject already. It was trying to distill that knowledge into something interesting and informative for the non-specialist.
And it did that accurately!
I've not heard of any non-beek who switched off or over after starting to watch - so it held its audience.
Well done BBC.
What a pity that more beekeepers didn't realise that all their friends and neighbours would be asking them about it. Should have been compulsory so that you can answer their questions!
Yes, better watch it on iPlayer asap ... !
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Cazza
Queen Bee
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nay, as i said in one of the posts, just the idiot raising concerns about neonicotinoids and garden sprays , blink and you would have missed it...a suprising number of my neighbours saw it and left messages on my answerphone
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Totally agree, been on a farm open to the public today and virtually everyone who came near us (beekeepers making skeps !) had seen the programme and were talking about it ... all good news as far as I can see.
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Given that the programme was specifically about honeybees, it's a shame Bill didn't attempt to explain that bee population has not been declining since 2005 and has in fact been steadily growing, in spite of the well documented problems.
T
Tom Bick
Guest
Just watched it on I player and thought I recognise that voice and then there you were in full shot, fame at last Geoff.
I thought it was a good program and glad he never concentrated totally on honeybees.
itma
Queen Bee
Errr, no. It wasn't.
If the temperature falls below 14c the bees simply won't leave the hives....that could be one of the problems, too many soft bees, pleased i don't have any of them.
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Okay.
The programme focussed mainly on honeybees.
It's still a shame Bill didn't talk about what's happened to the honeybee population since 2005.
Also not quite sure I understood his point about urban bees supposedly producing twice as much honey as rural bees. If both have produced a surplus surely both are in good health?
Skyhook
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I think that would be pointing out how much decline there has been in available forage due to changes in agriculture- 'green desert' syndrome, eg that a field of grass used to be probably 90% grass 10% other species, and is now more likely to be 99.9% grass.
.
charlievictorbravo
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A Thread Rising from The Dead
The other day, I was clearing out TV programmes recorded on my FreeView box and came across the Bill Turnbull piece that was discussed in this thread. I wrote to Dave Coulson and asked about the research he mentioned in the programme. He replied and told me that the work was financed by DEFRA and although the paper was written and ready for publication, Defra had declined to approve its publication. I guess if he published it without their approval, he'd never get any more work from them.
He did however give me a link to another paper that he wrote in which he took data from earlier research by DEFRA that concluded that Neonics did no harm to bumble bees and reviewed and re-interpreted them. The results were that, on review, he concluded that the Neonics did do harm to bumble bees. Some of the statistics is beyond me but he is pretty definite about HIS conclusions. See https://peerj.com/articles/854/
Now the question really is "is it a cock-up or a conspiracy?" If what I am smelling is not a rat, it is certainly a sizeable mouse!
CVB
The other day, I was clearing out TV programmes recorded on my FreeView box and came across the Bill Turnbull piece that was discussed in this thread. I wrote to Dave Coulson and asked about the research he mentioned in the programme. He replied and told me that the work was financed by DEFRA and although the paper was written and ready for publication, Defra had declined to approve its publication. I guess if he published it without their approval, he'd never get any more work from them.
He did however give me a link to another paper that he wrote in which he took data from earlier research by DEFRA that concluded that Neonics did no harm to bumble bees and reviewed and re-interpreted them. The results were that, on review, he concluded that the Neonics did do harm to bumble bees. Some of the statistics is beyond me but he is pretty definite about HIS conclusions. See https://peerj.com/articles/854/
Now the question really is "is it a cock-up or a conspiracy?" If what I am smelling is not a rat, it is certainly a sizeable mouse!
CVB
