David Attenborough, Facebook and the dying bees.

I did this blog several weeks ago but couldn't be bothered to post it as I thought it would be taken as me just whinging again. However a recent bit in The Mail, or The Source of All Truth' as its known, changed my mind

----ooOoo----

I always thought my blog about honey and hay fever would be my most unpopular blog ever.

However, I think I am about to out do this but before I switch to a secret identify and disappear forever into the Witness Protection Scheme there are a couple of things I would like to say.

Firstly, I consider Sir David Attenborough to be the greatest English of my generation and probably nearly every generation.

To say his television programmes are wonderful is like saying Cadbury Wispa Golds are a bit nice. Can anyone say they haven’t been amazed, stunned, uplifted, thrilled by his programmes?

His programmes are visually stunning, educational, entertaining and numerous other good things all of which are underpinned by the man himself. His intelligence, curiosity and sheer love of his subject matter shines through everything he does, and he seamlessly switches from gravitas to a child like wonder in the subject matter. Something a smug egotist like Chris Packham will never manage.
I will never forget the clip of him with the gorillas in the jungle and his utter joy at being part of the group The clip is here - watch it from 5:40

Secondly, Facebook is a steaming pile of trivia, pointless videos, brainless aphorisms, lies and half truths, pedalling a fake 'community' of 'friends'
Yes, I do have a Facebook page that I was encouraged to start up when I started to sell our honey, but  I soon realised the horror of it all. 

I never look at it, have disabled all notifications and its only use is as a place that this blog is posted. If both of you would sign up to email updates on the blog site, I could put a bullet through the head of the Facebook page that it so richly deserves.

I have posted about the myth of 'if the bees die, we die', which is often attributed to Einstein.
Problem is:-
Einstein was a physicist not and entomologist and never studied bees.
He didn't say it, and
Even if he did, he was wrong.

Yet this gets repeated and repeated until its assumed to be true. Occasionally its discussed at farmer's Markets and I have said Einstein saying if bees die, we die is a bit like David Attenborough saying  E=MC² +1/2.

Then this appeared

A useful, if well known tip but then this:-

“In the last 5 years the bee population has dropped by 1/3. If bees were to disappear from the face of the earth, humans would have just 4 years left to live,” the group wrote in a Facebook post earlier this month.
The fan group shared a simple tip that anyone can use at home. The post said that bees can often look like they’re dead or dying, particularly at this time of year, when in reality, they’re just tired.
“They simply don't have enough energy to return to the hive which can often result in being swept away,” the group wrote.
For anyone who comes across an exhausted bee, the Facebook group recommends mixing a simple solution of two tablespoons of white, granulated sugar with one tablespoon of water. Bees require carbohydrates from sugars in nectar or honey to convert into much-needed energy.
They also suggest placing the mixture on a spoon within reach of the tired bee. Additionally, they asked readers to share the Facebook post to increase awareness. The post has been shared more than 455,000 times as of Friday morning.

Why a group of 'fans' would want to set up a Facebook page in the name of David Attenborough is beyond me - are their lives so empty?  Although the Facebook page is clearly in the name of Sir David Attenborough, there is nothing to indicate it is run by 'fans' , so the lie about us dying is spread nearly half a million times.
I waited for lazy journalists to repeat the lie.

Irish Times

And according to David Attenborough, if bees were to disappear from earth, humans would have just four years left to live.

Heart

The Blue Planet star warned fans humans will only have four years to live should bees become extinct.

Express

And time is of the essence. Earlier this month Sir David Attenborough revealed that if we don’t do something to save our bees, the human race itself will be at risk.
“In the last five years the bee population has dropped by a third. If bees were to disappear from the face of the Earth, humans would have just four years left to live,” he wrote.

Greenmatters

"In the last 5 years the bee population has dropped by 1/3," he wrote. "If bees were to disappear from the face of the earth, humans would have just 4 years left to live. This time of year bees can often look like they are dying or dead, however, they're far from it. 

Nottinghamshire Live 

"If bees were to disappear from the face of the earth, humans would have just four years left to live," environmentalist David Attenborough has said in the past.

And so on .....

However not everybody was fooled by this rubbish. Habitat Aid wrote:-

It has been shared half a million times (and counting!). Country Living, Heart FM, Old Uncle Tom Cobley and even Radio Four* are reporting the story as if it did actually come from Sir David. Blimey, the power of Attenborough, even pseudo Attenborough!

Still its been shared half a million times on Facebook so it must be true I hear people say, as well as 'you know better than David Attenborough do you?
Quite why people expect sound scientifically verifiable information on Facebook is beyond me and  a little like watching Love Island to get the latest in depth interpretation of the Brexit negotiations.
It enough to make you share Mark Zuckerbergs view of Facebook users.

-oooOooo-

However the Source Of All Truth published this:-

It seems the BBC asked for the page to be taken down "as it and posts were purporting to be from Sir David"
Interestingly it wasn't because 'as it and posts were purporting to be from Sir David and peddling ill informed rubbish"
The original fake "Attenborough" post repeated the 4 year lie but also advocated feeding 'bees' with sugar water.

The problem is that most people, particularly Daily Mail journalists [a text book oxymoron] don't know what a 'bee' is. 'Bee' is a word like 'fish', 'dogs', or 'birds'; something used to cover a huge range of animals with very different life styles.

Broadly there are three groups of 'bees':-
 - solitary bees
 - bumblebees, and
 - honey bees
and the issue of feeding 'bees' is very different for each type. Something that is never allowed for in the press.

So in the matter of the UK's favourite naturalist, the UK's favourite broadcaster and the UK's favourite source of trivia, who does The Source of All Truth put forward as the expert to resolve the issue?
Trevor Weatherhead, the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council executive director.
No, me neither, However it does set the basis for an Australian underpin of the article.

On the question of feeding honey to 'bees', 'I think it's sort of a bit misplaced' thundered Trevor in his most expert sounding voice. That clears that up then.

The Source Of All Truth continued:-

Honeybees, both domestic and wild, are responsible for around 80 per cent of worldwide pollination, according to Greenpeace.But bee colony collapses across the globe are threatening their vital work.

I think they are confusing their 'bees' There virtually no wild bees in the UK and the statistic applies to bees in the general sense, including solitary bees and bumble bees.
Greenpeace say 'up to 75% of our crops would suffer"
Also Colony Collapse Disorder is an American phenomenon but has been reducing for some time according to the American EPA

The article goes on:-

Above all, people should not feed their bees honey, experts have warned.'They have surplus honey they made to feed on which is nutritionally far superior than heavily processed man-made cane sugars

Who are these 'experts'? Why none other than bee keeper Chris Wyatt.
Yes, he comes from Australia.
Chris then proceeds to waffle on about how feeding honey to dying bees causes the spread of American Foul Brood, a nasty disease. In fact its prohibited by the Biodiversity Code of Practice.
In Australia.
It is undeniable the practice of feeding honey to bees to supplement their food stores is inadvisable due to the possibility of the spread of disease but the idea AFB is spread by a tiny amount of honey, which if bought from a supermarket has probably been pasteurised, is laughable.
In any event the bees people will most likely see in trouble aren't honey bees. Honey bees have a special digestive system where they store nectar so the probability of them starving to the point of collapse is virtually nil.
The foraging bees we see in our gardens are the oldest bees who only survive about a week as foragers so if you see a dying honey bee, assuming you can recognise it, its dying.

There are now numerous other inaccurate articles about this issue, most of which have 'fake news' in the headline to act as click bait, that suggests the Facebook page was taken down because the information is wrong rather than some sort of intellectual copyright issue.
iNews faithfully reproduces Wyatt's comments [I assume there wasn't a UK bee keeper available for comment],
The Telegraph manages to include a Tweet [the medium by which people who have nothing worth saying, say it],  from the Manx Wildlife Trust saying:-

Don't forget, if you come across a bumblebee who seems a bit dozy just mix a little sugar and water on a spoon and let them drink it. It worked a treat for this one in Santon the other day.

Three paragraphs later in the same article this appears:-

Manx Wildlife Trust on the Isle of Man also tweeted about helping a bee with water and sugar.The charity have since said it would be advising people “not to try sugared water at all” after it feared people were being too generous with their sugar offering.A spokesperson said: “It appears there is a risk that people make it too strong and it blocks the bee’s proboscis.

It seems the Manx Wildlife Trust don't want to deal with a bunch of torch waving, pitchfork wielding Twatterface users so have just gone with the flow.
I am booked in for corrective surgery to repair splits in my side caused by the last sentence of the quote about blocking a bee's proboscis.

The shame about this bit of 'fake news' is that feeding bumblebees sugar water to revive them is quite reasonable. Some bumblebees particularly the Tree Bumblebee whose males frantically chase females to mate, can become exhausted and can be revived.
The Bumblebee Conservation Trust says:-

These bees can be helped though, and the easiest way to do so is to make a sugar solution (50/50 sugar and warm water). Put this in a small saucer or plastic drinks lid, and place it near the bee’s head (see the photo below). She should then lap this up, and she’ll use the energy to heat her body up and fly off.

It may well be that the web site is run by 'fans' of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and therefore this may be 'fake news';
Also, it may be written by someone who is not Australian and therefore not an expert.