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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] FW: GO NOFA Forum Cellphones Cause Bees to Swarm to Their Death, Says a New Study
  • Date: Sat, 14 May 2011 21:30:40 -0400


On May 13, 2011, at 8:38 PM, Road's End Farm wrote:

I'll let this list know if I get a useful answer.


OK, this is, according to the poster on the other list, the study being referred to: 


Mobile phone-induced honeybee worker piping

and, having read it, the below is what I had to say about it:
What it appears to show is that, if you put a cell phone inside a beehive and keep the phone in a state of receiving a call for extended periods of time, the bees will make disturbed noises.
It does not show that the bees were caused to leave their hive, become disoriented, or die. None of these things happened during the course of the study.
I can't tell from this study whether the bees were disturbed by the cell phone, or by the continuous sound of the radio "constantly playing the France info program" over the cell phone inside the hive, as I can't tell whether the radio signal which was used to keep the phone active was audible to the bees. There didn't seem to be a control that had the radio itself, or a recording of the radio show, within a hive.
Even if it was the phone in itself, it would still only apply if the phone was actually inside a beehive.



-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale






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