Is There a Bee in Azerbaijan?

I’ve looked over my blog’s statistics primarily because I hit the magic 60 on this one today.  I was amazed at where people lived who were looking at my blog. One of my very first viewers was in Russia… that was back in December of 2011. Today, the following are listed:

United States 16 views

Brazil               8 views

Russia              4 views                        

Canada            2 views

France              2 views

Nigeria             2 views

Ukraine            2 views

Argentine         1 views

Australia          1 views

Azerbaijan       1 views

The Mystery of Blog Audience

Of course, since I don’t understand how anyone in most of these other countries could even find my blog, except by accident, much less read it in English or even care what I write, or about the topics that I’m writing about, I can not say much about the above list.

What I can say is that it got me thinking about the wilderness that is cyberspace. Then I began wondering about whether the bees disappearing was a worldwide event, thus my question, “Is there a bee in Azerbaijan?

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Azerbaijan is located in what was once Russia at 40.30 degrees North of the Equator on the Caspian Sea. You can look for it centered on a peninsula jutting out into that sea; that peninsula is located about 240 miles to the west of the northern most part of the Assyrian empire in 721 bc. It was only 300 miles NE from Nineveh to that peninsula. (look on map 5 in the back of the appendix of the  Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible with explanatory notes and cross references to the Standard Works of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints copyrighted 1979)

SCRIPTURE: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.”

 –Isaiah 7:18

The word ‘hiss’ usually means whistle according to the footnote; i.e. signal, summon (Isaiah 5:26) The context here, as well as the parallel construction seems to indicate that Lord summons the bee that is in the land of Assyria (a parallel to the king of Assyria) and his attacking forces will depopulate the land. Only a few self-sustaining survivors shall remain. When we look at what the remaining people will eat, it is:

SCRIPTURE: “And it shall come to pass in that day (usually indicates a latter-day time frame) that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep; And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give, he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is in the land.” –Isaiah 7: 21-22

WHICH BEE IS IT? MILITARISTIC OR SELF-SUFFICIENCY & SURVIVAL?

 In Isaiah, does the bee stand for the symbol of a militaristic, attacking force out of "Assyria" and does verse 19 show that the fly from Egypt and the bee from Assyria will “rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes,” mean their swarms will cover everything. That’s quite an invasion of flies and bees. Since the fly and bee are singular in the previous verse possibly it refers to a leader, thus the they would be the invading minnions under their leadership.

          This scenario would result in  the few surviving individuals in the wilderness (cyberspace) must be self sufficient and although they live in a land of milk and honey, they'd really be surviving on the nomad's diet of milk, curds and honey. Hmmmmm. Is this where Isaiah tells us about a latter day type? I may wander around a little in this thought about desolate valleys, holes in rocks, thorns, and bushes because I see them every day. If cyberspace is a desolate valley, the holes in the rocks may be the dark places we hole up in to get online; I really get thorns: these are the virus invasions, or even the learning of new skills that for older people are a thorn in our sides, so to speak. If the bees and flys are on bushes that means there are some delicious sweet things to attract them to that bush, whether it's flowers with nectar or smelly stuff like a dead pack rat. Those of you involved in computer life can tell me what "bushes" attract you, I already know the smelly stuff of porn, etc.

            Since I live in a desolate valley and in the midst of Picture Rocks, I take notice of this scripture in Isaiah. I ponder it. Not real deeply, but I keep coming back to it, sniffing around and researching more and more about bees. I guess I'd better give equal opportunity to the fly, hadn't I?

          Am I prepared for a last days scenario of this type of invasive event? Probably not. I don’t own a young cow or sheep and quite frankly, the cactus and vegetation here couldn’t support them. But can I store dried milk and honey.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) – Is Our Society Collapsing?      

             I researched the disappearing bee phenomenon and found some absolutely fascinating facts about what is happening to bees in our world today: Under an unlikely online article entitled "Getting Rid of Bees" they talk about the fact that most people who come to this site are looking to get rid of bees, but it is important to understand that bees are vital to American agriculture.  Farmers often own their own hives, or they rent hives from beekeepers because bees play a vital role in the pollination of plants.  It depends on the type of plant, but in some cases bees are responsible for 80% of all pollination

            That is why it is such a serious problem that bees are literally disappearing due to a condition known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).  The population of bees has taken a serious dive in the last 20 years, and it has reached a point where a lot of people are worried.  No one knows for sure why bees are disappearing, but there are a lot of theories.  About 34% of commercial bee hives have disappeared during the past 4 years according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

          Hives that are undergoing Colony Collapse Disorder will have all the worker bees from European beehives abruptly leave the hive without any warning or signs of distress.  They are not dying in the hive, but simply abandoning it for no apparent reason.  This does not happen to just one colony at a time, but instead multiple hives that a beekeeper owns will suddenly disappear.  The queen bee, along with capped brood (baby bees), and all the honey and pollen will remain in the hive untouched.  The only thing that is affected is the worker bee.

Theories On Why Bees are Disappearing

          There are a lot of theories why bees are disappearing at such an alarming rate.  Scientist have proposed everything from diseases, parasites, pesticides, and electromagnetic radiation, but recently there have been a lot of brand new developments.

          Recently, there have been new developments related to Colony Collapse Disorder.  The current theory is that bees are turning into zombies! Yes, we are not joking, but let’s get a bit more serious.  The Parasitic Phorid Fly, Apocephalus borealis, lays its eggs in the abdomen of honey bees.  The eggs have very negative effects on the honey bees.

         (Here we have a fly and a bee  responsible for the collapse of the hives)

           Besides the fact that it will kill the infected honey bees, the eggs will make the worker bees behave like mindless zombies.  They will walk around in circles with absolutely no sense of direction.  The bees will then leave the hive at night, and never return because the parasite will kill them shortly after.

          Scientists are still not 100% sure that this is the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder, but it is looking like a likely culprit.  They are unsure what the parasite does exactly, but they believe that it messes with the bees’ internal clocks.  The bees are then disoriented, not knowing what they should be doing, until they finally fly off by themselves to die.

Why Bees Disappearing is a Problem

           There are a lot of reasons why this is a major problem.  Yes, bees can be a bit annoying during your lovely picnic, and getting stung can hurt a lot.  But the truth is that honey bees will rarely hurt anyone who is not severely threatening them or their hive.  They are really gentle creatures, who just happen to have huge stingers.

          Honey bees, like we mentioned before, are responsible for a lot of the pollination for a lot of the fruits and vegetables that we all enjoy.  Without bees, farmers would have a really tough time growing some of our more delicious fruits and vegetables, like watermelons.  It depends on what a farmer is growing, but bees can be responsible for up to 80% of a field’s pollination.

          Colony Collapse Disorder is currently responsible for a loss of approximately 50% of the world’s honey bee population.  That is no small or laughing matter.

So yes, there are bees in Azerbaijan but they too are disappearing.