Over the past five years, beekeepers in the United States have lost about 30 percent of their bees each year on account of colony collapse disorder, a global phenomenon in which entire colonies of bees abruptly and mysteriously disappear from their hives. Bees do more than provide us with honey. They pollinate key crops, including grapes, apples, soybeans, and cotton. We depend on bees. – Awake!, September 2012
If you want to know what may be contributing to the disappearing bees, please watch the video: Vanishing of the Bees
It is a serious problem worldwide and we should take care of it, for not having to face a shortage of food-stock.
- As top honey pot in the Middle East, Egypt needs to protect its bees (azzasedky.typepad.com)
The little bee is a big deal. One third of our diet depends on honey bees as they are essential pollinators of our major crops, like strawberry, zucchini, blueberry, apples, cherries, and cucumbers. According to a study published in 2010, “although most of humanity relies upon foods that do not require animal pollination, production of 39 percent of the world’s most important monoculture crops still benefit from this ecosystem service.” The loss of bees would, therefore, threaten our food supply.
- To bee or not to bee: Endangered species vanishing without explanation (canada.com)
Sheila Colla wades into the pye weeds, her net swooping over the pink flowers. “This is bumble bee heaven,” she says, as she catches a bee and nudges it from the net into a small plastic vial for inspection.
- Why Pumpkins Could Disappear (kitchendaily.com)
Bees have been disappearing at an alarming rate and continue to vanish without a trace. Why should anyone care? Well, they matter a lot more than most people would think. With summer upon us, it’s exciting to see the reemergence of some of our favorite produce, including stone fruit, peppers, sweet, juicy melons, and succulent strawberries. But what if the arrival of these crops each summer were to come to an end?
- Water supplement for bees is claimed to prevent Colony Collapse Disorder (gizmag.com)
The mysterious, wholesale vanishing of bee colonies leaving behind deserted hives is called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). It affects the common European honey bee (but not the Mason bee) and was named in 2006, though reports of CCD go back to at least 1900. Its main symptom is striking – the sudden, uncharacteristic disappearance of bees from the colony as if the population is collapsing. Colonies can lose as many as 50 percent of its worker bees at one time, often leaving behind only young workers or even a lone queen bee or, eventually, no bees at all. Though the main concern has been about the fate of domestic bees, feral colonies are hit hardest.
- The Vanishing of the Bees (swiss-miss.com)
Vanishing of the Bees follows commercial beekeepers David Hackenberg and Dave Mendes as they strive to keep their bees healthy and fulfill pollination contracts across the U.S. The film explores the struggles they face as the two friends plead their case on Capital Hill and travel across the Pacific Ocean in the quest to protect their honeybees.