80% of the bees are gone.
I knew that these industrious insects were essential to Orange, Apples, Peaches, Cherries and a countless variety of farm products and essential crops and aside from the occasional skunk or ant attract, these hives could protect themselves from most all of the enemies they encounter eager for the honey and there weren’t any bears in Altadena. Now they are being wiped out by a new enemy they cannot protect themselves from.
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Bee Colony Collapse Disorder -
Recent Honey Bee Colony Declines [Adobe PDF]
colony losses are occurring mostly because bees are ... 80% 90% 350.9. CA, WI, MN, WA. Other fruits & nuts. c. 10% - 90% 10 ... of Colony Collapse Disorder ...
from:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33938.pdf Discovery Channel :: News - Travel :: Honey Bee Die-off Alarms Beekeepers
A mysterious agent is killing off honey bees across North America. ... What's being called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has now been seen in ...
from:
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/02/05/bees_ani.html?cat...ravel&guid=20070205144500 Bee Colony Collapse Disorder
leaving the queen bee and baby bees behind. Researchers call it Colony Collapse Disorder. ... report losses of up to 80%.
more hits from:
http://www.beedisorder.com/ Bees...
As a former bee keeper, I had the pleasure of overseeing the furious activity of these incredible, little animals as they produced for me a valuable product.
I got used to being stung every time I opened a hive to inspect for foulbrood, or to remove the ‘supers’ [ queen screened upper sections that allowed only the workers into, in order to produce the combs filled with what I considered liquid gold ] for sale to my various neighbors.
During the summer, I would get calls from the fire dept. ( I don’t know why the people freaked out about swarms in their yard and most always called the fire dept. about it, but I guess the fire dept. always gets the panic calls ) to handle the ‘problem’ ( there is no ‘problem’ as the bees simply won’t sting while in a swarm as they are drunk with honey and it’s a bee party in their little minds, I guess ) and I would have yet another honey factory as soon as I shook the mass into a prepared apiary.
They also polinate alfalfa which feeds our meat animals.
Interesting to note is that these creatures allow 80% of the food we eat to arrive on our table.
Are we facing famine? You bet we are.