Scientist's Puzzle Over Cause of Bee Disappearance

The common honey bee is mostly ignored by people as an invisible part of nature. Those almost invisible creatures that are responsible for pollinating up to 80% of our world's food sources are disappearing in droves. Scientists are quite puzzled as to exactly what the cause is of what is now known as "Colony Collapse Disorder." The disorder is causing billions of bees to disappear in alarming numbers. The exact figures are not known at this time but farmers, scientists and bee-keepers are concerned. There have been reports from more than 22 states here in the US and from the nations of Europe and the country of Brazil of bees disappearing. Some bee keepers complain of loosing more than 50% of their bee colonies. One bee keeper alone has lost more than 40,000 of his bees. The bees have been found missing during times when it is just not expected to happen in nature, such as in the early Spring or in the late Fall.

Jeff Pettis of the United States Agricultural Research Services says," They're (the bees) the heavy lifter's of Agriculture. They are easily moved to flowering crops when needed because they are so mobile." More than one third of the US diet depends on this process of bee pollination. " Imagine eating nothing but oatmeal all of the time with no extras. The bees make the extras and sometimes even the basics available", Pettis remarked. Bees are used to pollinate some of the tastiest parts of our diets. Some of our foods that are pollinated by bees are, cherries, blue-berries, apples, almonds and macadamia nuts. Bees pollinate 3/4 of all of our flowering plants including our food crops.

Experts have agreed to gather starting Monday, for a two day work shop to discuss what they think could be causing "CCD." The problem and it's catastrophic possible ramifications, have sparked a call for a Congressional Hearing set for this June 24-25 in Washington D.C.

Commercial bee-keepers have complained that they come back to claim their colonies of bees to use them somewhere else and have found them without the necessary worker bees. Present are usually only the Queen and some immature young bees. The few worker bees who are left appear to be too weak to work. Bee keepers say that there are no bodies lying in or around the hive as you would expect when bees have been exposed to pesticides or disease. The bees are just not there. In cases where bees feel threatened by enemies, they always take along their Queen. In the recent past there have been problems with a small parasitic bug called a 'vorroa mite'. This has not been found to be the cause of the mysterious bee disappearance.

The United States depends on bees for pollination of more than $14.6 worth of crops. Crops are also pollinated by some other insects, birds and bats.There have been problems with bee disappearances dated back to the early 1880's but not of this magnitude. The use of bees were introduced to the US by the Spanish, Dutch and English settlers in the 17th century. There are more than 211,600 professional bee keepers in the US. Bees are also sometimes imported from places like Australia in order to keep up with the needs for natural pollination.

Bees have four wings and five eyes. They can fly 12 miles in an hour. The bees from one hive must fly the equivalent of 55,000 miles to produce 1# of honey. Honey is known to never spoil. It is one of the oldest foods in existence. Honey is 25% sweeter than table sugar. It has also been called, "The food of the Gods."