What's Happening To All The Honeybees?

Bee-keepers in the United States and in many countries in Europe are reporting dramatic losses in their bee populations. On opening the hives after the winter period, they are finding that a large proportion of the bee colonies have been wiped out. In some cases, they are filled with dead bees; in others, the bees have simply disappeared, without even their corpses remaining.

It is not clear what is happening to the bees. The phenomenon is being referred to as Colony Collapse Disorder. Scientists are investigating now what may lie behind it. Some believe that genetically modified food may be responsible. Others thing that some new pathogen may be at work; that the environment generally may have degraded to the point where forage opportunities for the bees are fewer and of lower quality than before; or that pesticides may be affecting them in some way.

In Europe, Poland, Spain, Italy, Greece and Switzerland are reported to have been most severely affected by the problem.