This week bee keepers would normally start shipping their bees from California almond orchards to Florida citrus groves. This is an annual trek for the little scudders, but his year one bee keeper is going to give the bees some R & R in the Georgia woods for awhile and then on to the East Coast apple orchards.
Bee populations are declining at an alarming rate, which is alarming because over 30 % of our agricultural crops depend on bee pollination. This year's bee loss has been more severe than usual, and no one has figured out the cause or causes of
bee mortality. But as to be expected scientists have put a name on what they don't understand--they call it Colony Collapse Disorder, and yes you guessed it now it is known as "CCD".
Some say it is pesticides, some say it is bee suicide, but truth be told, no one knows whether it is one cause like a virus, a parasite called the Varroa mite, or multi causes like environmental hazards.
Following WWII, we had over 5 million managed hives, now we have less than 2.5 million. At one point, bee keepers derived their revenue from honey production, but world honey production has shut them out of this market so they now depend on 'bee renting' for income, thus shipping the hives as far as cross country.
Can the answer to bee mortality be poor nutrition like American's diets, living off of crops produced from exhausted soil and artificially fertilized and sprayed with insecticides?
With Love and Kindness,
THE HATMAN
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