With Spring here I started thinking about last years problems with the honey bees. Last spring when it was discovered that many of the honey bees that help pollinate our food and food for the animals where missing there was major outrage and questions. This phenomena called CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) was thought to be caused by poisons like pesticides killing off the bees, one rumor I heard was that cell phone signals screwed up the bees flight patterns and they couldn't find their way back to the hive.
The plight of the bees even got the attention of comedian Bill Maher and during his HBO program he quoted Einstein saying "if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination. No more plants. No more animals. No more man."Anyway after all of this I decided that I can do something and from spring till summer I turned my cell phone off from dawn to dusk - which where during the hours I was working so anyone who needed to reach me could just call me at work and everyone else could leave a message. This time was prime honeybee flying time. I also went out and researched plants that honey bees like. I found that daises, tulips, marigolds mostly its the bright colored flowers that the honey bees are drawn too.
So with spring upon us again I started searching the USDA site for any information about our flying friends. I am sorry to say that the information I found on the site was all dated from last year or the year before even. From what I did find there has not been an answer to this major problem yet. Here is one article I found on the site about CCD. http://www.csrees.usda.gov/newsroom/impact/2008/lgu/144_bees_in_crisis.html
With this plight upon us again I ask you- "What can you do to help these little guys?"And remember: One-third of the U.S. diet depends on pollination, mostly by honeybees• Some beekeepers are losing 50 percent of their bees to the disorder- we can not look away.
