Apparently Bee hives are suffering massive die offs in parts of the US
It sound like something to keep an eye on, since honey bees are rather important both commercially and ecologically.
Lots of conjectures about causes, one that caught my attention as mildly plausible is that "nicotinoids", a (new?) class of pesticides, is weakening bee immune systems rendering them vulnerable to infection.
(Hm, nothing on them on wikipedia, curious, nor on neonicotinoids, here to make up for it is the wiki entry on Imidacloprid - one of the new nicotine based pesticides).
There is a wiki on Colony Collapse Disorder
Anyway, the link is to a PSU agri site keeping track of things, so linking for linking's sake.
(h/t kos)
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This article is reposted from the old Wordpress incarnation of Not Exactly Rocket Science. There's been more work on CCD since, but I'm reposting this mainly because of some interesting follow-up research that will I will post about tomorrow.
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I want to start out by welcoming all you bee experts who think it is not the neonicotinoids, or that it is not so simple, to make your case in the comments. There is a great deal of controversy over what is causing bees to die off. That controversy even impinges on how we describe the…
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This entertaining craziness comes via Dave Bacon's blog
http://www.synchronizm.com/blog/index.php/2007/03/29/the-bees-who-flew-…
It pertains to your post.