Colony Collapse Disorder…maybe you’ve heard about it, maybe not. The main point is honey bees are disappearing in many places throughout the country (30-70% decline in population). And the foremost bee scientists do not have a clear cut answer.

To be clear, we’re talking about honey bees. Out of 20,000 known species of bee…there are only 7 species of honey bee. Honey bees as we know them are non-native to the US. They were imported from Europe around 400 years ago. Up until the 1980s, most bees were kept by farmers in small colonies using age-old techniques. The agricultural industry has becoming increasing reliant on honey bees as pollinators for crops. Below is a table displaying the economics:

Commercial beekeeping has grown in the past years, with mobile beekeeping being the chief strategy. In mobile beekeeping, keepers move their hives around the country to coincide with pollinating times of various crops (apples in March, almonds in January, etc.). This strategy has inherent problems, chief among them introducing stress on the bees. In addition, less honey bees are used resulting in less biodiversity. In recent years, various parasites have decimated honey bees (Varroa mite).

Map of CCD infestation by state: