Colony Collapse - By Barry Estabrook (2008)

The buzzz…from the nation’s honeybees is getting even more discouraging. A survey released this week revealed that more than a third of the hives in the U.S. have been lost since last year. The grim news follows similar losses the previous year. Much of the blame lies with a little-understood syndrome called colony collapse disorder, which causes bees to abandon their hives.

Even if you never use honey, you have a lot riding on the wings of the busy little insects. It is said that fully a third of the food humans eat depends on pollination by bees. In the United States, bees pollinate 130 different crops, with an economic impact of at least $9 billion a year.