Honey bees pollinate a huge population of all the tasty fruit and veg, but they are vanishing due to colony collapse disorder, though it’s not actually know what exactly causes CCD there are some probable explanations scattered around:
• The process of transporting bees over long distances in order to pollinate crops may cause stress, depress the bees' immune system, expose them to additional pathogens or affect their navigational abilities.
• Mites that generally feed on bees, such as the varroa and tracheal mites, may be exposing the bees to an unknown virus. These mites have caused colony collapses in the past, but they have also left evidence for beekeepers to find, which is not the case in CCD.
• Some unknown pathogen or other factor may be affecting bees' ability to navigate.
• Honeybees may have too little genetic diversity, making the species as a whole susceptible to widespread disease.
Häagen-Dazs ice cream has joined in on the campaign to save the honey bees, Nearly 50% of their ice cream uses honey bees in some way, and they have recently brought out a new flavour- Vanilla Honey Bee (proceeds go to honey bee research)
http://www.helpthehoneybees.com/#home
What you can do:
• Don’t ever kill bees! If you see a swarm contact a bee keeper
• Don’t spray pesticides during mid-day, as that’s when bees are most likely to be buzzing around.
• Leave out a little dish of water for them as they get mighty thirsty.
• Plant honey bee friendly plants; Bees like round daisy shaped flowers, especially sunflowers.
• The great sunflower project you can get free sunflower seeds to plant as long as you keep them up to date regarding the number of bees that come to visit your plants.
• Again, don’t kill them, even if you’re a sissy and are scared of the little cuties. Just a little tip: bees are repelled by the smell of alcohol and leather; so get drunk, throw on some leather trousers, hunker down and plan some daisies.
http://www.beedogs.com/
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