David Bradshaw has endured countless stings during his life as a beekeeper, but he got the shock of his career when he opened his boxes last month and found half of his 100 million bees missing.

“I have never seen anything like it,” Mr. Bradshaw, 50, said from an almond orchard here beginning to bloom. “Box after box after box are just empty. There’s nobody home.”

Bee numbers on parts of the east coast and in Texas have fallen by more than 70 percent, while California has seen colonies drop by 30 to 60 percent.

The phenomenon now being witnessed across the United States has been dubbed "colony collapse disorder," or CCD, by scientists as they seek to explain what is causing the bees to literally disappear in droves.

The usual suspects to which bees are known to be vulnerable such as the varroa mite, an external parasite which attacks honey bees and which can wipe out a hive, appear not to be the main cause.

Since about one-third of the U.S. diet depends on pollination and most of that is performed by honeybees, this constitutes a serious problem, according to Jeff Pettis of the U.S. Agricultural Research Service.

I've been trying to keep up with this. My family thinks I am wack-o for caring about bees. But, this is more serious than global warming in my opinion.

I've been trying to keep up with this. My family thinks I am wack-o for caring about bees. But, this is more serious than global warming in my opinion.

Well, even though not as outspoken as the cellphone-theory, global warming has been mentioned as one of the possible causes for the decrease in bees, which then would be quite ironic if you're more worried about the disappeared bees than global warming

except for the fact that if it were caused by global warming you would simply expect migration of bees to other locations . . . not a total collapse of the species

I did read not too long ago that there is a mite that is causing this problem.

here is a link that talks about it
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/...50517110843.htm

interestingly enough, bee keepers are able to treat their colonies for this mite and thereby keep there colonies going.

Actually I don't believe it to necessary be the reason, but there's no point in ruling it out. I just thought it was funny as it's been suggested. How can you be completely sure the effect would only be that they'd migrate? It seems logical, but a lot of things are not.