The story of the dying bees, continued

You may or may not have heard the hype about the massive bee dye-off called Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD. You can read about it here.

There were reports in the news that we are all going to starve because the bees are dying off and it is completely wiping out entire colonies at bee keeper ranches and that none of the plants and trees will get pollinated and we are all going to die! Luckily I doubt this is the case.

The cause of this condition is pretty much completely unknown to modern science. At one point they were saying it was cellphones! There have been many bee colonies wiped out, true, but someone thinks they have an answer.

Organic bee keepers (whatever the hell that means) have claimed that it is the industrial strength bee keeping that is to blame, in combination with a species of mites. Basically, from what I have gathered, industrial bee farms use pre-made bee hives that have larger than normal cells in them, where the bees grow. This results in artificially enlarged bees. It also creates longer growth times which allow more time for the mites to take hold. They also transport the hives aboot the country for on demand (read: pay me) pollination services. They claim this stresses the bees, believably.

Result: the organic bee keepers are claiming they have not lost a single colony.

There is a good in-depth article about this from a while back (before science had any idea what was happening).

Good news. Go bees.