We rely on honey bees for one-third of our food supply, so when honey bees are in danger, we are all in danger. The facts in this section will help you educate others on what's happening with our honey bees.

About Colony Collapse Disorder: Colony collapse disorder (or CCD) is a phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive abruptly disappear. While such disappearances have occurred throughout the history of apiculture, the term colony collapse disorder was first applied to a drastic rise in the number of disappearances of Western honey bee colonies in North America in late 2006. Aside from fundamental concerns about the survival of bee species, colony collapse is economically significant because many agricultural crops worldwide are pollinated by bees.

The cause or causes of the syndrome are not yet fully understood, although many authorities attribute the problem to biotic factors such as Varroa mites and insect diseases (i.e., pathogens including Nosema apis and Israel acute paralysis virus). Other proposed causes include environmental change-related stresses, malnutrition and pesticides (e.g. neonicotinoids such as imidacloprid), and migratory beekeeping. More speculative possibilities have included both cell phone radiation and genetically modified (GM) crops with pest control characteristics, though experts say no evidence exists for either assertion. It has also been suggested that it may be due to a combination of many factors and that no single factor is the cause.

About Honey Bees: Honey bees (or honeybees) are a subset of bees, primarily distinguished by the production and storage of honey and the construction of perennial, colonial nests out of wax. Honey bees are the only extant members of the tribe Apini, all in the genus Apis. Currently, there are only seven recognized species of honey bee with a total of 44 subspecies (Engel, 1999) though historically, anywhere from six to eleven species have been recognized. Honey bees represent only a small fraction of the approximately 20,000 known species of bees. Some other types of related bees produce and store honey, but only members of the genus Apis are true honey bees.

Other related tags for this page: bees, honeybees, honey bees, colony, collapse, disorder, natural disaster, environment, nature

[More about Colony Collapse Disorder and Honey Bees from Wikipedia].