Whats killing the honey bees?
Far away from the rising snowdrifts outside our windows, spring is unfolding in California as the almond trees begin to bloom. Missing from the party are millions of honey bees typically trucked in to pollinate the $2-$3 billion crop. Since last fall, beekeepers in more than 20 states including Pennsylvania have lost tens of thousands of honey bee colonies—an estimated 30 to 35 percent of the nation’s pollinator stock. Nobody knows why. Almonds are the first crop jeopardized by the die-off. “We haven’t really seen the panic set in yet. It’s just starting now,” says Zac Browning, co-owner of Browning’s Honey Co. and VP of the American Beekeeping Federation in Jesup, Georgia. But apple trees in the Pacific Northwest, Pennsylvania, and other Northeast states, along with cucumber, melon, cherry and berry crops, will all soon need pollination. In all, honey bees annually pollinate about $14 billion worth of food crops, or one-third of the nation’s produce. Apiculture experts are scrambling
