Hi,

As many of you are probably aware, the common honey bee has been disappearing.  The main cause scientists are attributing to colony collapse disorder.  I've done a little reading on it, and I've read articles about it, but I'm no expert.  

We need honey bees for a lot of crops, including pumpkin and almonds.  Almonds rely complely on honey bee pollenation.  However, I've read that plants like squash and its relative (like the pumpkin) rely mainly on the squash bee.  That still doesn't undermine the importance of nature's best pollenator the honey bee.

I'm just curious if anyone had any insites or other information that may not be described in the news.  Theories range from pesticides to global warming and everything in between, but they still don't know what is really causing it.  I'm also curious if anyone has any predictions regarding the honey bee's disappearance.  

I've read the quote allegedly attributed to Albert Einstein, but I've read that he probably did not make the quote about honey bees.  The quote basically says that 4 years after honey bees disappear, humans will be gone as well.  I'm curious if anyone knows who really DID say that.

Enjoy!

The honeybees are disappearing because of a viral infection that is highly contagious. Here are some links:

http://seattlest.com/2007/09/06/israeli_acute_p.php

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2007/s2026614.htm

It is most likely a combination of the virus that is being spread through transportation of products globally (because all sorts of insects get into the crates and take a free trip around the world) pesticides, and those lovely genetically modified crops that are oh-so good for us. Bees do not like crops that humans have tinkered with and since we need them to survive, it is in our best interests to keep the bees happy.

Ever since we bought our first home three years ago, we have been planting bee-friendly flowers in our gardens. In actuality, we plant for all the critters that live in our yard, not just the bees, but we like to add sunflowers and other goodies mostly for them.

Hubby and I love to sit on the back deck and watch the big fat bumblebees. Its like watching a miniaturized version of an airport in action. When we lived at an airbase out East before being stationed here, we had a hive of bumblebees living under the concrete back step. When my son was small he would leave flowers by the step when it got colder out so the bees wouldn't freeze

I'm going to snip a piece of a post by a friend who also loves bees as much as I do, because she offered up information at another forum on how to get bees back in your yard:

One way to help redress this problem is to house Mason bees in your own backyard. Indeed, they can even be kept if you have an apartment balcony. Apart from the initial set-up of poking a few (ready made) cardboard straws into a log or nestbox, they are literally maintenance-free. They are solitary bees and superior pollinators to the honey bee. Best of all, they don't sting unless pinched in your clothing and then it is apparently no worse than a mosquito bite! They simply aren't aggressive because they don't have a hive to protect.

Now is the time they are being sold from apiary specialists and in garden centres; and they aren't expensive. It would be a very simple but sacred and profound act if as many folk as possible would chose too create the small space required to house these wonderful insects. And at another level, it is a revolutionary act that positively helps the pollination of flowers and fruits whilst simultaneously, defying the machinations of Monsanto in a very local and personal way.

Information and suppliers of Mason bees can be found on the internet and I believe it is correct to say they need to be purchased within your own country.

http://www.nickys-nursery.co.uk/seed...al-insects.htm
http://www.greengardener.co.uk/bee.htm
http://www.masonbeehomes.com/the_buzz_about_bees.php#
https://id408.van.ca.siteprotect.com.../masonbees.php

In the US, you can buy bee houses or purchase kits from:

Knox Cellars, 1607 Knox Ave., Bellingham, WA 98225, phone: (206) 733-3283 homepage at http://www.accessone.com/~knoxclr/omb.htm,
or from Insect Lore, P.O. Box 1535, Shafter, CA 93263, phone: (800) LIVE-BUG.

Here is a list of vendors worldwide, although I have no idea how reliable or up to date it is:

http://www.pollinator.com/alt_polvendors.htm

Give a home to Mason Bees and "bee" a True Revolutionary!

We are going to see about getting some Mason Bees for our yard. We live in Winnipeg, where the insect life is absolutely decimated every summer with malathion spraying. Supposedly it is to kill off the mosquito population but so far we haven't noticed a difference in the mosquitos, just a sharp drop in all the other insects!!! We apply for the 100m buffer zone every summer to protect our property from this. I didn't realize what a hot issue malalthion was until I brought it up to some friends one day!! It galvanizes this city.

~Solwynn