I came home from work today and found thousands of dead bees on my front sidewalk. Â Has anyone else seen something like this before? Â I can't find any bees nests around.
@bohendrix:
I have actually been looking into keeping a few hives for honey since local honey is so hard to find. In my research I found the following article. Turns out your find is not rare at all.
Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is a phenomenon in which worker bees from a European honey bee colony abruptly disappear. While such disappearances have occurred throughout the history of apiculture, and were known by various names (disappearing disease, spring dwindle, May disease, autumn collapse, and fall dwindle disease),[1] the syndrome was renamed colony collapse disorder in late 2006[2] in conjunction with a drastic rise in the number of disappearances of western honeybee colonies in North America.[3] European beekeepers observed similar phenomena in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain,[4] and initial reports have also come in from Switzerland and Germany, albeit to a lesser degree[5] while the Northern Ireland Assembly received reports of a decline greater than 50%.[6]
Colony collapse disorder is significant economically because many agricultural crops worldwide are pollinated by European honey bees. According to the Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the worth of global crops with honeybee�s pollination was estimated to be close to $200 billion in 2005.[7] Shortages of bees in the US have increased the cost to farmers renting them for pollination services by up to 20%.[8]
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