The strange, sad fate of the honey bee

When was the problem identified?
In the closing months of 2006, when thousands of American beehives were found to be almost entirely devoid of bees - victims of a mysterious malady known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). A study across 15 different states of the USA by the Apiary Inspectors of America found that from September 2006 to March 2007, almost a third of all honey bee colonies had collapsed. This winter it was even worse, with a record 36 per cent of colonies lost between September and March. Nor is the problem limited to America: large numbers of colonies have been wiped out in Canada, South America, Asia and Europe. In Croatia, five million bees were reported to have disappeared in 48 hours; in Taiwan last year around 10m vanished.

So what is Colony Collapse Disorder?
CCD occurs when most of the bees suddenly disappear from a hive - leaving it like an apian Mary Celeste - with only queens, eggs or pupae (the "brood") and a few immature workers still remaining. The vanished bees - strangely never found - are thought to die singly far from home. The phenomenon is odd for various reasons. First, bees never usually abandon a hive until the brood has hatched; their sophisticated in-built navigation system allows them to forage up to three miles from the hive and return safely. Second, when a colony dies, the honey left behind is usually raided by bees from other hives, or by moths and beetles. Yet bees and pests avoid the abandoned hives like the plague. And lastly, the incidence of CCD is very erratic. Some beekeepers report heavy losses while their neighbours maintain healthy hives.

Why are people so worried about this?
If honey bee populations continue to decline it will, of course, hit honey supplies. But far more disturbing is the effect it could have on plant life. Most flowering plants rely on animals to pollinate them, and the honey bee is nature's premier pollinator, with a body perfectly designed to collect and spread pollen, and a work ethic to match: one big colony, containing up to 60,000 worker bees, can pollinate illions of flowers in a day. The US Department of Agriculture estimates that about a third of the food we eat