Where are all the bees?

Where have all the bees gone, have you noticed any in your garden lately? A study in America has found that bees are in decline for the fourth year in a row and more than one third of the colonies didn't survive the winter. And it's not only in America, it's happening all around the world and scientists don't know why.

It's estimated that one third of everything we eat depends on the honey bee and this serious sitution is a threat to crops. Because of the empty hives, it's been dubbed the "Mary Celeste Syndrome" referring to the merchant ship in 1872 found abandoned and its entire crew missing, regardless of the fine weather.

Although they don't know for sure yet, scientists believe that "there are some subtle interactions between nutrition, pesticide exposure and other stressors". I'd put my money on poisonous chemicals any day and wonder what they could be doing to us as we spread honey on our crumpet.

Dave Hackenberg, an American commercial beekeeper was the first to raise the alarm and said that last year had been the worst yet for bee losses with 62% of his 2,600 hives dying between May 2009 and April 2010. He also says it's getting worse.

If this situation continues, commercial beekeeping won't be economically viable anymore so what do we do then? It will be a serious threat to world agriculture and scientists need to find the answer quickly.