“The way those bees flew, not even looking for a flower, just flying for the feel of the wind, split my heart down to its seam.”
– The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Bees do indeed have a secret life, it appears, but their secrets may now jeopardize food production.
You’ve read in the Producer the story of colony collapse disorder. It’s a mysterious affliction in which bees leave their hives in pursuit of daily duties – to protect their hives, collect pollen freely offered and from it manufacture one of nature’s perfect foods.
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But the worker bees, renowned in story and verse for their industry and single-minded dedication, do not return. Where they go, nobody knows.
Though yet to be confirmed in Western Canada, there are reports of major hive losses from the disease in several U.S. states and European countries. Ontario has also reported unusually high hive losses, though the cause is undetermined.
Naturally major bee losses will affect honey production, but that represents only part of honeybee value.
About three-quarters of all flowering plants, including most food crops, rely on bees for pollination and fertilization. A Cornell University study, quoted on the website consumeraffairs.com, calculates that honeybees pollinate every third bite of food eaten and help generate about $14 billion US in produce.
So, just as a butterfly fluttering its wings on one side of the planet can cause a tornado on this side, so the loss of bees has mind-boggling implications the world over.
Parasites, disease and pesticides have been suggested as possible causes of the bee malady, but the theory generating the most buzz is its attribution to cell phone use.
Apparently a small German study at Landau University has shown bees will abandon hives if cell phones are turned on and placed next to them. Scientists hypothesize that the signals confuse bees’ internal homing instincts. It’s only a theory, and one that so far isn’t widely accepted.
It’s ironic that, when explaining life, love and living in the corporeal world, one starts with the birds and the bees; the tangible and the reliable.
But now the invisible transfer of electronic signals and radiation may prove the undoing of life as we know it on terra firma.
Such thoughts certainly gave a new perspective on Earth Day April 22.
If it comes to a choice between bees and cell phones, there’s no contest.
“How doth the little busy bee improve each shining hour;
And gather honey all the day from every opening flower.” – Isaac Watts
