A few months ago I wrote a piece about the being green.     Being green I said is whatever you want it to be.  In 2007, it would seem climate change, global warming, being green is making headlines everyday.  It has become so all encompassing we even have the leader of the Liberal party Stephane Dion making an electoral deal with Green party leaders Elizabeth May.  Oh, how the might have fallen, selling your electoral soul to a party which hasn’t even elected one MP.

Still, where there is lots of smoke there must be a little fire.  Sure this global warming, green thing must have some resonance.  What’s happening to North American honey bees might be one result of the strange goings on in our environment.  Earlier this month media plebs like myself were inundated with news from Germany that cell phones might be the reason so many honeybees in the US, Canada and Europe are disappearing.  The radiation might be preventing the honeybees from returning to their hives.

It’s been called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) where thriving hives are suddenly left with only queens, eggs and hive bound immature workers bees.  This is untenable, as any beekeeper knows.  My experience with bees is a lone Apiculture course at the University of Guelph.  I recently managed to contact a local beekeeper to discuss this current radiation, CCD problem for Canadian honey producers.  This is part of what this reader wrote me about the current problem.

“Scientists have isolated not one, but nine different pheromones the Queen bee gives off to instruct the different levels of workers within a colony about what activity they need to perform to keep a colony behaving in a normal, industrious fashion.  The workers all have their jobs to do but can, at a moments notice, shift gears, so to speak, and take on a different task as required.  The workers know their jobs…nurse bees take care of the egg and brood, housekeepers keep the colony clean, groomers groom the bees and keep them clean, pollinators bring in pollen, nectar gatherers bring in nectar and hand it over to the “honey production” team that add moisture or fan out moisture as required, propolis workers bring in propolis (the propolis also known as bee glue is what bees use to seal their boxes against elements and also has high medicinal properties in it which is also used in certain medicines/ointments by pharmaceutical companies), the Queen’s entourage groom the Queen and feed her “Royal Jelly”, the wax producing workers, and the guards that protect the colony from intruders.  I think I covered most of the jobs bees have.  The Queen decides when the colony becomes crowded and it’s time for expansion; hence, the swarm..natures way of expanding the population.  Or, the beekeeper can intervene and make splits when a colony gets strong.  Therefore, in the case of Colony Collapse Disorder, in theory, something must be affecting the Queen in a very big way.  The possibilities could be some invisible adverse micro-magnetic force (consider the claims from cancer victims who firmly believe their cancer in the head and neck areas was caused by cell phone usage), chemicals in crops that have been tampered with like GMO, pesticides to rid harmful insects sprayed willy-nilly without consideration for beneficial insects…and my two favourite theories 1- importing junk from other countries polluting our eco system instead of using our own technology and farmers (look at the harmful insects imported that have ravaged the pine, maple and ash trees) and 2 – pollution from industries, fuel emissions from autos, landfill sites, water sources etc. I’m also a paranoid farmer and firmly believe in other countries penetrating our atmosphere with harmful substances for specific purposes.  I also heard that there would be some studies on bee colonies kept by Amish beekeepers to see if what they do in the way of farming might be an advantage for bee colony survival….this will be a little tricky as bees need to be in a secluded area of a seven mile radius…so their bees may, depending on location, be flying outside the Amish farming community.” (Quoted from an Ontario Beekeeper)

It’s an interesting explanation for sure. Keep in mind Canadian scientist David Suzuki claims 30% of our food is directly the result of pollination by honeybees.  Losses in Ontario alone this year for lost bees is about $5 million.  The potential damage to the greater fruit and vegetable economy is anybody’s guess.  Should we say the answer will be “buzzing in the wind” this coming summer.  It begs the question. What else in 2007 is going on out there we cannot yet see?