From Salon. Conspiracy Factory has a good overview.
Sounds like it wasn't anything sinister other than weird winter weather.
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Interesting, though the last I had read indicated that a fungal infection was at least partially responsible.
though the last I had read indicated that a fungal infection was at least partially responsible.
The fungus gets traction because the bees were weakened by weather related stressors... that's explained in the link.
I see no such explanation in the link. It mentions an interesting speculation about weather causing malnutrition and compromising the bees' immune system, but it doesn't mention any particular pathogen.
I'm sorry for just jumping into a thread like this and throwing in an OT comment, but I'm at the end of my rope, and could use some help from the scienceblogs army. Links at the page, and if you want to comment, don't jack the Hoofnagles' thread.
Also, Bug Girl has written several posts on colony collapse.
I blame the Croatians. They've trained bees to sniff out landmines, so if they can't find any they get confused and, in all probability, suicidal.
The solution is clear: it is plainly the patriotic duty of all Americans to put landmines throughout the countryside. That will save agriculture; if you disagree, you are clearly part of a sinister Balkan conspiracy to corner the world honey market.
I think you hugely misread that article. (and the article didn't include the lead scientist on the CCD project. It didn't help that one of the beekeepers was a little....odd.
The problem is separating out the losses from the *usual* fluctuations that occur.
More here:
http://membracid.wordpress.com/2007/04/29/bees-disease-and-bs/
and Here:
http://membracid.wordpress.com/2007/05/14/dissapearing-bees-and-bs-clif…
The weather explanation just sounded the best to me. But after reading your post I agree, it could certainly be multi-factorial.
As long as people aren't blaming cell phones and "radiation" I'm happy.
That seems to come up a lot. You need a guy wearing a tinfoil hat in the set of pictures in the blog banner.
I'd like to point out this article as well, for a great read on the multi-faceted nature of the bee problem:
http://www.celsias.com/blog/2007/04/13/colony-collapse-disorder-a-momen…
Cell phone radiation, while ridiculous, did really bring this problem to global awareness. Not that I'm a proponent of sensationalism, but more of a comment on what it takes to get people to notice.
Self Promo time: I'm trying to raise money for research into our bee disappearance problem by selling tshirts. Feel free to check it out:
http://www.savetheblank.com/
Thanks!