Honey Bees are Not Healthy

Posted by Neill Abayon

In the summer of 2008, the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) reported that about 33 percent of English honey bee hives did not survive the previous winter. The UK Honey Association warns that English honey will run out by Christmas. No more will be available until the summer of 2009.

The United States faces the same crisis. No specific cause of Colony Collapse Disorder, the mysterious bee illness, has yet been found. But perhaps the most insidious killer of all could be nicotine-based pesticides that interfere with honey bee memories. If their memories are damaged, they may not be able to find their way back to the hive.

In 2003, the U.S. EPA approved a new nicotine-based pesticide called Clothianidin developed by Takeda Chemical Industries and Bayer, a German chemical and pharmaceutical company. It suspected by many of being a primary cause of the bee die-offs.

Read the full article here.