The Honeybee – The Farmer’s Friend
The honeybee plays a vital role in the pollination of flowering plants, including crops. After all, one-third of the food we eat depends upon pollination, including almonds, apples, berries, cucumbers and melons.
While farmers are dealing with the challenge of providing more food for a growing population, the honeybee has been facing its own problems. The unexplained rise in honeybee deaths - mainly due to high winter losses in colonies in the EU, and 'Colony Collapse Disorder' (CCD) in the USA - has become an issue of concern.
While there has been a 45 percent rise since 1961 in the managed honeybee population worldwide, some beekeepers have experienced serious losses recently in Europe, the US and elsewhere. In the USA adult bees have been disappearing from colonies since 2006; abandoning their queen, their brood, and their food reserves in what has been termed 'Colony Collapse Disorder' (CCD).