Honey Bee

Zo, you could be right, and I hope you are. I have been told that the wind can pollinate grain crops such as wheat, barley, oats, and corn, but fruits and vegetables require pollination by bees.

haya, without bees to pollinate food crops, the plants will produce nothing.

BEES DISAPPEARING AS MYSTERY AILMENT SWEEPS U.S.

Bees are vanishing across the United States, leaving empty colonies behind -- and nobody knows why.

California beekeeper David Bradshaw said he's trying not to dwell on the fact that half his bees are gone.

"I'd be an emotional mess if I just kept thinking about the bees dying," he told CTV News. Experts gathered in Washington Thursday at a House Agriculture Subcommittee, describing the mysterious threat as "Colony Collapse Disorder" (CCD). The remains of dead bees usually remain inside a hive, unless worker bees carry their bodies out. But colonies affected by CCD show no signs of the ailment, aside from a notable absence of mature bees.

It's possible the affected bees abandon the hive before dying, but scientists have yet to understand why or how.

In the past six months, U.S. beekeepers estimate they have lost between 50 and 90 per cent of their honeybees. One colony can have 60,000 bees in the summer, and that number drops to about 20,000 in the winter.

The condition of Canada's bees is not fully known, but the U.S. Congress was told it's likely Canadian hives likely share a similar fate. "Recently, we have reports out of Canada that they have the exact same symptoms and collapses ongoing there," said Diana Cox-Foster, a professor of entomology with the Pennsylvania State University. Scientists, beekeepers and officials started a CCD group in December 2006 to examine the cause of the disorder, and hopefully find a cure. Not only are bees crucial to the agriculture industry in the production of honey, they also work as pollinators. Roughly 75 per cent of flowering plants require pollinators to bear fruit, including crops that produce the resources needed for drugs and fuel. - (Report by CTV's Tom Walters and files from The Associated Press - Updated Thu. Mar. 29 2007 10:52 PM ET)

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- "If honey bees should die out, so will the human race within four years." - Albert Enstein