What About Those Bees.....What Bees?

I watch the news.  I get my news from several sources to try and glean as much fact as opposed to 'slants' on various topics.

I've noticed, and I'm sure that you have as well, that most mainstream news deals with celebrity 'stuff'.  I don't know about you, but I'm not particularly interested in what celeb couple are breaking up or hooking up.  There are far more important things to read about.

Of course the current political climate is interesting, but for my purposes today, I'll not discuss that- I'm sure there will be plenty of fodder as we gear up for the elections next year.

No, today I'd like to talk a little bit about something that should be in the headlines and yet you don't see anything much about it.  In fact I first learned about this issue a few years ago on facebook- which has also been fairly quiet about the situation in the last several months.

What am I alluding too?  The rapidly disappearing honey bee.

Ok, so it doesn't sound like such a big deal.  I beg to differ.

First some facts about honey bees:

  • . Honey bees can fly at speeds of up to 15 miles per hour
  • A honey bee colony can contain up to 60,000 bees at its peak.
  • A single honey bee worker produces about 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
  •  The queen honey bee lays up to 1,500 eggs per day, and may lay up to 1 million in her lifetime
  • The honey bee uses the most complex symbolic language of any animal on earth, outside of the primate family
  • An industrious worker bee may visit 2,000 flowers per day
This is according to the About.com website. (http://insects.about.com/od/antsbeeswasps/a/10-facts-honey-bees.htm)  

There are other interesting tidbits of information on that website, but the most interesting to me, for my purposes today, is that last one I've listed.  Worker bees may visit 2000 flowers per day.  

They are natures pollinators. 

And they are disappearing at an alarming rate.  

According to several sources (I'll list them later for you to go ahead and do  your own fact checking) 
in the last year alone, approximately 1/3 of the world's bees have disappeared..  Gone.  Never to return. That is in one year alone.  

You may be asking, so what?  I'll tell you what.   These tiny little creatures are really what makes the world go round.  

Plants, fruits and vegetables need those little pollinators to produce the things we eat.  Without pollination, there are no food stuffs to eat. Not to mention the lack of honey.  

This is in fact a critical issue, but we see very little about in mainstream news.  Could it be that our increased in demand for technology is possibly related to the destruction of bees?  Could it be the insecticide companies are large advertisers?  I don't know.  But I do know that if this issue is not addressed, we will be seeing a  huge hike honey and food prices along with the anticipated hikes in eggs and chicken. 

fact checking:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/13/bees-disappearing_n_7273862.html

http://keepingbee.org/honey-bees-disappearing/

http://keepingbee.org/honey-bees-disappearing/

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