Local beekeepers

Nearly one in three commercial honeybee colonies in the United States died or disappeared last winter, an unsustainable decline that threatens the nation’s food supply. Multiple factors pesticides, fungicides, parasites, viruses and malnutrition are believed to cause the losses.

Local beekeepers are working to get their bees healthy, as we move into the fall season. We feed our bees because there was nothing left for the bees to get, no flowers with nectar left. If you have bees, you need to check them because they could be on the brink of starvation.

Honey bees are crucial to pollinating flowers and food crops. Of the 100 crop species that provide 90 percent of the world's food, over 70 of them are pollinated by bees. In our area, many of our fruit and vegetable crops depend on bee pollination to grow, including tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, melons and blueberries.

Without bees to pollinate many of our favorite fruits and vegetables, the United States could lose $15 billion worth of crops not to mention what it would do to your diet.(KEIM)

Bibliography

KEIM, BRANDON. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/05/winter-honeybee-losses/. May 2013.