Bee colony collapse disorder thought to have multiple causes

Beekeepers still have not solved the mystery of colony collapse disorder, three years after it first appeared. CCD is a condition which causes hives to fail, killing off more than 50 percent of the hives in some locations. One apiarist told Adrian Higgins of The Washington Post, "Bee health is in really bad shape, and we need to understand why."

An early suspect was a bloodsucking parasite called the Varroa mite. Another was a pathogen named Israeli acute paralysis virus, which showed up in collapsed colonies. After three years of research, scientists think the cause is not a single factor but a cocktail of maladies, including bad nutrition, stress from too much pollination and pesticides that together weaken and sicken the bees, Higgins reports. (Read more)

Here is more information from The Rural Blog about bees and their importance.