See this at: whyfiles.org| Added on 10/07/09

Colony collapse matters even if your sweetener of choice is aspartame rather than honey. Bees are necessary for pollinating crops, including almonds, apples, blueberries, and citrus fruits, that are worth $14.6 billion a year in the United States.... See more

Colony collapse matters even if your sweetener of choice is aspartame rather than honey. Bees are necessary for pollinating crops, including almonds, apples, blueberries, and citrus fruits, that are worth $14.6 billion a year in the United States. Without a bee to transfer the pollen, the fruit cannot develop. Bees are an unusual type of migrant worker. Large beekeepers get paid by the hive for pollination, and many truck their colonies long distances to follow the blooming schedule of various crops. After honey bee colonies started collapsing in 2004, a hundred theories blossomed to explain mass die-offs: cell phone radiation, a new pesticide, the combined impact of multiple parasites and pathogens, the stress of long-distance trucking, or some witches' brew of the above. Since bees are infected by many parasites, bacteria, viruses and fungi, it was not immediately clear that the syndrome was actually anything new. But one factor strongly implicated infection: Bees did fine in... See less

See this at: exhibits.mannlib.cor...| Added on 10/07/09

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See this at: content.scholastic.c...| Added on 10/07/09

* Students learn what nectar, honey, and pollen are; where they come from; and how bees and flowers share a mutually beneficial relationship * Students learn the Latin name for the honey bee; about its life stages; and about honey bee anatomy *... See more

* Students learn what nectar, honey, and pollen are; where they come from; and how bees and flowers share a mutually beneficial relationship * Students learn the Latin name for the honey bee; about its life stages; and about honey bee anatomy * Students learn about honey bee society, and the role of the queen bee, the worker bee, and the drone * Students learn about hive construction and how honey bees dance to communicate * Students become familiar with a U.S. map and understand basic map elements, such as states and borders, state capitals, regions of the U.S., and how to use a map’s scale—while locating states where honey bee pollination is highest See less

See this at: amazon.com| Added on 10/07/09

From Publishers Weekly In her widely acclaimed A Country Year , Hubbell wrote about living on her 100-acre honey-producing farm in the Ozarks. Here she introduces us to the tasks and pleasures of beekeeping. Hubbell manages 300 hives, some on her own... See more

From Publishers Weekly In her widely acclaimed A Country Year , Hubbell wrote about living on her 100-acre honey-producing farm in the Ozarks. Here she introduces us to the tasks and pleasures of beekeeping. Hubbell manages 300 hives, some on her own farm, others scattered about the countryside on land she rents for one gallon of honey a year. Beekeeping, we're shown, is a marvelous example of symbiosis, advantageous to humans, bees and crops. Noting that the end of one honey season is the start of the next, Hubbell begins with autumn when she checks the hives and prepares them for winter. She takes us, step by step, through the construction of a hive, explaining terms used by beekeepers. Spring brings re-queening if needed, and late summer, the harvest. Hubbell describes the collection and extraction of honeyhot, hard workto complete the season. Beekeeping has to be the apex of animal husbandry; it is a wondrous subject, and Hubbell does it justice. Portions of the book have appeared... See less

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See this at: helpthehoneybees.com| Added on 10/07/09

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See this at: pbs.org| Added on 10/07/09

[...] A recent episode of Nature, on Public Television, on this very topic, was entitled, “Silence of the Bees.” It was compelling, with the message...

See this at: amazon.com| Added on 10/07/09

Product Description The bee may have a brain the size of a grass seed, but in its brief, five-week life it works as a brood nurse, wax producer, comb builder, honey maker, home guard, and floral forager. Bees: Nature's Little Wonders invites readers... See more

Product Description The bee may have a brain the size of a grass seed, but in its brief, five-week life it works as a brood nurse, wax producer, comb builder, honey maker, home guard, and floral forager. Bees: Nature's Little Wonders invites readers to take a new look at creatures that are both familiar and wondrously odd. It considers the diversity and biology of bees, including their peculiar sociosexual arrangements (pity the poor drone), their quirky relationships with flowers, and their startling mental abilities: What are we to make of insects that communicate through symbolic dances? The book also addresses the mysterious syndrome known as colony collapse disorder and identifies opportunities for the conservation of pollinators. Enriched with cultural sidebars and complemented by a stunning collection of images, Bees is a must-read for conservationists, gardeners, and everyone else who cares about the world around them. See less

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See this at: amazon.com| Added on 10/07/09

Amazon.com Review Holley Bishop loves bees. No, more than that: she idolizes them. She marvels at their native abilities and the momentous role these misunderstood and unjustly feared creatures have played in the development of human history. And... See more

Amazon.com Review Holley Bishop loves bees. No, more than that: she idolizes them. She marvels at their native abilities and the momentous role these misunderstood and unjustly feared creatures have played in the development of human history. And with her book, Robbing the Bees, she succeeds in making the reader love bees, too. Take this nifty bit of information, one of countless fascinating factoids offered by Bishop in her celebration of all things bee-related: "Because of bees' starring role in the drama of pollination, we humans are indebted to them, directly and indirectly, for a third of our food supply. Visiting bees are required for the commercial production of more than a hundred of our most important crops including alfalfa, garlic, apples, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, citrus, melons, onion, almonds, turnips, parsley, sunflower, cranberries, and clover." Or how about this: "For the past decade, the American military has been testing [bees'] potential as special agents in the... See less

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