The Naturalist's CornerWritten by Don Hendershot Bees do it and
die Honeybees are not native to the States. But these prolific
pollinators arrived with the earliest settlers. With the
changing agricultural landscape, i.e., thousands of acres of
monoculture crops and the decimation of native pollinators
through habitat loss, rampant pesticide application and direct
competition with this European immigrant, the honeybee has been
crowned king of pollinators across the U.S. The national
honeybee industry is a $15 billion a year business. And it’s
more than just honey and bee balm. One report suggests that
honeybees are responsible for 30 percent of all food sold in
today’s grocery stores. So with all our pollen in one hive, so
to speak, it makes it really scary when beekeepers (apiarists)
across the country start reporting a mysterious disappearance of
from 30 to 90 percent of their hives. According to researchers
at North Carolina State University beekeepers have, in the past
and still today, occasionally suffer