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05-08-2013, 02:32 PM
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105 posts, read 120,730 times
Reputation: 219
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One-Third of U.S. Honeybee Colonies Died Last Winter, Threatening Food Supply"Beekeepers lost 31 percent of their colonies in late 2012 and early 2013, roughly double what’s considered acceptable attrition through natural causes. The losses are in keeping with rates documented since 2006, when beekeeper concerns prompted the first nationwide survey of honeybee health. Hopes raised by drop in rates of loss to 22 percent in 2011-2012 were wiped out by the new numbers."
"The honeybee catastrophe could also signal problems in other pollinator species, such as bumblebees and butterflies, that are not often studied."
“Thinking of honeybees as our canary in the coal mine, a monitor for environmental conditions, is very appropriate,” Cox-Foster said. “With honeybee colonies, you have the ability to open them up and see what’s going on. There are many other species needed for pollination, but with most of those, we don’t have the ability to see what’s happening.”
So much for retraining unemployed butterflies.
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