Colony Collapse Disorder
Colony Collapse Disorder
Bees are weird animals. They know how to count to four based on a experiment done at the University of Queensland; they communicate with one another through dancing and pheromones; their fat bodies make them one of the least aerodynamic creatures that have ever left the ground; they can carry one hundred and twenty two times their body weight; and have personalities that have been characterized as anything from “thrill-seekers” to “pessimistic”1,2. The oddest thing about bees is their mysterious disappearances due to Colony Collapse Disorder, a condition where many adult bees never return to the hive.
In order to understand what is happening today about concerning Colony Collapse Disorder, let’s first get a better understanding of the bees. Since the time of the great Egyptian civilizations, the honeybee has been the symbol of hard work, unity, and cooperation. Bees live in colonies and work for the good of the hive. There are workers bees; one queen who lays all the eggs; the nurse bees look after the baby bees and the queen; the drones or better known as the queen’s gigolos; guard bees who protect the hive; and forage bees that go out and collect food and water3. Easily, the most important job of the bees is pollination.
Known to many as that time when your car turns from black to yellow in a night, pollination is the process that pollen is transported from plant to plant for reproductive purposes. Bees may be little, but their affect on the economy through pollination is quite significant $15 billion in U.S. crop production4.
For any child who has ever feared the sight of broccoli or any other vegetable on a dinner plate, a world without bees may just be the best thing since bubble wrap. Unfortunately, a world without bees would drive the price of food to all time highs, while the quantity of food would drop. Pennsylvania’s acting state apiarist (beekeeper), Eric vanEnglesdorp, said in the documentary Vanishing of the Bees, “If
Bees are weird animals. They know how to count to four based on a experiment done at the University of Queensland; they communicate with one another through dancing and pheromones; their fat bodies make them one of the least aerodynamic creatures that have ever left the ground; they can carry one hundred and twenty two times their body weight; and have personalities that have been characterized as anything from “thrill-seekers” to “pessimistic”1,2. The oddest thing about bees is their mysterious disappearances due to Colony Collapse Disorder, a condition where many adult bees never return to the hive.
In order to understand what is happening today about concerning Colony Collapse Disorder, let’s first get a better understanding of the bees. Since the time of the great Egyptian civilizations, the honeybee has been the symbol of hard work, unity, and cooperation. Bees live in colonies and work for the good of the hive. There are workers bees; one queen who lays all the eggs; the nurse bees look after the baby bees and the queen; the drones or better known as the queen’s gigolos; guard bees who protect the hive; and forage bees that go out and collect food and water3. Easily, the most important job of the bees is pollination.
Known to many as that time when your car turns from black to yellow in a night, pollination is the process that pollen is transported from plant to plant for reproductive purposes. Bees may be little, but their affect on the economy through pollination is quite significant $15 billion in U.S. crop production4.
For any child who has ever feared the sight of broccoli or any other vegetable on a dinner plate, a world without bees may just be the best thing since bubble wrap. Unfortunately, a world without bees would drive the price of food to all time highs, while the quantity of food would drop. Pennsylvania’s acting state apiarist (beekeeper), Eric vanEnglesdorp, said in the documentary Vanishing of the Bees, “If
Cited: 1. Gross HJ, et al. 2009. Number-based visual generalisation in the honeybee. PloS One [Internet]. [cited 2013 Jan 31] 4(1): e4263. Available from: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0004263. 2. Lentini L. 2007 Mar 08. 20 Things you didn 't know about... bees [Internet]. Discover Magazine; [cited 2013 Jan 31] . Available from: http://discovermagazine.com/2007/mar/20-things-you-didnt-know-about-bees#.UQ7dc6V91E8.