More Colonies Surviving

Survey finds slower decline of honeybee colonies
By GARANCE BURKE – 14 hours ago

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — The decline of honeybee colonies has slowed slightly since last fall, but a mysterious combination of ailments is still decimating the insect's population, federal researchers say.

U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers found that honeybee colonies declined by 29 percent between September 2008 and early April. That's an improvement over the last two years, when researchers found that 32 percent and 36 percent of all beekeepers surveyed lost hives.

Domestic honeybee stocks have been waning since 2004 because of a puzzling illness scientists called colony collapse disorder, which causes adult bees to inexplicably forsake their broods. Bees now appear also to be suffering from other ailments. Read More

One thing that we can conclude from the reduced colony death is that it can’t caused by a pesticide or GMO crop. If it were, the death rates would be the same or higher. You would have to assume that the theory of a parasite or some other disease would be the cause since the numbers being provided to us would mirror that of any other animal population that was battling such a problem.