There has been much discussion about the effect of high voltage lines on all sorts of organisms, humans and farm animals as well as bees, but no hard evidence of a direct damage mechanism. Because of the fast fall off in field strength with distance it is perhaps unlikely that there are direct magnetic or electric field effects. However the possibility of indirect effects are perhaps more possible. There has been some research carried out in the UK (I think at Bristol Univ.-forgive me if I've got the wrong institution), on the effects of the electrostatic fields under power lines in concentrating polution particles. The idea is that if a power line is situated downwind from e.g. a major roadway, then the field would concentrate the pollution particles to the extent that any "air breathing " organism in the vicinity would get an enriched pollution ingestion. Presumably this would affect bees as much as any other animal, and might lead to a general "feeling of swarminess" Alan Riach Edinburgh, Scotland