Kim Flottum has been sending out via email very timely and useful updates concerning honeybees and CCD called "Catch The Buzz" If you are not a subscriber you should bee but here is a link to his latest on CCD research and Marla Spivaks thoughts if you are not. http://home.ezezine.com/1636/1636-2007.12.18.17.31.archive.html a partial excerpt I found of interest There were nearly a dozen speakers on the subject, but here I will only discuss a very few. Marla Spivak elegantly stated that we shouldn’t be able to keep bees. There’s just too many things going wrong – varroa is affecting all manner of honey bee health issues, poor pollen is becoming more common, pesticides, especially the new neonics are everywhere and anywhere you look, and the economics of beekeeping in general, essentially, suck (my term, not hers). To support this she read a laundry list of things going on...mites, contaminated wax comb, reduced forage, poor nutrition, pesticides, poor return on honey, increased acreage of pollination-needing crops, increased dollars for pollination contracts, lots of moving .... stir and add just one more thing and....poof. She added one glimmer of hope though, and it was worth the trip. One of the things that has been discovered with the study of the honey bee genome is that honey bees have fewer than half of the genes other insects have for fighting off diseases and pests...those immune genes you keep hearing about. But honey bees have propolis. And propolis fights off pests and diseases...maybe that’s why bees are the way they are, gene-wise. So...looking at propolis a little closer, Marla and other scientists are finding that this magic substance has considerable capacity to fight off problems...honey bee problems and human problems. More is on the way, for both propolis and immune genes we’re told. ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ******************************************************