The question of bee decline is an interesting one. All along when it is used to describe bee health status I believe "it is wrong". Statistics around the world from government and non government agencies show numbers are increasing.
If we are using decline to describe a trend. This is a true description for status of bees over a period of time. For example, if you check USA stats it will say numbers declined from 4.5 mil to 2.6 mil from xxxx year to xxxx year.

What we see that bee survivorship is challenged. Every year we report variable winter kill. Overall the average of winter kill is doubled. Beekeepers cost of replacement and loss of production have doubled. This is what should concern everyone. It is also interesting beekeepers have always tried to replace dead outs in the same year and increase their numbers by about 15-20% to make for winter kill of the following year. This statistics will reflect steady increase.

In general the decline word is very popular in the media and certain groups. Therefore it has been used unjustifiable to describe the status of bees and it gets attention. At one time when I challenged news reporter about the decline word and sent world stats,she never called back.

Bad news gets attraction with the media and certain groups. The CCD has lost momentum in certain media outlets and some reports about bee health. Specially all research points to multifactorial case that might be implicated in causing CCD. Therefore the word decline is now getting better attention. It is also mixed with demand and supply for pollination. Hey it gets better ears.
 The question goes now to economics and sustainability.
Thanks for high pollination fees and good honey prices.

Medhat Nast

Alberta Canada

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