More bee deaths

i am quite alarmed now that i have heard of Colony Collapse- it looks to be a global issue that no one is paying attention to beyond claiming people who ARE looking at it are crazy ... i feel like i did when i was a child and everyone called my gramma nuts because she was into health foods- you know- carrot juice and vitamins - taking care of your health at home first with good food. NOW its acceptable, but then? she was very fringy.

here is what i saw today:

20,000 bees die in Canada

(AFP) – 23 hours ago

OTTAWA — A Canadian museum launched an investigation Friday into the sudden death of 20,000 bees on display in a glass encased hive.

"All 20,000 bees died within 48 hours," Amanda Fruci, publicist for the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, told AFP.

"The cause is being investigated but we know for sure that it wasn't colony collapse syndrome because that involves bees leaving a hive and never coming back, and in this case they all died in the hive."

In normal times, bee communities naturally lose around five percent of their numbers.

But with the syndrome known as colony collapse disorder (CDD), a third, half -- sometimes even 90 percent or all -- of the insects can be wiped out.

In the United States, government figures released last year showed a 29 percent drop in beehives in 2009, coming on the heels of declines of 36 and 32 percent in 2008 and 2007.

Mysterious decimation of bee populations have also been reported in Europe, Japan and elsewhere in recent years, threatening agricultural crops that depend on the honey-making insects for pollination.

Thousands of visitors had viewed the bees at work in a specially designed glass hive in the Royal Ontario Museum's popular hands-on biodiversity gallery over the past two years.

They were perfectly healthy until last week when they suddenly died.

The museum has already ruled out starvation or errors by staff as causes of death, but said poor ventilation, a parasite or too few worker bees to keep the comb warm over the winter may be to blame.

Other links covering the story, but most seem to have the bulk of the same information:

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_634104.html

http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/68001/20000-bees-die-in-canada