Colony Collapse Disorder

Beehives and their bees are disappearing in alarming numbers. What causes a colony to collapse?

“David Bradshaw has endured countless stings during his life as a beekeeper, but he got the shock of his career when he opened his boxes last month and found half of his 100 million bees missing.”

So begins a story in The New York Times last year. Bradshaw, 50, is missing his bees. He says he has never seen anything like it. “Box after box after box are just empty. There’s nobody home.”

And that’s a huge problem.

Across America, honeybees are disappearing without a trace. And it’s a cause for huge concern.

Here’s where we’re going with this: Change David Bradshaw, the beekeeper, to Rev. David Bradshaw, pastor: “Rev. Bradshaw has endured countless stings during his life as a pastor, but he got the shock of his career when he looked at his church last year and found half of his church members are missing.”

Of course, we made that up. But you can see where this is going. The disappearance of the bees is related to a phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), in which beehives suddenly ...