The case of the vanishing honeybees - Emma Bryce

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In the past decade, the US honeybee population has been decreasing at an alarming and unprecedented rate. While this is obviously bad news for honeypots everywhere, bees also help feed us in a bigger way -- by pollinating our nation's crops. Emma Bryce investigates potential causes for this widespread colony collapse disorder.

Lesson by Emma Bryce, animation by Lillian Chan.

There is an environmental mystery afoot,

and it begins with the seemingly trival detail

that reveals a disaster of global proportions.

One day, you notice that the honey

you slather on your morning toast

is more expensive.

Instead of switching to jam,

you investigate the reason for the price hike.

What you find is shocking.

The number of domesticated honey bees in the US

has been decreasing at an alarming rate.

This decline appears too big to be explained

by the usual causes of bee death alone:

disease, parasites or starvation.

The typical crime scene

has almost no adult bees left in the hive,

except, perhaps, a lonely queen

and a few other survivors.

It's full of untouched food stores

and a brood of unborn larvae,

suggesting that the adults vacated

without waiting for them to hatch.

But what's particularly eerie

is that there is no tell-tale mass

of dead or dying bees nearby.

Either they have forgotten their way back to the hive,

or they have simply disappeared.

These mysterious disappearances aren't new.

Humans have been collecting honey for centuries.

But it wasn't until European settlers in the 1600s

introduced the subspecies, Apis Mallifera,

that we domesticated bees.

Since the 19th century, bee keepers have

recorded occasional mass disappearances,

Giving them enigmatic names like