Why do we wonder why our bees are dying?

I think it's pretty obvious that the main culprit is - drum roll - Chemicals!  Just their names sound evil:  chlorothalonil, mycobutanil, simazine, glyphosate, chlorpyrifos, to name just a few of those that are commonly found in beehives.  In the December, 2009 issue of Bee Culture Magazine (I love to read it, even though it's mostly about honey bees) the Editor, Kim Flottum, writes about the results of a U. of Florida research project studying the effects of 'common' pesticides on honey bee larvae.

Poor little bugger.SURPRISE!  "Many [chemicals] were found to be toxic to the test larvae being raised in the lab when exposed to levels that are commonly found in beehives.  350 beehive pollen samples from hives in Florida found 98 pesticides, with an average of 6.7 per sample.  Of 259 wax samples taken, 120 pesticides were identified with an average of 8 per sample."

I admire Mr. Flottum's candor:  "Our bees live, it seems, in a cesspool of chemicals. . .many of which we are responsible for.  But then, we knew that didn't we."

And you thought that honey you were eating was healthy, right???