Honey, we lost the bees

YOU have to hand it to businessman Frank Ryde … he knows a thing or two about honey bees.

Wearing just a teeshirt and shorts he handles a swarm in total confidence. He holds no fear because in their company he is as calm as when he is making decisions in the boardroom. In fact, he believes big businesses could learn a thing or two about the behaviour of bees.
But there is one thing that concerns him … a phenomenon of hive extinction known as Colony Collapse Disorder which has scientists desperately seeking a solution.
Frank Ryde, 50, from Sehla, who has taught bee-keeping to students and has been called upon in recent years to remove bee nests from residential properties in Bahrain, said: “Never has any species had such a direct bearing on food production like the honey bees. Excessive use of pesticide definitely kills these insects, a claim that I have witnessed with my own beehives.”
He believes that cell phone radiation and the earth’s magnetism could also be factors that interfere with a bee’s navigation system which may have resulted in the condition which has wiped out more than two million hives across 35 states of America.
Scientists are working flat out to discover the cause as the phenomenon spreads across the world.
According to researcher Moustafa A. El-Shehawy who wrote ‘The Future of Bees and Honey Production in Arab Countries’ there are 750 colonies in Bahrain producing 4.5 tonnes of honey.
The honey bees’ extinction could very well seal the fate of the human race. So why would socially-sophisticated insects abandon their young and their queen?

Special Report
By Asma Salman
asma.salman@gulfweekly.com