[Post-Neolithic]

Not sure about the cause, but here in PA I haven't seen one Honey Bee on any of my bushes, plants or trees. Everything has been flowering like crazy but zero honey bees.

This is the first year I have seen it this way. Used to have to avoid the bushes during the day because of all the bees. Also heard that the wild bees have been gone for a couple of years now, anyone confirm or deny this?

[sageb1]

See my post #30

Your neck of the woods

[C210N]

Also heard that the wild bees have been gone for a couple of years now, anyone confirm or deny this?

You are referring to the fact that there are virtually no "feral" honey bee colonies around, which is mostly due to various kinds of mites, and has been the case for many many years now.

Actually, I am aware of at least one swarm of bees from a friends hive that migrated to become a feral colony. This happened last year, and they are gone now. The problem for feral colonies is there there is no beekeeper human-type to apply the various meds and techniques to keep the mites at bay.

As for my yard, I can say that I've seen about 100,000 honey bees.

... but then, I have 3 hives.

Whatever is causing "Colony Collapse Disorder" does not appear to be affecting those of us with stationary-in-their-yard hives. Its mainly the commercial guys that truck hundreds of hives across the country for pollination that seem to be experiencing the problem.

[hophead]

“Everything has been flowering like crazy but zero honey bees.”

If the story is true, how the hell have your plants kept blooming?

[Jason_b]

anyone confirm or deny this? Confirm. Around my home in Northern Virginia, up until a couple years ago, the bushes would be loaded with bees of all kinds and curious yellowjackets would spend hours buzzing around the outside of my house. What they were interested in I'll never know. But they were after something. Wasps would persistently try to build nests in the fenders of my 4WD toyota truck. These days, I see 1 yellow jacket where there might have been five, 1 bumble bee where there might have been 20, no honey bees. No wasps.

If it were up to me, I'd get one of the remaining good hives, and take it to the biosphere.

From within there, the bees can be studied and the dead or missing ones located. It might provide insight as to what is happening to them on the outside.

A buddy of mine, purely speculating on the matter, connected the bee situation with the whales and dolphins beaching themselves. Drudge has an article that an arctic seal has swum to Florida. It died after it got here. He (my buddy, not drudge) mentioned that a lot of these creatures get their sense of direction from the magnetic poles. There has been talk about a pole reversal being due. Pole reversals have happened many times in the past; lava samples from the atlantic rift shows iron magnetically oriented one way, then the other, frozen according to the time and position of the magnetic pole when it hit the cool water, kind of like you expect it to look on mylar recording tape if you put filings on it. Could be the creatures' compasses need to be recalibrated. I wonder how long it takes nature to accomplish that.