i've been aware of this bee problem for several years, it's good to know at least some people are tkaing notice... too bad that's all it will amount to.

I gave up the cell phone about 6 years ago and am happy to do it... if i do have an emergency, i will rely on myself to get out of it...or not.

everything else is mostly unnecessary "chit chat" and god knows there is enough of that in real life without having to import it from satellite signals!

This afternoon I was adding some fresh water to my bird bath and got stung by a bee... I rushed back in the house, got my cell phone, showed it to the bees and now they are all gone from my backyard.

And I only thought all one could do with a cell phone was to talk to people... Oh yeah, my cell phone fried my brain a few years ago too... Remember that one?

CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) is definitely happening with bees and some areas have been hit by as much as 50% collapse. So far, no known causes have been found as to why the bees leave the hive and never return. What is very unusual is that the abandoned hive does not get "robbed" of its honey by other bees, or predators, which would normally happen. It is as if there is a problem either with the location or the hive has something unknown wrong with it. Research is ongoing and all that is really known so far is that CCD bees have high levels of fungus and tracheal mites in their sytems. Whether this is a cause or a symptom is unknown. A single experiment in Germany showed bees could be disrupted by cell phones, but further research is needed and underfunded in the US.
No one knows the full effect of a catastrophic bee die off, but certain crops, specifically almonds would cease to exist except in greenhouses with hand pollination.

I have been a beekeeper for 23 years. Last summer a cell phone tower was built 1/4 mile away. I had 27 bee hives last summer, 3/4 of my bee hives are now empty of bees and the live ones are very weak. I've never seen anything like it, the bees are just gone.

Does this mean that we bee taxed?

Richard Barri and the Queen Bee, Opra, (posted above) are running off the bees.

I read somewhere that this is not happening everywhere in the world. However, it is 'starting' to happen. This is most likely a phenomenon that will be explained shortly. If some kind of 'radio waves' or sort were the problem we would have most likely seen evidence before now. This seems to be more of a sudden, than gradual problem, which seems to render another cause as the problem than 'cell phones'.

I wonder, with the weather being so weird these days, if somehow, the bee populace is affected. Can it be "too hot" for bees during certain times of the year? Is it being hot, then cold an issue?

I remember hearing about Einstein's statement when I was in elementary school 30 years ago. I've always thought that when there's a need, someone comes up with a solution. AND...The Creator does have a solution for the weakest links in creation.
Knowing that the fittest survive, it's most likely that honeybees will evolve to a stronger group of species to be able to withstand whatever is causing their decline right now.

Sarah, I keep bees in eastern North Carolina and have had increasing problems that could be CCD. I enourage any and all to help find the cause solution because honeybees are paramountly important to our human existance as we know it. However..your article and the one you reference is baseless and absurd. Let's do something based on fact. Anyone can quote anything as possible. Your article doesn't help.

There was a time when people thought the world was flat. There was a time when no one believed man would walk on the moon. There was technology stepping forward and inventing the Mircowave Oven...and with it came the possiblity of stopping one's pace maker.
Technology advances faster then man can adapt and in most cases the fallout of such advances are not properly investigated.
I know with Mircowave technology, if you stand in front of the radar system you can get yourself injured. Who's to say that the new Microwave technology for our radios and use of out cell phones is not generating and abundance of waves disrupting life around us.
Remember that we too are not only flesh and blood...but we operate on an electrical impulse that can be disrupted by outside interference...so why not bees?

I would need to see some serious scientific research from some serious scientists before I believe that cell phones are harming the bee population. Cell phones work on the same principles as radio, television and any other form of wireless communication: By transmitting information in the form of electromagnetic waves at extremely high frequencies over vast distances.

If cell phones are causing a problem, then so are standard radio broadcasts, cable TV satellites, GPS systems, ham radio, radar, wireless internet, space shuttle communications - the list goes on and on.

Sorry - but being a fairly scientific guy myself who earns his living as an Avionics Technician (and who also happens to hate cell phones!), I'm not buying this for a minute until I see conclusive scientific research that proves it. There are too many other MUCH more likely causes.

If, the honeybees are affected, then we need to look at other pollinators to see if they are affected. There are some crops that are reliant on honeybees. They will die with the honeybee. Other crops would do fine with native insects once they are allowed to increase populations - which would require changes in the way pesticides are used. Humans will be eating more bugs.

If the native pollinators are also affected, then the human race will also head for extinction along with many other species.

EVERYONE HAS TO DIE SOMETIME. IF WE CAN FIX THE BEE PROBLEM GREAT, IF NOT, THEN IT'S THE PLANET'S TIME.

By what was stated in the first that it is happening on the East and West coast, areas of more population, we could determine that if the phones are doing the damnage than what is the death rate of bees in the mid West away from mass population. Like say Utah, N Dakota, and the likes. And are these Killer bees hopefully getting their due or are they the ones surviving this silliness.

Let's do some research on whether the "innocuous" Asian Beetles may be munching on bee larvae. They are taking over the country as the latest pest, and there are no more original ladybugs on my land--just millions of Asian Beetles who seem to like being inside of my house as well as outside in the field eating the soybean aphids they were meant to control. The agricultural department certainly put one over on us this time!

Buzzz BZZZZ buzz buzz BZZZZZZ bZZZZZ BUZZZZZZZZZ

Boz,
The issue is:
1. Do wireless phones operate at a specific frequency that is disruptive to bees?

Factoid: there has been over 120,000,000 cell phone users in the U.S. in 2002 and now up to 170,000,000. So why has'nt the bee-connect been seen in 2002, 2003 ,2004, 2005, 2006 ?

Dale Lissner Oregon

If cell phones really are killing the bees then I would either change something where there isnt as much radiation or sadly get rid of the cell phones. Unless people really dont care if world ends then let the bees keep on dying and we will die with them.

there may be more truth to this than we want to admit i am a bee keeper moved 6 hives 2 weeks ago near an area that i have always used to collect clover honey but this year there is a new tower about 1/2 mlie from the site and have already had 2 of the 6 hives[bees not the box] just disappear and they were estabilihed colonies not new any more bee keepers had the same in ne ga ?

I am worried and want our argicultural dept. to do more studies on the effect of cell phones on bees. Remember what Albert Einstein said.