percent or even 50 percent of the hives needed to pollinate many of the nation ’ s fruits and vegetables .
Bret Adee , who is an owner , with his father and brother , of Adee Honey Farms of South Dakota , the nation ’ s largest beekeeper , described mounting losses . “ We lost 42 percent over the winter . But by the time we came around to pollinate almonds , it was a 55 percent loss ,” he said in an interview here this week .
“ They looked beautiful in October ,” Mr . Adee said , “ and in December , they started falling apart , when it got cold .”
Dave Hackenberg , the Pennsylvania-based commercial beekeeper who first raised the alarm about CCD in November 2006 , criticises the survey for focusing on winter losses . He says by doing so , “ it underplays serious threats to honeybees during the summer from pesticide use and gives a false picture of the scale of the losses ”. He says he lost “ 62 % of his 2,600 colonies between May 2009 and April 2010 ”.
Bill Dahle , Owner of Big Sky honey notices a large death rate of honeybees in the fall of 2012 .
What will Happen to America if Bees Become Extinct ?
Many bee species , especially honey bees , pollinate seventy one percent of the worlds crops . Without bees to pollinate our crops America will lose about two hundred seventeen billion dollars in crops ! That ’ s a lot of food that will not be grown if bees become extinct . Without bees to pollinate our crops the farms will go out of business and more people will go hungry . That also creates more unemployed people who don ’ t have