The general concern in the community about disappearing bees is well jusIfied. Indeed, it is world-wide and most relevant in the northern hemisphere where dwindling bee populaIons are causing more pressing problems than we are experiencing here. And well might the community be concerned, for more than half the world’s major food crops depend on the European honeybee, Apis mellifera for pollinaIon and the slogan “pollinate or perish” is not an idle one. It has been said, allegedly originally by Albert Einstein, that humankind would not survive more than a few years without the honeybee.
By Jim Wright
Life member, Hunter Valley Branch, Amateur Beekeepers’ AssociatIon of NSW (Inc)