In 1995, 33.000 tons of honey was produced but in 2016, only 9.000 tons!  This is due to the problem of  “Colony Collapse Disorder” (CCD).  The bees’ pollination is precious; lots of plants depend on it.  The CCD syndrome is a phenomenon that occurs when the majority of worker bees in a colony disappears. The bees leave their hive, and we don’t know where they go. They leave without any reasons.  Because of this, already 15.000 beekeepers have stopped their activity.  These disappearances could be caused by different things: pesticides, infections, diseases, climate change, selective commercial breeding and lost genetic diversity in industrial beekeeping and more. Genetically Modified Organisms also is one of the causes; it changes the entire components of the plant and bees can’t do what they do best: pollinate.

1/3 of our food depends on pollination; without bees, no tomatoes, no strawberries, etc…

 In 6 years, more than 10 millions beehives were lost because of the CCD syndrome.

The CCD syndrome started in the USA in 1990 and in France in 1995. This syndrome is still killing lots of bees, more and more every year!

A lot of theories have been found to explain this problem but only few of them have been validated by researchers:

-Change in the bee’s environment: less diversity = lack of food

-Stress due to the transport of bees from hive to hive because of the environmental changes

- The invasive Varroa mite which is a honey bee pest