Imagine Thanksgiving dinner without cranberry sauce and pumpkin pies. Summers without strawberry shortcake and watermelon. Burgers without pickles, hot dogs without relish. Chips with no guacamole. Chinese food without soy sauce. America without apple pie. If the honey bees disappear, all of these foods and more will go right along with them. Over seventy farm grown crops, about one-third of our natural food supply, rely on honey bees for pollination.

In the winter of 2006 honey bee hives started dying. What is now known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has spread worldwide. There has been as much as a 70% decrease in honey bee populations in the U.S. In the U.K., nearly 30% of the hives kept by beekeepers didn't survive the 2007-2008 winter. Of about 240,000 hives, nearly 80,000 died. A normal loss would be from 5% to 10%. The huge decrease in the honey bee population created a shortage of honey, and supplies were expected to be completely depleted within a just a few short months. The losses have been so devastating that many beekeepers are calling it quits.

Scientists have been unable to determine the exact cause of CCD. Most likely it is a combination of factors that have tipped the scales against the honey bees. In the meantime, we need to do all we can to keeps these little creatures buzzing.

If a bee swarm invades your home or yard, do not exterminate them. Call a honey bee removal service, or a beekeeper to come and safely remove them. The bees will be provided with a new hive, and hopefully continue to thrive.

In the Northwest, wild flowers are the most important food source for honey bees, especially the dandelion. Not using herbicides or weed killer on your grass, and allowing the little yellow flowers to remain can make a difference.

Because beekeepers have suffered such great losses, it is important to support them by purchasing local honey from local hives, and other bee products like beeswax candles and furniture polish. Most honey on the supermarket shelves comes from South America, and has been boiled to prevent crystallization, and filtered to remove all traces of pollen and propolis, which may have health benefits. Buying locally produced honey not only gives you a higher quality, better tasting honey, but is directly helping to keep the honey bee population alive.