Bee careful!(THE BIG PICTURE) (dwindling number of bees) (Brief article)

Talk about creating a buzz. She Ping, a beekeeper in Chongqing, in southern China, draped himself in 460,000 bees to promote his honey business. His daring feat, called bee bearding, is accomplished by wearing a small cage containing a queen bee, the only egg-laying female in a bee colony, whose chemical scents attract other bees to cluster around her.

The PR stunt comes at a time when bees could use some attention. They're dying in great numbers around the world, including in the U.S., and scientists are trying to figure out why. Pesticides and parasites are the chief suspects. The mysterious die-off, dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder, has huge ramifications for the world's agriculture: Bees are responsible for pollinating most of the world's fruits and vegetables. Says bee expert Gene Robinson: "Seeing the decline of the bees should be a wake-up call for our young people that we really need to pay attention to our environment."

9

...