Here are a couple sites on the Varroa mite that is causing the problem. I thought the last two were the best of the three.

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/entfacts/struct/ef608.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varroa_destructor

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2169.html

They are talking a lot about this on both radio and TV.

They are working on finding a way to destroy the Varroa mites without destroying the bees along with them.

This looks like a problem that "mite-bee" a very serious issue!

Time will certainly reveal just how mite-ty this mite mite-bee.

If I had a "mite" for everytime I saw a "bee" what a rich man I "mite" be!
-humour sometimes takes the "sting" out of reality.

There's more than one way to be stung.

We seem to have lots of bumble bees, I see them around anything that is currently blooming. I have noticed that they seem to have a thing for straw. Anyone have any knowledge of why this would be?

Just like a honey bee the bumble bee is attracted to flowers, both for the nectar and the pollen. They make honey and use the pollen for raising their brood. I wonder if they are attracted to straw as a possible nesting site or to somehow use it for nesting material?

There are companies who raise bumble bees for pollination. Usually used in conjunction with honey bees. In some ways the bumble bee is a better pollinator in that it will work in cooler and rainier weather than the honey bee, but a large "hive" of bumble bees will have a few hundred bees, where as a honey bee hive will have up to 60,000 bees.

Redfog

This is a stupid question, but do Bumble Bees produce honey?
God Bless,
Will

They produce enough for their own needs which are very little. A honey bee colony survives through the winter with thousands of bee's requiring lots of honey. Of course they produce much more than is needed, thus the bee keeper can take the excess, in some cases a hundred pounds or more, and still leave plenty for the colony. However with bumble bees only the queen lives through the winter so it's honey requirements are very minimal. I've read that their honey is a rather watery compared to honey bee honey and I've never heard of anyone eating it.

Redfog