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<p class=fly-title><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Almond pollination in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<h1><b><font size=6 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:24.0pt'>Vitamin
Bee<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<h2><b><font size=5 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:18.0pt'>A new
attempt to save the most vital workers in the orchards<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h2>
<p class=info><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Mar
4th 2010 | LOS ANGELES | From <em><i><font face="Times New Roman">The Economist</font></i></em>
print edition<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><img width=290 height=355 id="_x0000_i1025"
src="cid:image001.jpg@01CAC1D8.86257960" alt=" " title=""><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span class=caption><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Now fattened with cookie dough</span></font></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>AT THIS
time of year Gordon Wardell loves to stand amid the almond blossoms in <st1:State
w:st="on">California</st1:State>’s <st1:place w:st="on">San Joaquin</st1:place>
valley, listening to the “low-pitch, warm, happy hum” of millions
of bees. But the bees are not as happy as they sound, which is why Mr Wardell,
who has a PhD in entomology and is a de facto bee doctor, is here. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>More than
80% of the world’s almonds are grown in <st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State>
and, to pollinate them, the 7,000 or so growers hire about 1.4m of <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s
2.3m commercial hives. Thousands of trucks deliver the hives in
February—from <st1:State w:st="on">Maine</st1:State>, <st1:State w:st="on">Florida</st1:State>,
the <st1:place w:st="on">Carolinas</st1:place> and elsewhere—and will
soon pick them up again. The bees’ job is to flit from one blossom to the
next, gorging themselves and in the process spreading the trees’ sexual
dust. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Since
2006, however, bees have been suffering from “colony collapse
disorder” (CCD), a mysterious affliction that has drastically reduced
their numbers. As a result, says Joe MacIlvaine, the president of Paramount
Farming and the largest almond-grower in the world, the rental cost of a hive
has tripled in the past five years to about $150. Bee rental now accounts for
15% of <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Paramount</st1:place></st1:City>’s
costs.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>So <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Paramount</st1:place></st1:City> has hired Mr
Wardell, who has been studying bees for 30 years and CCD since it broke out.
Its cause may be mobile-telephony radiation, viruses, fungi, mites and
pesticides—or none of the above. In the absence of a clear explanation,
Mr Wardell is concentrating on something different: nutrition.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>A healthy
worker bee spends about four weeks in its hive, feeding on protein-rich pollen
and nursing larvae, and then another two weeks in the field eating sugary honey
until its proteins are depleted and it dies. For some reason bees are getting
too little protein in the hive, thus dying after only about four weeks, almost
as soon as they venture outside. So Mr Wardell is force-feeding them protein.
He owns a patent for MegaBee, which he says “looks like cookie
dough”. He puts a bit of this into the hives, blocking the bees’
entrance so that they have to chomp their way through it. As part of his new
job, Mr Wardell is working with beekeepers across the country to supplement bee
diets everywhere. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>So far he
has noticed that hives are smaller this year and some colonies still
collapsing. But he has hopes that his cookies will work, bringing more of a
buzz next year. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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