Waning Colony Collapse Disorder

 A recent article in an online news service called Post Register.com coming out of Fresno, California said: Federal officials say the decline of honeybee colonies may have slowed slightly but warn that mysterious ailments are still affecting the insects.

 U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers found that honeybee colonies declined by 29 percent between September 2008 and early April. That's an improvement over the past two years, when researchers found that over 36 percent of beekeepers surveyed lost colonies.

 Domestic honeybees  have been waning since 2004, when scientists learned of a puzzling illness they called colony collapse disorder. Colony Collapse Disorder has been blamed on everything from mites, to insecticides, to being overworked. Here’s Bill Ahaus…beekeeper and Secretary/Treasurer of the Idaho Honey Industry Association on Colony Collapse: “Seems to be fading into the background. Not as critical a problem as it was 2-3 years ago. I don’t think anybody’s to the point where they’re saying it’s over, we don’t have that, it’s just that everyone is putting in extra effort to make sure their hives are medicated for the problems we already know of and making sure that their bees are fed. Commercial beekeepers especially are putting a lot of protein into their hives.”