Honey bees all over the world are dying. CCD or Colony Collapse Disorder has spread throughout the bee community. Many theories have been put forward as to why they are dying but the primary cause is being blamed on pesticides. Wild honey bees are rare these days because they have been killed off by the widespread use of chemicals pesticides and insecticides such as DDT. Now the commercial honey bee keepers are losing their bee colonies. It is reported that nearly forty per cent of all bee hives have died. Once the weather turns cold they either die in their hives or just take off and are never found again.

The Varro mite, which came from the Asian honey bee and infected the European honey bee after the second world war, carry diseases that are fatal to bees and will wipe out complete colonies. The mites have now become resistant to the chemical treatments used to destroy them.

Only Australia has hives that are free of the Varro mite and they spend a lot of money on keeping it that way. Live bees are sent from Australia to all over the world to pollinate crops, in what to them could be a toxic environment. If Australia’s bees become infected with the Varro mite there would be no healthy bees left on the planet.

The major suspects, in the chemical war on bees, are products such as Clothianidin and Imidacloprid, known as Gaucho, which are widely used. There is no conclusive evidence for this but this is the theory. Every class of chemical being used today it has been found in bees. One bee that was tested was found to have 25 chemical compounds in its system.

Chapter sixteen of the Quran is named The Bee.

Chapter 16 verses 68 – 69.
And your Lord inspired the bee: build homes in mountains and trees, and in the hives they build for you. Then eat from all the fruits, following the design of your Lord, precisely. From their bellies comes a drink of different colours, wherein there is healing for the people. This should be proof for people who reflect.

Honey is the healing drink of different hues but the real gift of bees is pollination. A single bee can visit a thousand flowers in a day. It is the number one pollinator of over ninety crops such as nuts, apples, berries, rape seed, beans and cotton. Without them these crops will not produce fruit.

Wherever bees live in agricultural areas they die but bees kept in urban areas and cities such as London find cleaner and more abundant food to eat. There are no toxic chemicals sprayed onto plants in city gardens and parks. This should say something about our agricultural system.

There are many species of bees but the European honey bee, Apis mellifera, is one of the best known insects. Their deaths are showing how badly we are treating our world. As individuals we can make a difference by making whatever land we can available for bees by planting a variety of flowers and avoiding pesticides and insecticides. Their extinction will have a profound effect on global food production. They are a barometer for the health of the planet and the death of the honey bee shows us how badly we are treating our God given planet.