Yikes...honeybees are disappearing !!!

Sometime around 2007, Bunny and I heard from our friend Sandra Hughes at The Bee Project (see Bee Links) that honeybees were disappearing. This provided us with the impetus to learn a little more about a phenomenon called "Colony Collapse Disorder" (CCD). We read a little and realized that the consequences of loosing our honeybees would be dire! We thought somebody should do something about this and promptly decided to leave this problem in someone elses capable hands. A year or two later, with the honeybee population still in trouble, we attended a meeting of the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association (MABA) and heard a distinguished University of Georgia (UGA) entomologist, Dr. Kieth Delaplane speak on CCD. We learned that CCD has been observed in North America, Russia and Europe. Although bee populations worldwide are actually increasing (good news for the rest of the world) the cause of CCD is still a mystery. That evening Bunny and I took the opportunity to talk to some local Atlanta beekeepers and we were "stung" (ok, not much buzz there - ooooh, I "hive" to stop - ahhhhh...) by their love of bees and the art of beekeeping. Everyone we spoke to encouraged us to consider becoming beekeepers. After some subsequent discussion and realizing the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association (MABA) would be a great resource for us, we decided to become urban beekeepers ourselves.