My guess is it's just a combination of factors -- this is the first time in history colony collapses have been observed, it's just the latest and possibly more severe then historical occurances. So you may have some underlying natural history at work.
Add to it stresses from being exposed to damaging but non-fatal doses of instecticdes and other toxins, plus newer diseases and parasites like the mites...makes for unhealthy bees.
At my house, I seldom see a honey bee (nearest hives I know of are, oh, 1/2 mile through the woods?).
But I do have a healthy population of bumble bees, and I encourage them by: -- Leaving sections of my lawn (I have 2 acres) high in the spring to let dandelions & clover bloom to give them early flowers; -- Having some wildflowers (um, really unmown lawn...) near the garden -- Planting flowers in the vegetable garden. Although the damn rabbits took out this year's sunflower patch.
I figure if I give the bees lots of food sources, I'll have more bees...even if the bumbles aren't as efficient pollinators as honeybees.
I'd love to keep hives, but I know it would go horribly wrong for me :) Same reason I don't own a motorcycle.
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Today's Featured Article - Third Brush Generators - by Chris Pratt. While I love straightening sheet metal, cleaning, and painting old tractors, I use every excuse to avoid working on the on the electrics. I find the whole process sheer mystery. I have picked up and attempted to read every auto and farm electrics book with no improvement in the situation. They all seem to start with a chapter entitled "Theory of Electricity". After a few paragraphs I usually close the book and go back to banging out dents. A good friend and I were recently discussing our tractor electrical systems when he stated "I figure it all comes back to applying Ohms Law". At this point
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