Is this why there are fewer honey bees around?

[FishyWishy]

So I was reading some news and came by this article about a truck returning to NB with honey bees that had been used in Ontario to pollinate blueberry fields.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080630/.../nb_bees_escape

It said there were 330 crates each with 4 hives = 1320 hives. Sounds like a lot of imported bees from NB to me. IS this why we don't see a lot of honey bees around? What about local bee keepers?

Truthfully I don't know much about beekeeping/agricultural practices for pollination, I was surprised by the numbers though.

I have seen honey bee displays at places like the howells farm etc but truthfully if I saw one in my backyard I don't know if I could identify it versus any other bee/wasp/hornet. All yellow and black stinging insects to me

Only bees I can ID are the big "fluffy" bumble bees. Had lots of them on my pumpkim blossoms last year. had to make note not to plant pumpkins by the patio again That plus the sprawling plants completly took over the garden onder my corn and spread across the patio and in every which way. But found out that I had stumbled across 2/3 of the traditional 3 sisters companion planting (didn't have beans) but pure happenstance

Done

FW

[Dan Andrews]

There was a very good article in the Toronto Sun this last couple of days on bees and the mites that are killing them. Banning pesticides might help. I plan on having a bee keeper as a guest speaker in the spring at the conservation club to cover this important issue.