Word of the Day
Apiary—n. An agricultural beehive, kept for honey and/or crop pollination purposes.
A couple reasons why I’m putting this up:
1) It’s a cool word, but one that’s little-known. It deserves to get aired out and tossed around in conversation a bit more frequently.
2) It’s still a mystery why honeybee colonies have been dying off. Stories about the mysterious bee deaths haven’t been in the news lately, but that doesn’t mean the problem’s over.
As a side note, the recent bat deaths in the Northeast have confounded researchers similarly to the mystery shrouding bee deaths:
Like the ”colony collapse disorder” that has afflicted honeybee populations in recent years, the syndrome has confounded scientists. It is unclear whether the fungus is the cause of the bat mortality or a symptom of it, because not all affected bats have the telltale nose ring. It is also unclear whether the fungus poses a health threat to people.
”Anytime you have a disruption in the system with one species dying, you don’t always know the ramifications of that death,” said Diana Weaver, a spokeswoman with the Fish and Wildlife Service. ”We don’t know how this spreads — if bats are spreading it, if other creatures can carry it — and we’re very uncertain right now about what’s going on.”