Gordon Thomason passed this article on to me, from June 7 Science Daily, as reported in the journal Science, regarding mites and deformed wing virus.

..."showed how the Varroa mite caused deformed wing virus (DWV) -- a known viral pathogen -- to increase its frequency among honey bee colonies from 10 per cent to 100 per cent.  This change was accompanied by a million-fold increase in the number of virus particles infecting each honey bee and a massive reduction in…

Here are 2 articles which may be of interest, one from the New York Times of April 15, about helping Afghan farmers

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/us/duplicating-afghanistan-from-the-ground-up.html

and another from the Wall Street Journal, of April 9, about learning new things later in life, particularly beekeeping.…

By Olivia Solon, Wired UK, March 9, 2012

Bees have different “personalities”, with some showing a stronger willingness or desire to seek adventure than others, according to a study by entomologists at the University of Illinois.

The researchers found that thrill-seeking is not limited to humans and other vertebrates. The brains of honeybees that were more likely than others to seek adventure exhibited distinct patterns of gene activity in molecular pathways known…

The most rare U.S. species of bumblebee, last seen in 1956, has turned up once again in the White Mountains of south-central New Mexico. Called “Cockerell’s Bumblebee,” this prized pollinator is known from an area of less than 300 square miles, giving it the most limited range of any bumblebee species in the world.

“Most bumblebees in the U.S. are known from…