9781422279137

introduction INTRODUCTION

The yard at Dave Hackenberg’s Pennsyl- vania home resembled a strange, out- door office. Boxes that looked like over- size filing cabinets were scattered all over. Instead of holding paper, they were filled with bees. That is, they were filled with bees un- til one day in 2006, when Hackenberg went out to check on them and found the boxes mostly empty. There was some food left, a few worker bees, and—the strangest part of all—the queen bee. That meant the hive had not been abandoned voluntarily. For some reason, the bees had just left and not returned. Hackenberg was not alone. All over the country, the same thing was happening. Bee-

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