US bee mogul confronts crisis of colony collapse

New York

A SOFT light was just beginning to outline the Tejon Hills as Bret Adee counted rows of wizened almond trees under his breath.

He placed a small white flag at the end of every 16th row to show his employees where they should place his beehives. Every so often, he fingered the buds on the trees. "It won't be long," he said.

Mr Adee is America's largest beekeeper, and this is his busy season. Some 92,000 hives had to be deployed before those buds burst into blossom so that his bees could get to the crucial work of pollination.

But it is notable that he has a business at all. For the past decade, a mysterious plague has killed billions of bees every year.

"Every year at this time of year, we wonder are there going to be enough bees," said Bob Curtis, director of agricultural affairs at the Almond Board…