We bought some "wild flower" honey in California last spring to take home as a gift for the family who were keeping an eye on our house, closer examination of the label revealed that some of the contents came from Argentina.

One theory relates to the frequent moving of commercial hives to new territories to take advantage of the crops available. This has been carried out for many years but if you combine that with the apparent disorientation produced by some pesticides it could be that many bees simply get lost and die.

My honey bees produce so much honey that I can't easily lift the boxes and the wild bees this year are prolific with about 12 different types, some solitary, some tiny colonies. There are also other insects about, notably several species of "hover fly" which also make good pollinators.