The New York Times and Honeybees

http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/guest-column-a-low-tech-treatment-for-bee-plague/

The Wild Side
Guest Column: A Low-Tech Treatment for Bee Plague

This is a column written by Aaron E. Hirsh about his bees in Colorado last spring. Two of his hives were active - no sign of life in the third. He writes about CCD, the mobile fleet of honeybees-for-rent and the transformation of our landscapes and how all of the above have affected our honeybees.
At the end, he puts his ear beside the wooden box on the third hive: Nothing. But by placing his hand on the box, he received an answer: a gentle hum. And then a bee emerged -not dead - just sleeping in.