"GACKLE, North Dakota - There was barely a buzz in the air as John Miller pried the lid off of a crate, one of several "bee boxes" stacked in eight neat piles beside a cattle grazing pasture outside Gackle, North Dakota.
"Nothing," Miller said as he lifted a plastic hive frame from the box, squirming with only a few dozen bees. "Normally this would be dripping, full of honey. But not this year."
A scorching drought is slashing honey production in North Dakota, the top producing state of the sweet syrup. That means fewer bees can thrive, which leads to even less honey.
The shortage of strong bee colonies, meanwhile, is putting West Coast cash crops like almonds, plums and apples at risk, according to more than a dozen interviews with farmers, bee experts, economists and farm industry groups."
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