The sun shimmered The bees buzzed Hundreds of hives needed help Cybil Preston got to work As chief apiary inspector for the Maryland Department of Agriculture Cybil guaranteed the health of all the beehives in the state And right now she needed to inspect hundreds of hives before they made a cross-country journey
Farmers from the East Coast to the West desperately needed the honey bees to pollinate their crops Otherwise there wouldn't be enough foods like apples almonds and strawberries for people to eat
The bees were in danger of contracting foulbrood a deadly disease with no cure It was so contagious that if even one infected hive left the state it could wipe out entire bee populations Cybil had to open each hive and inspect every frame inside and there were more fields to go Winter was only a few months away and opening the hives in the cold would harm the bees 6130
Baby bees that die from foulbrood stink like rotting roadkill Dogs have amazing noses that can detect even the tiniest trace of foulbrood in a closed hive Could a sniffer dog be the answer to saving the bees
