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Has the world become dangerously dependent on commercial honey bees to pollinate its crops? This prolific species is prone to some nasty diseases, as presenter Manuela Saragosa discovers.

California bee broker Joe Traynor describes how two million hives are trucked into the state's almond orchards every year, attracting the unwanted attention of bee rustlers.

Meanwhile, ecologist Lynn Dicks of the University of East Anglia explains why wild bees seem to be in inexorable decline, and apiarist Francis Ratnieks of Sussex University says the answer may be to breed more hygienic bees.

Producer: Laurence Knight

(Picture: Bee on top of pink flower; Credit: Oyvind Breyholtz/Getty Images)