Uncle Jer says the bee businesses is buzzing and reports to the contrary are baloney.

Beekeeper Jerry Johnson brought his traveling bee show to Sausalito last week to educate youngsters and adults about honey bees, which he has raised for 50 years.

He said reports of bees' demise are premature.

"The bees are surviving. I do very well," Johnson said, as he prepared to give a talk about the insects. "In my opinion people do dumb things. You have to take care of them. É Do bees die? They do all the time. It's life. We don't have a 100 percent survival rate, but we do well."

Beginning in October 2006, some beekeepers began reporting losses of 30 to 90 percent of their hives, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Colony

losses are not unexpected during winter weather, but the magnitude of loss suffered by some beekeepers was highly unusual, the agency reported. Scientific literature has several mentions of honey bee disappearances, including in the 1880s, the 1920s and the 1960s.

The phenomena, which does not have a recognizable underlying cause, has been termed "Colony Collapse Disorder."

Johnson - who keeps about a million bees at his home in Elk Grove, south of Sacramento - doesn't disagree there have been losses, but said a well-managed hive will do just fine. In California, the almond crop alone uses 1.3 million colonies of bees, approximately half of all honey bees in the United States.

"All the crops are getting harvested," said Johnson.

"The almond growers have had record-breaking crops in three straight years, 150 percent more almonds than ever. You don't have to worry about food crops. But you have work hard in this business. A good beekeeper works every day except Thanksgiving."

Not using pesticides indiscriminately - especially mid-day when honey bees are most likely to be out foraging for nectar - will help bees, according to the Department of Agriculture said. The planting of good nectar sources such as red clover, foxglove, bee balm, and joe-pye weed can also help.

Johnson was born into the bee business; his parents raised them. As he addressed his audience of fidgeting youngsters and their parents, he tossed out bee facts:

- There are 300 variety of honey bees.

- 50,000 bees make up a swarm.

- Mud is best to soothe a bee's sting.

- Females run the world of bees, as the queen can live between three and five years and lay up to 3,000 eggs per day.

Oh, and bees smell fear.

"If they are near you, stay clam," said Ellen Johnson, Jerry's wife and assistant, told the assembled. "They have as much poison as the size of a pinhead, and that amount of poison on a normal person really hurts."

Even a bee veteran such as Jerry Johnson still gets stung two or three times a year.

"If I get stung, it's my fault, not the bee's fault," he said, noting that a bee that stings dies. "I apologize to them."

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Contact Mark Prado via e-mail at mprado@marinij.com