AGRAFI, Greece--Amilios Provadas says the buzz on bees in Greece is good news. "Opa!"

Here on the island of Kerkyra, home of the famous Corfu port city, Provadas runs a moderate apiary of about 124 colonies.

Flowering plants along the eastern Mediterranean Sea are starting to glisten with nectar, which for bees and beekeepers means the honey flow has begun. Beekeepers will extract the rich honey in July, a time which brings happiness and business to many on these small Greek Islands.

"I sell 2,000 kilos (4,400 pounds) of honey per year," said Provadas. "Everybody comes here and takes it. It's very natural."

He said bees are healthy in Greece. For the last 10 years he's been tending bees, he's not seen any serious disease problem.

This is unlike the situation in the US, where bees in some states are being devastated by a mysterious malady called Colony Collapse Disorder.

Researchers are unsure what CCD is or even why it's happening. To date, however, Wisconsin state officials said there is no report of CCD in Wisconsin.

But Wisconsin beekeepers examining their colonies coming out of winter are reporting heavy losses.

"At the district meeting in Knapp last March, reports were 20 percent survival," said Dave Webber, northwest district representative for the Wisconsin Honey Producers Association. He said he suffered about a 75 percent loss of the 400 colonies he operates in Polk County. The reason for his heavy loss is a mystery.

"I don't know," he said.  There's not one significant problem for the occurrence, like mites or disease. "It doesn't make much sense."  

However, Webber's counterpart across the Atlantic Ocean is having the opposite problem: too many healthy bees.

The bees in Provadas' apiary are so strong and populating so quickly they are causing him a problem: overcrowding.

And this population explosion is causing a lot of swarming.

He said his problem is not disappearing bees, but accommodating swarming bees looking for a new home. "I can't get enough boxes for them all," Provadas said.

And at $10 Euros (about $15.60 USD) for 1 kilo of honey, that is a sweet problem he said he enjoys.