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By Linda Franz, Sentinel Reporter, March 15, 2007

Last updated: Thursday, March 15, 2007 4:58 PM EDT

A problem researchers are calling “colony collapse disorder” is decimating honey bee populations nationwide.

While honey production is dropping, that’s a minor problem compared to the potential production declines of several important crops that rely on pollination services provided by commercial beekeepers.

“During the last three months of 2006, we began to receive reports from commercial beekeepers of an alarming number of honey bee colonies dying in the eastern United States,” Maryann Frazier, apiculture specialist at Penn State, said in a press release.

Since then, university researchers, state regulatory officials, cooperative extension educators and industry representatives have been working to identify the cause or causes of CCD and to develop management strategies for beekeepers.

Initially, researchers thought migratory bee keepers were affected the most.

“We don’t think that any more,” says Dennis vanEngelsdorp, acting state apiarist for the Department of Agriculture. “Beekeepers here wouldn’t be opening their hives until later in the month.”

Major losses

But a beekeeper from western Pennsylvania reported that of his 300 hives, just 25 are left. Another beekeeper reported that he lost all 100 of his hives, vanEngelsdorp says.

“Are these deaths the same as the ones we see down South?” he asks. “Down South, the characteristic is the older bees, the adults, fly away and die away from the colony. If bees die in the hive, then it’s hard to distinguish it from other known causes.”

About 80,000 bee hives buzzed in the state before a problem with Varroa mites and diseases transmitted by mites began to cut those numbers. Now the state is home to about 40,000 hives, vanEngelsdorp says.

“We’re estimating between 25 and 50 percent of the colonies in Pennsylvania have been affected by this,” he says.

James Brubaker, of Pleasant Hollow Bee Farm, Gardners, sells honey and is one of the larger local pollinators. His bees pollinate crops in Adams, Cumberland, York, Franklin and Perry counties. Brubaker and his five sons manage about 1,600 hives. The hives are kept in several “yards.”

“I have looked at a number of my yards,” Brubaker says. “I’m going to have higher losses than normal but I wouldn’t say I’m affected by the colony collapse disorder.”

His honey production was down as well, but he attributes that more to dry weather.

More than 1,000 of Brubaker’s hives are now in California pollinating almond trees.

“The almond groves, it’s very essential to have bees,” Brubaker says. “They might produce 400 pounds to the acre if there’s no bees; with bees, it’s 2,000 to 3,000 pounds per acre.”

California produces 80 percent of the world’s almonds, according to the Almond Board of California, and this year required 1.4 million bee hives to pollinate the flowers. Almond growers typically rent two or more hives per acre.

Closer to home, Pennsylvania is the fourth largest producer of apples nationwide and bees are essential to a good crop.

“Apples are self-pollinating to a certain extent,” says Brubaker. “Bees will make the fruit bigger. An apple will set a fruit if it has one or two or three seeds pollinated. If you can get six or seven or eight or nine seeds pollinated in that apple, your apple is going to be bigger.”

Cherries and pears also rely heavily on pollination by bees, as well as seedless watermelon, cucumbers, cantaloupes, cranberries and blueberries, Brubaker says.

So what’s in store for crops this summer?

“I think this year, people are going to be OK,” vanEngelsdorp says. “The beekeepers have been filling in these holes for a long time.”

Beekeepers typically purchase new hives to replace their losses and to fulfill pollination contracts.

“You’ll see the demand met this year is my best guess at this moment,” vanEngelsdorp says. “I think prices might increase for some crops that are dependent” on bee pollination, such as pumpkins.

But a solution must be found.

“We couldn’t maintain the losses that we’re experiencing this year over the long term,” vanEngelsdorp says. “We’ve had problems in the industry in the past. This is certainly an alarming number of deaths in one year.”

The crisis has the industry working cooperatively to solve the mystery.

“I think that this is causing us to collaborate and work faster than I’ve ever heard of a project being worked on with bees before,” vanEngelsdorp says. “We’re approaching this with a lot of technologies never available before. The bee’s genome was traced last year.”

Brubaker says some of the newer pesticides that being used are being fingered as the culprit in CCD.

“Some of these new chemicals that are being used are actually transferring through the plant, into the pollen and carrying back to the hive,” Brubaker says.

The chemicals don’t kill the bees initially but weaken their immune systems and rob their memories, he says.

“It’s supposed to be safe but I think they’re finding out it’s not as safe as they thought it was,” Brubaker says. “You can have a corn seed treated with this stuff. Plant it, it grows and the pollen from the corn can have enough toxin to affect the bees.”

But vanEngelsdorp says a chemical cause is just one research priority under investigation.

“If you don’t know what is killing your bees, you need something to hold onto,” he says. “I think beekeepers are very quick to blame that, but there’s no evidence right now.”

With cold weather hanging on, many beekeepers have yet to check their hives to see if their bees survived. And researchers continue to search for causes and solutions to the latest threat to honey bees.

“The one thing I’m always reminded; beekeeping is one of the last family farm industries,” vanEngelsdorp says. “It’s terrible to see how devastating this is to them and how they’re struggling to survive. If they go out of business, it’s the apple grower, the blueberry grower, the pumpkin guy, the almond grower who is affected.”

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