April 29, 2010
Honey Bees Still Struggling
America’s colonies are being severely taxed, and it could have serious implications for our future.
Honey bee, courtesy ARS News Service
No, I’m not trying to start a revolution; I’m talking about bees. The USDA’s Agricultural Research Service has just released a new survey about the health of managed honey bee colonies nationwide, and the results are disturbing: We’re losing a full one-third of our roughly 2.46 million colonies each year.
From the press release:
Losses of managed honey bee colonies nationwide totaled 33.8 percent from all causes from October 2009 to April 2010…This is an increase from overall losses of 29 percent reported from a similar survey covering the winter of 2008-2009, and similar to the 35.8 percent losses for the winter of 2007-2008.
If you’ve been paying attention to the news over the past couple of years (or if you’ve seen that charming Bee Movie), I probably don’t need to tell you why you should care about this. But basically, bees are important pollinators that make it possible for plants to bear many of the fruits and seeds which humans like to eat. Thus…fewer bees doesn’t simply mean less honey; it means fewer (and more expensive) almonds, apples, avocados, oranges, watermelons and so on.
In fact, according to the ARS, you have honey bees to thank for about one of every three mouthfuls of food in your diet. The economy needs bees, too—they represent some $15 billion in added crop value.
So what’s killing the bees? Beekeepers in this latest survey—which covered about a quarter of all colonies—pointed to factors like starvation, poor weather, and weak colonies going into winter. Then there’s something called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a mysterious syndrome whose hallmark is absence: all or most of the adults are missing from affected hives, but no there are no dead bodies in sight. The cause is unknown, though theories abound that blame everything from pesticides and genetically modified crops to high-fructose corn syrup.
The incidence of CCD seems to be holding steady—it was reported in 28 percent of beekeeping operations that lost colonies, compared to 26 percent last year and 32 percent the year before—but “apparently manageable” disorders like starvation are on the rise.
Losses may get even more severe, the study’s authors caution:
The survey reports only winter losses and does not capture colony losses that occur throughout the summer when queens or entire colonies fail and need to be replaced. Those summer losses can be significant. All told, the rate of loss experienced by the industry is unsustainable.
A complete analysis of the survey data will be published later this year; the abstract is available in the meantime.
If you’re interested in learning how you can help to “save the bees,” check out these suggestions from the organizers of National Honey Bee Awareness Day, which takes place on August 21 this year.
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We started keeping bees last May. The bees thrived in our Savannah backyard all Summer and Fall. During the Winter, however, we saw activity decline. It was so cold, so we couldn’t open the hive. Eventually we opened the hive to discover no dead bodies, but Wax Moths. They destroy colonies.
My neighbors have bees here in Austin. I have been chased by them. I waited a few days for my anger to subside and went and talked to my neighbors. Long story short, they made a few changes in the way they handle bees, they tell us when they are opening the hives and we get the freshest honey imaginable. As we plant a backyard garden, we also have built-in pollinators.
We have had a hive onsite in our museum for the past several years. The largest threat to our colonies has been swarming. We have lost several colonies over the years and these statistics are very disheartening to read.
Go to Evans Cedar Beehives for GREAT Cedar Beehives!
Also on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EvansCedarBeehives
I kept bees as a teenager and now as a semi-retired adult I have started again. Two big differences between then and now. Then there were lots of wild bee hives and when they swarmed you could catch them and place them in a hive. We did not use any antibiotics or pesticides to control hive parasites and year after year we had healthy colonies. When you kill the bad parasites you also kill off dozens of
good organisms which populate hives that colonies actually benefit from.
Modern beekeeping techniques rely heavily on an assortment of chemicals and queens are acquired from a small number of breeders, there is dwindling genetic diverity, thus creating a weaker bee population.
I am constantly amazed at man’s arrogance in thinking he can outsmart nature and do better. I strongly encourage beekeepers to return to older ways of bee management before we create another endangered species.
Besides it is much less work than we have now. There is nothing wrong with letting nature have her way and bees redevelop the ability to overcome natural assaults. Like the professors has shown, they are smarted than you think.
Simply stated, when you get a hive, feed them as close to natural as possible (pollen and honey) when they need it and leave them alone until they have a surplus of honey to take.