Bee-keepers in Rappahannock and across U.S. worry over mass disappearance of bees: It’s ‘Colony Collapse Disorder’
By Alex Sharp VII
Across the nation, millions of honey bees are abandoning their hives and flying off to die. This phenomenon, named Colony Collapse Disorder, has wreaked havoc on the Virginia bee industry, with many keepers reporting losses in over 40% of hives.
Such sudden, uncontrollable bee loss jeopardizes the success of US agriculture and leaves bee-keepers facing ruin. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) shows no signs of stopping. Instances of mass disappearance first surfaced in early 2006 and continue to pop up in various locations across the continent – including Rappahannock County.
“It’s getting to the point where everybody is a little bit scared,” said Bob Wellemeyer of Windsong Apiaries in the Slate Mills area of the county. Wellemeyer first witnessed signs of CCD in February of 2006 when he picked up some hives that he had sent to Florida to pollinate oranges.
“The bees were just gone,” he said. “In some hives, the queen wasn’t even around. There was still honey though.” Wellemeyer estimates that he lost 90% of the bees he sent to Florida. “I didn’t even go (to Florida) last year because I lost so many bees.”
The typical migration schedule for bees at Windsong Apiaries, a full-scale pollination business, includes Florida citrus groves in winter, apples and vine crops on the Eastern Shore (Virginia, Deleware, Maryland) in early spring, and blueberries in New Jersey in late spring. However, Colony Collapse has limited Wellemeyer’s operation.
“About all I’m doing now is apples and blueberries,” he said.
Since the initial signs of CCD in February 2006, Windsong Apiaries–home to more than 1200 colonies–has experienced abandonment in a large number of hives. Each instance is similar: an overwhelming majority of worker bees go missing, while the queen, brood, and honey are left unaffected.
Parasites such as wax moths and hive beetles that usually raid unattended hives are nowhere to be found. “Initially, nothing goes near that hive. It was like a ghost hive,” Wellemeyer said. “Whatever was in there was keeping all the pests and other bees from robbing the honey.”
To date, no one can explain why the bees are leaving, where they are going, or how this widespread phenomenon can be curbed.
“At this point, we have not identified a cause, let alone a solution,” said Sandy Hayes, a researcher at the USDA Bee Lab in Beltsville, Maryland. “However, we have developed a research action plan which is going to look at several different possibilities.” A number of theories attempt to explain these unusually high bee losses.
Some believe that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees’ navigation systems, preventing the home-loving species from finding their way back to the hive. Some blame the die-off on a new class of pesticide, neonicotinoid, which is widely used in treatment, irrigation, and feed.
Others, including Wellemeyer, think a disease of the midgut called Nosema – an epidemic that demolished Spain’s bee industry a few years ago – has caused ailing bees to fly off to die away from the hive. Thus far, none of these supposed causes of Colony Collapse Disorder have proved likely.
“That’s the problem of pinpointing a cause – there’s no dead bees to autopsy,” said Kim Kaplan of the Beltsville Bee Lab. She reports that in most cases, the bodies of fleeing bees are not found at all.
Another problem Kaplan identified was that there is no on-site testing of hives believed to be effected by CCD. All reports of bee loss are made over the phone. Therefore, most significant die-offs are automatically attributed to the phenomenon.
This is not the first time in history that honey bees have disappeared at alarming rates.
“There have been problems like this in America on and off since the 1890s,” said Eric Mussen, a professor of entomology at Penn State University. Mussen noted a particularly nasty die-off that lasted from 1963-1965, putting a significant number of bee-keepers out of business.
Mass hive abandonment was formerly called Disappearing Disease. In those days, the tools for investigating and finding the cause of die-offs were nonexistent. Therefore, scientists simply recorded what happened and kept their fingers crossed, hoping it would all be over soon.
But today, with all modern technological advances and innovations in research strategy, the fact that a cause hasn’t been identified is frustrating to bee-keepers and experts alike. “We can’t just say, hey it went away before, it’ll go away this time,” said Kim Kaplan of the Bee Lab. “We have the technology to find the cause and because of the intensive demand for pollination, we don’t want to wait until there is a crisis to do the research.”
The importance of honey bees in America can hardly be over-emphasized. According to the Agricultural Research Service, bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion each year in added crop value. Specialty crops such as almonds and other nuts rely entirely upon the services of the nonnative species – as is the case with apples.
Luckily this year there were enough bees available to meet pollination demands. But if CCD continues, will there be enough bees next year?
Alex Sharp VIII, a 2006 graduate of Rappahannock High School, is The Rappahannock Voice’s summer intern reporter.
-- Alex Sharp VIIIComments
Comment from winevines
Time: August 1, 2007, 9:32 am
Thanks for the great article. There are local beekeeping groups across northern Virginia if you are interested in getting into beekeeping. Classes are held Feb-March in nearly every county in the area. Rappahannock County is probably best served by the Northern Piedmont Beekeepers Association which does not have a website, but you can contact them via Ann Harmon, 540-364-4660, Email: AHworkerB at aol.com or Lele Hankins, 540-547-4711, Email: Hankins77 at aol.com
Other clubs can be found on the links page of http://www.PWSBeekeepers.com website
–Karla Eisen
Comment from rob
Time: August 7, 2007, 1:01 pm
Another good piece by Alex! I started two hives this year and have my fingers crossed.
Your next inquiry might look at bird flu. I got a notice that it was detected somewhere in the state, but I never saw any stories about it. For background on a global basis, try www.scidev.net
–Rob Taylor
Comment from James P. Gannon
Time: August 7, 2007, 6:20 pm
Regarding bird flu, see the RappVoice story of July 10. You can find it by clicking on July 2007 in the archive (at the bottom of the right-hand column on this page) and putting in the words “bird flu” and hitting the Enter key. Or go to http://rappvoice.com/2007/07/10/poultry. The state has since lifted the ban on bird sales and use of chicken litter.
–The Editor
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