The mysterious business of disappearing bees

By FRITZ MAYER

UNITED STATES — Since October 2006, thousands of beehives in Florida have failed because the adults in the hives have simply disappeared. Entomologists have named the phenomenon Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). It has occurred in 24 states, including New York and Pennsylvania.

Whether CCD could affect beehives in our area is not such an easy question to answer, according to Jim Kile, president of the Sullivan County Beekeepers Association, and a man who has kept bees for 71 years.

A honeybee hive can collapse for a variety of reasons, from parasites to adverse weather and being attacked by hungry bears. Kile said his worst loss of hives occurred in the winter of 1989/90. That winter was very cold for a long time. According to Kile, bees can tolerate the cold pretty well because they cluster together for warmth. But they need a moderately warm day every week or two, so they can move about to get more honey into their stomachs.

That winter, the moderately warm days didn’t come. Kile went into that fall with 100 functioning hives at his operation on Ulster Heights Road in Woodbourne, NY. When spring finally arrived, he had only 60 hives remaining.

They didn’t call it Colony Collapse Disorder though¾they called it winterkill.

CCD is different. Adult bees leave the hive, get lost or confused and can’t find their way back to the hive, and it has nothing to do with the weather. CCD is mostly hitting so-called migratory beekeepers, who move their colonies thousands of miles to follow the flowering plants.

Kile explained that migratory beekeepers, who may have 2,000 hives or more, winter their hives in Florida, and rent out the hives to orange growers to pollinate the blossoms when they bloom in late March or early April. The beekeepers then move north for the next couple of months following the blossoms of various plants. They might end up in Maine, with their bees pollinating blueberry bushes in late May or early June.

The constant movement stresses the bees, said Kile. “Honey bees have their own little geo positioning systems in their heads.” And each time the hive is dropped off at a new location, the bees must go through a ritual involving repeated circling of the hive that reorients them to their new location. Kile guessed that if the experts ever come to determine a cause for the CCD, it would be related to stress caused by the constant relocation.

He is not alone in this assessment.

Dana Venrick, an agricultural expert at the University of Florida, agrees that moving the bees frequently puts them under a lot of stress. She also said it puts the bees at greater risk of exposure to a number of pesticides that could be harmful.

Jerry Hayes, a bee specialist with the Florida Department of Agriculture, also wondered if pesticides play a role. He told the online magazine, The Epoch Times, “The interesting thing about the Colony Collapse Disorder is that bees are seemingly going out and can’t find their way back home. The insecticide Imidacloprid, which is used to control termites, does exactly the same thing. The termites feed on this material and then go out to feed and can’t remember how to get home.”

Other researchers suspect that genetically modified organisms, such as soybeans, might be playing a role. Some crops have been genetically manipulated to produce substances that will kill pests that would harm the crops. These substances, some researchers have speculated, might also be having an impact on honeybees and their immune systems.

And scientists in Europe, where CCD has spread, have speculated that cell phones and other high-tech gadgets are causing the problem. The theory is that radiation from the devises is interfering with the bees’ navigation system, preventing them from finding their way back to their hives.

But back to the question of whether CCD could be occurring in our region. The experts have different opinions but the answer seems to be yes. However, if the hives are not moved from place to place, the likelihood is much lower.

All of this comes at a time when there are half as many bee hives in the United States as there were 10 years ago, because of the infestation of two types of mites: one from Europe and another from Asia.

Both mites were first found in the United States in the 1980s. Kile said that when the mite from Europe first appeared in the spring of 1987, it was discovered in two counties in Texas, which were immediately quarantined. The quarantine, however, was not very successful. By the end of summer, with the unwitting help of migratory beekeepers, the mites had spread as far as Maine.

Kile said the problems with the mites have been overcome, and he said new beekeepers are still attracted to the craft.

Kile teaches a beekeeping course for newcomers each spring, and this year the class will be at the Cornell Cooperative Extension in Liberty, NY on May 5.

For more information call 845/647-6759.