The Mystery of the Collapsing Bee Colonies

[Adam's Apple]

Where Have The Bees Gone?
By Kelly Jones Sharp, The Indianapolis Star
March 31, 2007

...because of a mystery malady known as "colony collapse disorder," from 50 to 90 percent of honeybee populations across the country have checked out. And no one knows why.

To say this news is alarming may be an understatement. According to Greg Hunt, assistant professor of entomology at Purdue University, a common refrain throughout the beekeeping industry is that we can thank these busy pollinators for "one out of every three bites of food we eat."

for full article:
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007703310383

 

[boedicca]

I read a couple of articles on this topic a few weeks ago. One point that made a great deal of sense to me is that the bees are under enormous amounts of stress due to the hyper-nomadic business of modern bee-keeping. Bees are being trucked across country and fed less natural food due to the economic pressure of keeping them "billable" for more of the year. Beekeepers are seeing more pressure from imported honey - hence the need for increased pollination income.

There are alternate theories about GMO food and pollution killing them. The latter has some merit - the first is hysteria, imo. I've switched to buying only beeswax candles in support of the domestic industry.

 

[90K]

Wow interesting article. I like bee because of how they work and how resourceful they are. It is a shame about the use of foreign honey and the shrinking of our bee population. Stress is never a good thing and when a whole society is being illiminated due to stress we need to look at what we are doing that is effecting them because they are very important to survival with our crops and whatnot.

 

[ScreamingEagle]

This is a pretty serious matter. $14 billion worth of agricultural products are at risk from this mysterious bee disease.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- It might make this summer's backyard barbecues a little more idyllic, but a mysterious disease affecting honey bees nationwide could seriously sting U.S. grocery shoppers' wallets and ultimately compromise national food supplies.

The disease, called Colony Collapse Disorder, causes insects that venture away from the hive not to return and eventually die. Some commercial beekeepers' populations have been cut as much as 90%. At a congressional hearing on the disease this week, Richard Adee of the American Honey Producers Association estimated the disease could reduce the national honey crop by as much as 20% -- that equates to 31 million pounds of honey with a retail value of $100 million.

But much worse than the loss of the bees' finished product could be the loss of what happens while making the sweet stuff: pollination.

About one-third of U.S. food depends on animal-borne pollination, and 80% of that is conducted by commercial honey bees. Among the huge range of crops pollinated by the bees are apples, oranges, avocadoes, almonds, carrots and celery -- just to name a few. The Agriculture Department pegs the value of crops pollinated by bees at a whopping $14 billion.

Bringing in an estimated $30 million each year through their hives, beekeepers rent their colonies each spring to vegetable and fruit growers, mainly along the East and West coasts.

"Honey bees are, in effect, six-legged livestock that both manufacture agricultural commodities -- honey and wax -- and more importantly, contribute agricultural services -- pollination," said May Berenbaum, a University of Illinous entomology professor and member of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's research committee on colony collapse.

House Agriculture subcommittee chairman Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif., said he wanted to "identify exactly where limited research dollars will be most helpful in advancing our goal of preventing the further decline on the honey bee population." Solutions proposed included increased funding for bee colony research and hive insurance programs for beekeepers.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/sto...x?guid={5258733D-F4CC-4FEC-B6A1-DD6464E272C5}

 

[Adam's Apple]

Thanks for posting that additional information, SE. I was going to search around on the internet to see if I could find other articles on this bee story.