Survey: Honeybee colony collapse losses declining
by Genaro C. Armas

The Associated Press    Translate This Article
27 January 2010

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) - Fewer beekeepers are reporting evidence of a mysterious ailment that had been decimating the U.S. honeybee population.

But losses due to colony collapse disorder remain high enough to keep beekeepers on edge, and longtime stresses on bees such as starvation and poor weather add to the burden.

A survey of beekeepers for the January issue of the Journal of Apicultural Research found that the percentage of operations reporting having lost colonies but without dead bees in the hives—a symptom of colony collapse disorder, or CCD—decreased to 26 percent last winter, compared to 38 percent the previous season and 36 percent the season before that.

Also, the percentage of colonies that died that displayed the CCD symptom was 36 percent last winter, down from 60 percent three winters ago, the survey found.

The earliest reports of CCD date to 2004, and scientists still are trying to find a cause.

'The story is really complicated. We thought we'd have a simple explanation,' said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Pennsylvania's acting state apiarist. 'CCD drew our attention, but there are lot of things' affecting the bees.

More than 90 crops, from almonds to tomatoes, rely in large part on bees for pollination.

Richard Adee, who owns one of the largest commercial beekeeping operations in the country, Adee Honey Farms, based in Bruce, S.D., has bees in California now ready to pollinate the almond crop. At peak season, during the summer, he has about 80,000 hives for honey production in the Midwest.

He said that after losing 40 percent of his colonies over the winter of 2008, losses are down to a more expected 12 percent.

'We're not seeing as big a hit,' Adee said, 'but I still talk to beekeepers who are losing bees.'

Bees rely on stored honey to survive the winter. Beekeepers can wrap colony boxes to provide extra warmth or try to provide sugar syrup for food if supplies are light, but they generally don't work with bees in the cold.

That means the winter months can be worrisome for some beekeepers, such as beekeeping hobbyist Tom Jones, of Carlisle.

'I don't know what's going to happen this year, but I'll be anxious to see ... when I go check them,' Jones, 66, said before his demonstration at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg earlier this month.

This winter has been particularly brutal, with storms producing record snowfalls and chilling winds in many parts of the country. Freezing temperatures that swept in on an Arctic front from Canada plagued as far south as Florida.

Despite the apparent decline in colony collapse losses, the industry continues to be hit hard—an estimated 29 percent of all U.S. colonies died last winter, about 11 percentage points higher than what beekeepers consider normal, acceptable losses, according to the survey.

Colony collapse was ranked as the eighth most important cause of bee mortality last winter, down from fourth the previous winter.

'Losses are shifting. There are fewer operations with CCD, though they still lost a lot of colonies,' said vanEngelsdorp, the lead author on the study. 'But other factors are killing bees.'

Starvation, typically a top cause of mortality, was first, followed by poor quality queen bees and weather. The percentage of beekeepers citing weather as a leading winter concern jumped from 9 percent to 18 percent.

The study noted many of the top causes of mortality can be countered with better management, such as wrapping colonies over the winter or providing supplemental food.

VanEngelsdorp sees a positive in the results—heightened concern over CCD in recent years has led beekeepers to become more aware of other problems plaguing the buzzing winged insects.

Another offshoot has been more interest in beekeeping as a hobby. Some small beekeepers, like Jones, have enough hives to sell their own honey.

'We're paying attention to research and approved management' techniques, said Lee Miller, president of the Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Association. 'We think beekeeping is going to improve, but we don't know how fast.'

___

On the Net:

Colony collapse disorder information: http://maarec.psu.edu/ColonyCollapseDisorder.html

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Every day Global Good News documents the rise of a better quality of life dawning in the world from good news reported by the press; and highlights the need for introducing Natural Law based-Total Knowledge based-programmes to bring the support of Nature to every individual, raise the quality of life of every society, and create a lasting state of world peace.



Translation software is not perfect; however if you would like to try it, you can translate this page using:

(Google) Select a language English to Afrikaans English to Albanian English to Arabic English to Belarusian English to Bulgarian English to Catalan English to Chinese (Simplified) English to Chinese (Traditional) English to Croatian English to Czech English to Danish English to Dutch English to Estonian English to Filipino English to Finnish English to French English to Galician English to German English to Greek English to Hebrew English to Hindi English to Hungarian English to Icelandic English to Indonesian English to Irish English to Italian English to Japanese English to Korean English to Latvian English to Lithuanian English to Macedonian English to Malay English to Maltese English to Norwegian English to Persian English to Polish English to Portuguese English to Romanian English to Russian English to Serbian English to Slovak English to Slovenian English to Spanish English to Swahili English to Swedish English to Thai English to Turkish English to Ukrainian English to Vietnamese English to Welsh English to Yiddish

(Altavista babelfish) Select a languageEnglish to Chinese-simpEnglish to Chinese-tradEnglish to DutchEnglish to PortugueseEnglish to FrenchEnglish to GermanEnglish to GreekEnglish to ItalianEnglish to JapaneseEnglish to KoreanEnglish to RussianEnglish to Spanish

Send Good News to Global Good News.

Your comments.