By Gary Dickson
Five years ago, for reasons unknown, the worker bees of honeybee hives all over the world began to suddenly vanish, causing millions of established colonies to die out. Scientists named the phenomenon “colony collapse disorder” (CDC) in 2006. Members of the worldwide agriculture community became quite concerned due to the importance of honeybees in the pollination of many food crops. A quote that was attributed to Albert Einstein circled the planet, spreading a message of impending doom.
It was reported that Einstein once said, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left.” Afterward, researchers could never find a speech or article in which Einstein actually said or wrote those words, but regardless of that fact, the loss of honeybees would definitely be devastating to the world population.
In the United States the first notice of CDC was when beekeepers who owned commercial, migratory operations that had been wintered in California and Florida began to report staggering hive losses. Loss figures ranged anywhere from 30 to 90 percent. In many cases the surviving colonies were so decimated that the hive owners were not sure if they would be able to continue to pollinate or produce honey in their weakened state. The size of the loss triggered a huge amount of media attention. Millions of people became worried about the impact on the future.
Scientists went to work to attempt to find the root cause and seek a cure to the serious problem. Plenty of possible causative agents were placed on a long list. They included “?malnutrition, pathogens, immunodeficiencies, mites, fungus, pesticides, beekeeping practices (such as the use of antibiotics, or long distance transportation of beehives) and electromagnetic radiation.”
So far, no one and no organization has been able to definitively announce the cause of CDC. The first annual report from the group that was created to have oversight over the problem, the U.S. Colony Collapse Disorder Steering Committee, stated, “?colony collapse may be caused by the interaction of many agents in combination.”
Just when things were looking their worst, with no major cause of the bee loss being discovered and no real course of action for improvement decided upon to combat CDC; things got better.
Here in California the bee population bottomed out at 340,000 colonies in 2007 and has been climbing ever since. Last year the number increased to 410,000 and is expected to go even higher this year. But, keep in mind this is far below the good years for California honeybees. In 1989 there were 620,000 colonies.
Wetter winters the past couple of years have contributed to the larger bee populations, according to some bee experts. Beekeepers have said that the comeback is because they have gotten better at managing their hives. They are dividing colonies, importing new queen bees or buying whole colonies outright. Honeybee colony population can vary from 20,000 to 150,000, depending upon the time of year and other factors.
One of the most honeybee-dependent California agricultural crops is almonds. The $2 billion Central Valley almond bloom relies upon 1.5 million honeybee colonies for pollination. That is about half of all the commercial honeybee colonies in the United States . This one crop in just one state illustrates just how important honeybees are to our present economy and possibly to our future survival.
The frightening reality of this honeybee saga is that since exhaustive research has yet to indicate a major cause of colony collapse disorder or a cure for it, it is still occurring. Some beekeepers report the loss of as much as half of a hive overnight. The bees just fly off and die. In general, though, the news is good. Eric Mussen, a well-known bee authority at UC Davis said, “But the bottom line is the bees came through last winter in better shape – probably better than they have been in 30 years.”
Gary Dickson is the publisher of the Record-Bee. Call him at 263-5636, ext. 24. E-mail him at gdickson@record-bee.com.
