Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder Creates A Buzz Locally

By Nancy K. Crevier

Beekeeping as a hobby is beset with many “housekeeping” issues. Gone are the days of carrying home a buzzing package of bees and their queen from the post office, introducing them to their new home, and waiting for them to do all of the work that that would result in honeycombs thick with golden syrup.

Mites, viral and fungal infections, environmental hazards, pollution, insecticide and fungicide poisoning, and destruction by animal predators are all potential hazards, and the larger the beekeeping operation, the more those problems multiply. Now another affliction is taking hold of bee colonies across the United States, causing mass losses for commercial and residential beekeepers alike.

Colony collapse disorder, or CCD, is a serious, die-off issue that was first reported in 2006, although it is now suspected that it could have been implicated in bee losses as early as 2003. A March 2007 survey report by Bee Technology, Inc indicates 27 states with reported cases of CCD. More states may have incidences of CCD, but were not included due to insufficient data.

According to the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension (MAAREC) consortium website, CCD is characterized by “sudden colony death with a lack of adult bees in or in front of the dead-outs. Honey and bee bread [pollen mixed with honey and present in the comb] are usually present and there is often evidence of recent brood rearing.” The queen and a few young bees may remain, as well, and even though the hive is unprotected, other colonies do not rob the hive, nor are there signs of pest infestation.

Bees disappear quickly, with some hives losing an entire squadron of worker bees in just a few days, unlike with a spring or fall “dwindling” disease when hive populations slowly lose force. Because a pathogenic agent has not been identified as the source of the problem, CCD is not considered a disease.

The disappearance of honeybees is of great concern. Honeybees are vital to crop pollination. If too many bees succumb to the disorder, agricultural yields would drop dramatically, creating a scarcity of many agricultural products.

In Connecticut, said Kimberly Stoner, associate scientist in the entomology department with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, nearly 400 registered beekeepers with some 3,000 hives supply honey to residents and provide pollination services for the many apple, pear, blueberry, and pumpkin crops grown in the state.

Reports on losses coming from beekeepers across the nation vary widely at this time, according to Maryann Frazier, apiculture extension associate at Penn State University, at honeybeepreservation.org. “Some commercial beekeepers are reporting their losses as about the same for the last several years. Others report losing thousands of colonies,” said Ms Frazier.

CCD currently threatens over one-third of all US crops, according to a recent Catch The Buzz beekeeping news service article. But it appears to be a minor problem in Connecticut at this time.

“At present, in Connecticut we have had one official report of colony collapse disorder that is included in the national database,” said Ms Stoner. “I would say there are currently two other reports to the Experiment Station that we have not yet been able to confirm.”

Severe losses attributed to varroa and tracheal mites, as well as other hive stressors that have been a problem in Connecticut since the late 1980s may actually have been unrecognized CCD, said Ms Stoner.

“There is a lot we don’t know,” she said. “The answer [to what causes CCD] may lie in a completely different direction from where we are looking right now.”

Focusing On Pesticides

What scientists like Ms Stoner and her associates are looking at right now is the role that pesticides may play in bee mortality. “Systemic insecticides travel inside the plant, and a systemic insecticide can be applied to the seed, travel through the plant as it grows, and appear in the nectar and pollen when the plant flowers,” Ms Stoner explained.

Imidacloprid, a neonictinoid, is being investigated as a possible cause of CCD, said Ms Stoner. “This insecticide is very commonly used by homeowners on their lawns and ornamentals, as well as in agriculture.” Currently, Ms Stoner and Dr Brian Eitzer of the Analytical Chemistry Department of the Experiment Station are collecting samples from collapsed bee colonies, healthy colonies, and pollen samples to measure the insecticide levels.

“There is a possibility that changes in bee behavior and memory could be related to exposure to sublethal doses of pesticides,” Ms Stoner said. Because bees rely on detailed “dances” to convey to other bees the nectar sources and the directions to get to those sources and back to the hive again, an inability for a young bee to learn those directions or for adult bees to recall that information could explain the loss of bees. They cannot find their way home.

Dick Marron lost 14 of his 15 hives housed at Cherry Grove Farm in Newtown this winter. The remaining hive is extremely weak, and Mr Marron does not expect it to survive the spring.

Mr Marron, a retired psychologist who lives in Danbury, began beekeeping five years ago. He is a member of the Backyard Beekeepers Club, a group of 260 beekeepeers from southern Connecticut and New York. Having grown up in Newtown, he was familiar with the area and approached Eleanor Mayer for permission to place the hives at the Cherry Grove Farm owned by the Mayer family when he decided to renew an interest in beekeeping first nurtured when he was a young man.

“She was happy to have the bees on her property for pollination of her gardens,” recalled Mr Marron. For five years, the bees have been happy, as well. “Last July I got 500 pounds of honey from the hives,” Mr Marron said. When he opened the hives in September, he expected to find nearly that much honey again as the bees prepared for winter. To his surprise, though, he found that the bees had created no additional stores of honey. By November, five of Mr Marron’s hives were dead. “It was still warm then, so I can’t say it was from the weather. There were no dead bees around, just a few bees left in the hive and the queen. The combs were still full,” he said.

At this point, CCD was not what Mr Marron suspected. It was unusual, but many stressors can cause a die-off.

In early January, Mr Marron went to Florida. A contributor to two popular beekeeping magazines, The American Bee Journal and Bee Culture, Mr Marron at this point was mulling over articles he planned to write focused on die-off as perhaps some sort of natural rhythm at work. In Florida, one of the harder hit CCD states due to the large number of commercial pollinators, Mr Marron’s interest was piqued by what he heard there about CCD, and he delved into the world of those investigating the disorder.

When he returned to Connecticut in February, he expected to be greeted by the buzz of thousands of bees waking up from their winter drowsiness. Instead, just the barely discernable hum of the small group of sluggish bees in one hive was to be heard. All of the other hives were dead.

A few days after that discovery, with all of the CCD information rattling around in his head, he began to consider the possibility that his hives had fallen victim to the disorder.

“I left the bees a nice supply of expensive sucrose in the fall, but the bees wouldn’t take the feed. I thought that was a little odd. I was not happy with the hive health when I left for Florida.”

“To say I lost 15 hives, there’s a little bit of guilt in that. Like there was something more I could have done, but I did all that I could. It’s totally irrational to feel that way,” Mr Marron said.

Starting Over

He is not going to be put off by this setback, however. Mr Marron is expecting a delivery of bees on April 15. He is cleaning and airing out the hives and will leave them open to the sun before rehiving them, all practices that are presently advised when CCD is suspected of having devastated a hive. By midsummer, he expects to be back in production, and will begin again to develop a better and stronger bee.

Mr Marron said that very few members of the Backyard Beekeepers have alluded to hive issues that could signal CCD. “But many of these keepers have just two or three hives. If you have just two hives and you lose them, you aren’t going to think about something like CCD necessarily,” he said. “I think that CCD is not a problem in Connecticut right now, but it may be more widespread than reported,” he surmised.

Not all beekeepers are eager to have large colony losses announced. Reporting suspicious bee disappearances in the area, said Mr Marron, would be beneficial, though. Suspected cases of CCD can be reported to Kimberly Stoner at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, 974-8480.

Catch the Buzz reported that US Rep Alcee L. Hastings of Florida introduced the Pollinator Protection Act, legislation authorizing more than $75 million in funding for research on CCD, this week. “Bees are critical players in our ecosystem. They enhance our way of life, whether we realize it or not,” said Rep Hastings in the article. The Pollinator Protection Act would authorize $5.25 million over three years for research; $50 million over five years for USDA grants to investigate specific CCD causes and other factors contributing to honeybee decline; and $20 million to fund necessary staff and facilities to conduct the research.

Mr Marron is not sure how valuable a large research project will be in finding the cause of CCD. Depending on what the researcher focuses upon, he is concerned that there may be conflicting results. His own feeling is that CCD will be found to be the result of a combination of stressors that has come to a head. “It’s a safe bet that this bee yard died of natural causes that looked a lot like CCD. Multiply this by many yards across the country and it points up the difficulty in coming to a conclusion,” he said.

“There are many theories of what might cause CCD and many avenues of investigations being pursued,” Ms Stoner said. “There’s a lot to know , and we are only at the beginning of trying to find out.”

“Without honeybees, our whole lifestyle would change,” warned Mr Marron. “Bees are a lot more important than most people would think.”

Mr Marron will demonstrate how to hive a package of bees Saturday, April 21, at 11 am at the Cherry Grove Farm property opposite the farm on Palestine Road. The public is welcome to attend. Contact Mr Marron at dickm@snet.net for more information.