Massive bee deaths causes huge buzz among beekeepers

New Jersey bee hobbyist, Joe Linelho, began last winter with 40 hives, each with a queen and 50,000 to 70,000 honeybees. In the spring, when fruit growers rent hives to pollinate their crops, he had just 20 thriving hives left. The rest were dead.  An alarming die-off of honey bees has beekeepers fighting for commercial survival and crop growers wondering whether bees will be available to pollinate their crops this spring and summer. Beekeepers across the country have found losses in similar or worse proportions, according to the USDA with the West Coast hit the hardest. In Sussex County, beekeeper Lynn Osborne said, “[Area beekeepers] won’t know anything until spring comes within the next month. We can’t tell anything at this time.” She called the dire situation “something brand new that no one knows much about. It seems to be a mystery and there are a lot more questions than there are answers.” Osborne, who lives in Lafayette and sells her honey locally, had been discussing the issue with other members of the Sussex County Beekeepers Association and is very concerned. Researchers are scrambling to find answers to what’s causing the affliction - recently named Colony Collapse Disorder. As more beekeepers in cold wintering locations, including New Jersey, get into their colonies, the number of states affected is expected to grow. “During the last three months of 2006, we began to receive reports from commercial beekeepers of an alarming number of honey bee colonies dying in the eastern United States,” said Maryann Frazier, apiculture extension associate at Penn State University.  “This has become a highly significant yet poorly understood problem that threatens the pollination industry and the production of commercial honey in the United States,” she added. “Because the number of managed honey bee colonies is less than half of what it was 25 years ago, states such as Pennsylvania can ill afford these heavy losses.” Reports on their losses coming from beekeepers vary widely. Some commercial beekeepers are reporting their losses as about the same as the last several years. Others report losing thousands of colonies: one lost 11,000 of his 13,000 colonies; another 700 of 900; another 2500 of 3500; another virtually all of his 10,000.  Past president of the New Jersey Beekeepers Association, Bob Hughes, said, “The story is unfolding as we speak, not only in Sussex County but all over the state. As of Feb. 1, 2007, we lost our state department of Agriculture bee inspector because of retirement, so there is no official way of collecting that info.” Hughes said he has been in  contact with several beekeepers and “I’ve been told of some rather large numbers of dead colonies.” Since bees hibernate win the winter, Hughes said that in New Jersey, “beekeepers are just now starting to look at their bees and will be finding out how they wintered over.” Like other states, Hughes is afraid New Jersey will be badly impacted. “I expect that the numbers will continue to be bad and could very well exceed a 50 percent loss.”  The New Jersey Beekeepers Association (NJBA) is a state-wide organization of nearly 400 hobbyist, sideliner and commercial beekeepers. The purpose of the club is to foster and promote the art of apiculture in New Jersey and to educate residents of the Garden State about the state insect, the honey bee, and its vital role in agriculture. There are eight chapters in different regions of the state, and sponsored meetings, both at the state and local level. The local chapter is the Sussex County Beekeepers Association. Sussex members like Osborne and  Steve and Deb Brodhecker, of Frankford, are on the edge of finding out how their hives fared over the winter. “We haven’t experienced [a colony collapse] yet,” said Steve Brodhecker. “But a few [beekeepers] around here have.” He agrees with Osborne that it’s a mystery. “It’s a new thing and just seems to cause a colony to crumple.” The Brodheckers sell their honey primarily to other beekeepers.  A working group of university and federal researchers, state regulatory officials, cooperative extension educators, and industry representatives are working to identify the cause or causes of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and to develop management strategies and recommendations for beekeepers. Participating organizations include Penn State, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the agriculture departments in Pennsylvania and Florida, and Bee Alert Technology Inc., a technology transfer company affiliated with the University of Montana.  “Preliminary work has identified several likely factors that could be causing or contributing to CCD,” said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, acting state apiarist with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. “Among them are mites and associated diseases, some unknown pathogenic disease and pesticide contamination or poisoning.”  Initial studies of dying colonies revealed a large number of disease organisms present, with no one disease being identified as the culprit. Ongoing case studies and surveys of beekeepers experiencing CCD have found a few common management factors, but no common environmental agents or chemicals have been identified.  Bees in New Jersey have been affected by two separate strains of mites over the last few years. The Varroa mite came from Asia, traveling north from Florida starting in about 1987, probably by natural means, according to Dr. Medhat Nasr, a bee research scientist with Rutgers. The tracheal mite is of European origin and was first seen in Mexico and then Texas in 1984. The tracheal mite is microscopic, living inside the bees’ trachea, blocking it. Most of the kill occurs over winter in areas that have harsh winters. Bees infected over the winter will die by spring. Menthol has been effective on tracheal mites, but Sussex County beekeepers harvest honey in the fall after which it is too cold to apply the menthol. Another solution is a vegetable shortening patty with sugar on it. Nasr explained bees have a need to clean up any foreign object in the hive and when they try to cleam up the Crisco patty, they absorb the odor which confuses the tracheal mites. Tracheal mites live on young honeybees and the shortening and sugar apparently mimic the odor of a young bee. Varroa mites bore holes between the segments of a bee’s body and draw out the blood. The bees become weak and lose their wings. The key treatment has been Apistan, but mites are developing a resistance to it. There is also evidence of resistance to the alternative miticide, Coumsphos. Large commercial beekeepers can avoid the overwintering problems by trucking their hives south for the season, but hobbyist and small apiaries can’t do that. The beekeeping industry has been quick to respond to the crisis. The National Honey Board has pledged $13,000 of emergency funding to the CCD working group. Other organizations are working with their membership to commit additional funds. The Foundation for the Preservation of Honey Bees is hosting a workshop to bring together the researchers investigating the problem, other researchers, and affected beekeepers, and the American Beekeeping Federation revamped its January 2007 Convention program in progress to accommodate a hastily arranged session on the situation. Osborne and Brodhecker said that the colony collapses are sure to be a topic of discussion at upcoming beekeeping courses to be offered at the Sussex County Fairgrounds. Frazier said that New Jersey beekeepers and other in the north, may not know the status of their colonies until they are able to make early spring inspections. This generally occurs right around now, but is dependent on weather conditions.  Recently appointed 2007 president of the New Jersey Beekeepers Association, Beatrice Tassot, of Long Valley, is determined to convey the importance of the honey bee to the general public. Her motto is: “No farmers: no food. No beekeepers: no farmers,” The honeybee, which is the state insect, is a necessary part of New Jersey’s agriculture production. Providing pollination to approximately 80 percent of crops, these busy insects are responsible for more than one-third of the food found on tables today. They are essential to the cranberry and blueberry crops of south Jersey. Accordingly, the winter meeting of the New Jersey Beekeepers Association highlighted the many issues facing the state’s honeybees — and therefore the state’s farmers — this season including the mysterious bee deaths. Tassot called the current outlook as “bleak” for the bees, saying that honeybees are under attack this winter and that a multiplicity of factors has combined to make the survival of colonies in the Northeast, and across the nation, “questionable.”   Beekeeping course offered at fair grounds  The Sussex County Beekeepers Association is presenting a basic beekeeping course, for anyone interested in beekeeping or for existing beekeepers who want to gain a better understanding of their hobby.  The course is being offered at the Sussex County Farm and Horse Show Administration Building on Plains Road in Augusta. It consists of two Saturday sessions which started on Saturday, March 17, from 9 a.m. to noon, and on March 24. A third session will be held Sunday, April 15 at 1 p.m., during which students will visit an apiary and learn how to install a package of bees in a new hive.  The course covers an introduction to beekeeping, bee biology, basic equipment, hive management and hive products. There is no prerequisite.  Cost is  $15 for an individual or $20 for a family, and includes dues for the Sussex County Beekeepers Association and the New Jersey Beekeepers Association.  If interested, contact Linda Osborne at 973-875-5770 or Deb Brodhecker at 973-702-1223.