Kim Flottum

Yesterday Paul Bedard, a reporter for US News and World Report magazine, had an interview with Ed Schafer, the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, regarding the farm bill, which is getting somewhat messy, or not, depending on who you talk to. Lots of money is still on the table and where it ultimately will go is getting interesting. But one of the questions Paul asked was about funding for Colony Collapse Disorder. If you read his latest you’ll see what the head guy thinks, and that is, the scientists have it under control. Or rather, "We already have it in the labs. We have this great bee guy who's tinkering away in the lab to see what's going on," Schafer said.

A great bee guy? Tinkering? Already have it in the labs? ...

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I recently talked to Dr. Jerry Bromenshenk, a professor from the University of Montana and one of the owners of Bee Alert Technology, a company that seeks out problems affecting honey bees, or problems that honey bees can solve. His group has been in the forefront of the projects that have honey bees seeking, and finding, hidden land mines. His group does some good stuff.

He also works a lot with the Military conducting research, some as with the mines just mentioned, but other projects also. I’ll discuss one of these projects in a few weeks involving hardware that is very well adapted to examining biological samples for pathogens, pesticides and the like to discover what’s inside. This has been a difficult project to pull off and all of us are glad to see it finally come to pass.

Jerry has been involved in the Colony Collapse Disorder crisis since the very beginning, and in fact was one of the players who actually named this disorder. What he did was describe what was actually happening to colonies when they came down with this problem. Below, in his own words, is probably the most graphic description of what Colony Collapse Disorder is ... how it begins, the process, and how, ultimately, it ends in a bee yard. I advise you to not continue if you are sensitive to the plight of our honey bees. ...

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The Dead Don’t Stay Dead, It Seems...

Further investigation into what happens to all those empty beehives after all the bees have died from what is believed to be Colony Collapse Disorder has turned up some interesting answers...and some more questions.

First, we quoted Dennis VanEnglesdorp incorrectly in our last entry here. We took the quote from a newspaper article that quoted him saying that those hives should be burned. Well, they were right, and not right. Dennis did advise hobby beekeepers to not use equipment if they had experienced CCD. That’s because generally hobby beekeepers don’t have many colonies and replacement costs are minimal, considering the risks involved and the work involved in getting them in shape to use again. But, he added, and wasn’t quoted, if you choose to use them, have them irradiated before reintroducing bees into them.

Other researchers too, have suggested irradiation as a preventive measure for equipment after a bout with CCD. Indeed, although early reports indicated that irradiation wasn’t effective, long-term studies have now shown that irradiated equipment will have at least a 20% increase in the amount of brood raised in that equipment.

But this is still a soft number, and beekeepers are using other means to clean out the nasties left behind...as it seems there are some when all the bees are dead. ...

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