This has nothing to do with CCD, but everything to do with the beekeeping life. If you want a serious, and pretty straight forward summary of what CCD is doing at the moment, where it has been and where it may be going (and don’t want to click through the past dozen or so articles that have been here and covered most of this already, click on this link Penn State link and disregard the rest of this article. The author has talked to almost all of the right people and tells a pretty good story. It’s thoughtful, sensitive and matter-of-fact. There’s nothing new because there’s nothing new at the moment, but it does fill lots of space ... all three parts of it. It deserves a place in the archives here somewhere.

But here’s the thing. Beekeepers, for the most part, are pretty much unaware of CCD. Depending on where they are right now, they’re finishing up this season’s work with the bees by feeding or moving to winter grounds, getting ready for winter where they are, moving to California for almond pollination, harvesting and processing the last of the honey crop for the year, marketing what they’ve harvested, finding pollination contracts to prepare for next spring, fixing or building equipment, making more honey far in the south, or simply taking it easy, finally.

But I don’t want to talk about any of that, either. Here’s one of the best things about being a beekeeper ... not the best maybe, but certainly one of the best. Honey.

I have to travel quite a bit for my job. That gets old sometimes what with the hassles of air travel anymore, but those annoyances are far outweighed by the good people I get to visit with when I arrive. I go to beekeeping meetings, visit beekeeping operations to cover stories or current news, or set up shop and sell the books we publish. I’ve been fortunate in that regard and have met hundreds, probably thousands of beekeepers over the years. And I collect the honey they produce. Right now I have 17 different kinds of honey sitting on my kitchen table, ready to eat. I have honey from Arizona, Oregon, Ohio, Florida. Maine, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and some places I can’t remember.

And the honey in Arizona is not the same by any stretch as the honey from Wisconsin, Florida, Maine, Oregon or South Dakota. And this is what I want to share with you ... the great hidden secret of artisan and varietal honeys. ...

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Is this for real?

There is, perhaps justifiably, some amount of skepticism concerning the actual reality of Colony Collapse Disorder in the beekeeping world. That skepticism extends to much of the world for that matter. True, lots of bees have died in the past couple of years both in the U.S. and around the globe. But identifiable things keep coming up to explain (some, most, all – take your pick) of those deaths.

For instance, the recent flap in the U.K., where beekeepers marched on 10 Downing Street and Parliament demanding more money for bee research and firing off their smokers is one good example. They admitted, quietly, that the bees that died and the honey crop that didn’t materialize there last season were mostly victims of poor weather.

Huge bee losses recently in France are suspected to be due to misapplied pesticides, and significant colony losses in Spain are being blamed on that new Nosema disease that’s not so new any more.

Even here in the states, some beekeepers can quite clearly point to something explainable causing their colony losses ... even when those losses are large and have not been seen in such portions previously.

But at the same time, some of these losses are not explainable and there seems no reason they should occur. Even after samples have been examined and a multitude of sins are exposed, these sins alone do not explain the evacuation of adult bees from hundreds, sometimes thousands of colonies in an operation.

If this were the first time this or a similar set of circumstances had occurred perhaps we would have a different perspective. Sadly, it is not. ...

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The other day I wrote about recent research into bee problems, and their discussion at an international conference in the U.K. On a more aggressive front, beekeepers in the U.K. have had about enough of government talk, and are going to take to the streets to get those in charge off the dime and take some action.

For the past six months The British Beekeepers’ Association has been letting the world know that they and their bees are having problems. Articles in the press, interviews on radio and TV both national and local ... they’ve let the public know there’s something going on that’s going to affect the public, and something needs to be done. Plus, associations and even individuals have carried a petition demanding government action on the matter and now have over 100,000 signatures. Funding for additional research has been promised by some businesses with more to come it is expected. End phase one.

Phase two. Take to the streets.

On Nov. 5 hundreds, maybe thousands of British Beekeepers will demonstrate in front of 10 Downing Street with their smokers lit and placards on high demanding more action from the government to fix the honey bee problem. After the smoke-in (does that bring back images of the 60s or what?), the beekeepers will head over to Parliament to ...

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Recently there was a meeting of European and U.S. Scientists studying Colony Collapse Disorder held in London at the International Conference of the Society of Invertebrate Pathology. The conference was held at the University of Warwick, organized by Rothamsted was sponsored by vita-europe, a company that produces products that aid in honey bee health.

Unexplained colony deaths this past season, coupled with an extraordinarily poor honey crop in the U.K. this year led Max Watkins, the Technical Director at Vita to call the meeting, and to explore further what is going on. Even though poor weather certainly had something to do with the situation, in Max’s words "an array of unexplained research findings indicates a more sinister and long-term challenge."

He goes on, "Although I firmly believe that varroa (mites) is at the core of the problem, the developing interplay of other factors while unsettling for beekeepers, is fascinating yet perplexing for researchers. The answers can only come from a thorough scientific approach.

"Investigations are underway across the globe and many suspects and accomplices are under suspicion – viruses once of little consequence are not becoming more prominent killers, but a clear pattern is elusive. One novel line of enquiry in Israel is focusing on 'gene silencing' in an attempt to suppress the expression of bee viruses in the honey bee genome," Max summed up.

Summaries from recent work discussed the role of viruses in Colony Collapse Disorder, stressing that ...

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What's causing CCD?

That's the question asked by the whimsical cover art on October's Bee Culture magazine. The cartoon is by Lela Dowling.

To view the complete cover in a larger image, click the image below.

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There’s news on the honey bee help line ... not much, but more than you’d expect with absolutely no money coming in and none expected from the government for at least 5 or 6 months. I guess it’s bailout 1, bees 0 on the help the helpless front.

Down in Florida researchers have proven what everybody suspected ... simply, that tiny doses of pesticide kill baby bees ... that’s the headline in the PalmBeachPost.com that came out the third week of October.

Florida citrus growers have a real problem ... it’s called greening, and it’s killing citrus trees faster than you can imagine. No citrus, no orange juice tomorrow morning, no lemon in your ice tea at lunch, and no lime in your gin and tonic tonight. This is serious stuff. Especially the lime part. ...

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I suspect that the concept of partisan politics in the beekeeping industry isn’t something that has kept you up nights. But there are different sides to many of the questions that arise in the world of the honey bee and those that keep them. All politics tends to be local, and it can occasionally be bitter, wrongheaded and stubborn. But just as often it can be wonderfully cooperative, friendly and helpful. Over the years the political skirmishes between the major beekeeping groups have been some of both - bad, and good. In the long run the differences tend to be financially based but sometimes they get personal. Such is life when more than three people are involved in most any activity. There is, in the world we live in far too much competition and far too little cooperation, so when you find something that is positive and productive you should stop and take a look.

The rancor that was too common decades ago has mostly dissolved over the past few years, primarily because it is far more productive to work together than to bang heads, and most of the differences have been resolved, fixed or grown stale and forgotten. Moreover, there are fewer and fewer beekeepers around to accomplish things, so no matter what any personal feelings are, working as a team is generally more profitable than yelling at each other.

That doesn’t mean that goals can’t be reached by taking different routes though, and this is not an uncommon activity ... When monsters need to be slain, how the slayers get the job done, though important, is less so than making sure the monster is dead. Such is a recent case in point.

First, let me introduce the players ...

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Here’s an interesting side road I stumbled across recently, and though it’s not about Colony Collapse Disorder, is has to do with one of those rock-and-a-hard-place situations you encounter sometimes, with no easy answers. The following information comes from a publication put out by the USDA’s Animal, Plant, Health Inspection Service -- a.k.a. APHIS.

The Asian Longhorned Beetle comes from China and Korea and was introduced into this country in wood packing material. It was first discovered in 1996 in Brooklyn, New York, then Long Island, then in 1998 in Chicago. In 2002 it was found in New Jersey and now, in August this year in Worcester County, Massachusetts. This last infestation appears to be eight to 10 years old.

Adults are wood-boring beetles 1 to 1-1/2 inches in length, shiny black with small white markings on the body and antennae. After mating, the female beetles lay eggs on the surfaces of trees (Maples, Horsechestnuts, Willows, Elms, Birch, Mimosa, Hackberry, Ash, Sycamore and Planetree, Mountain Ash and Poplars). When the eggs hatch the larva tunnel into the tree, destroying the water- and nutrient-carrying capability of the tree. Severe infestations kill the tree. It takes a year for the larva to mature, pupate and emerge from the tree to mate and begin the cycle again.

Previous infestations have been successfully controlled and apparently eradication of the beetle in the initial areas has been successful. However, there is a significant difference between those earlier infestations and the new one in Massachusetts.

Worcester county and neighboring Middlesex county have a combined population of about 2.3 million people, with an average of about 600 people per square mile. There are 26 maple syrup producing farms in these two counties, and over 1,000 beekeepers there, too. ...

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There is a slowly growing consensus, by some beekeepers anyway, that they know what causes Colony Collapse Disorder is. And the more they find out about this beast -- a pathogen -- the more convinced they are. Well, most of them anyway.

The thinking is that at the heart of the problem is this new Nosema cerane disease that has reared its ugly head and invaded our beehives.

Nosema is a tiny, tiny creature, a microscopic protozoan-like animal that goes from place to place host to host as a very tough little spore. We’ve had one species of this animal in the U.S. for years and years called Nosema apis. It was a problem, but not much of one. To become infected, an adult honey bee consumes some of those spores, received either from another infected bee or picked up while cleaning the hive. This can be somewhat common in the late winter and early spring when there are fewer bees in a hive and they are confined indoors because of the weather. Nosema is more of a problem for bees in the north with its winters, than for bees in the south which let’s them off easy during that time of year.

When the spores are ingested they eventually migrate to the lining of the honey bee’s stomach where they embed themselves and begin to grow. There they attack and consume the cells that make up the lining and as these cells are destroyed the honey bees are less and less able to digest and absorb food. This is why infected bees die at a younger age – about a week younger ... week five out of a normal six. They just can’t get enough food. ...

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Dealing with the beekeeping life is part of what The Beekeeper is all about. Bringing to light some of the antics, the silliness, the politics and the sadness of the plight of our honey bees, especially in light of the Colony Collapse Disorder uncertainty is also part of what goes on here. And though CCD is most definitely a (as of yet unknown) pathogen based problem, it is perhaps enhanced by non-pathogenic, environmental stresses. But maybe it’s not, maybe CCD is in no way at all affected by anything at all in the environment. Still, in the outside world our honey bees are a part of, there are stresses, diseases, pathogens and parasites, along with bad weather, poor housing, and dumb luck that cause honey bees to have bad days at best or cause entire colonies to perish when these problems become extreme.

Three very different environmental problems came to light recently that seem to have nothing to do with CCD, but certainly are causing problems for our honey bees and their keepers.

Fires

Back several weeks ago, there were more forest fires burning out west that even the media could keep up with. Their focus, rightly I suppose, covered loss of homes and businesses, and in extreme cases human life. Marginal attention was given to wildlife affected by all the flames ... parentless bear cubs with burned paws made the news several times for those who are concerned. But the birds and the squirrels, the earthworms and rabbits ... they up and move I guess, or become well-done dinners for the predators that remain behind.

A natural honey bee home is in the cavity of an old tree. Usually quite a distance up, they remain mostly unnoticed. When a fire comes along, the bees, in hurry-up mode, consume as much honey as they can, carrying it in their crops (much like a pelican holds food in its beak), and the entire colony absconds ... it abandons its nest in search of a new, safe place to live. The honey they take with them is the food they consume while looking for a new home, and provides the energy they need to build that home. Once a cavity is found ... probably in another tree ... they quickly build that comb, the queen begins laying eggs, the foragers collect nectar and pollen for food and if they are lucky life goes on. ...

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One branch of the USDA has finally let go of some of the $1.4 million they are supposed to distribute to researchers for the study of Colony Collapse Disorder. They are still sitting on some of it though, I hear, not because they haven’t got it but some mid level manager hasn’t got around to doing the paper work. It’s been more than a month ... fiddling while Rome burns, and bees die.

But this $1.4 million is still a drop in the bucket for what’s needed, and while the industry has been generous in volunteering funds and spending money it was supposed to spend on other things, it’s a small industry and the well isn’t infinitely deep.

And, it seems, that if the farm bill money is to be released it will only be so if there is pressure from the people who pay the bills ... that would be you, by the way. Below is only a partial list of what is desperately needed to begin or continue studies from only one of the groups in this arena. Others still need funds too, and they are waiting for the release of these funds, or at least making them available for competitive grants.

1. Backlog

   There are currently just over 4,000 samples waiting to be analyzed for pathogens and pesticides that have been collected from 8 different studies, surveys and volunteered samples sent in by beekeepers. It’ll cost a total of $250,000 to do this.

2. Pesticides

   Researchers still need to conduct toxicity tests of individual pesticides to discover their relationship with CCD, if any, and determine the sub-lethal effects of pesticides and selected combinations of pesticides on bees and other pollinators. And an important study is to determine if pesticides, when combined with other problems, like viruses are responsible for, or aid in causing CCD. ...

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One of the best things to come out of the Colony Collapse Disorder mess has been the realization by many businesses that honey bees are in trouble. It’s only then that the light bulb comes on and they see down the road just a little and they realize that if honey bees go away, their own businesses will be seriously threatened. And then they get worried. And then they realize, after reading about CCD in the papers and on the net (like here), that the government isn’t doing much to help, or isn’t doing it very fast, and that if something is going to get done, well, by golly, they better do it themselves.

1. Haagen Dazs

One of the more prominent businesses to belly up to the beehive and lend a hand is Haagen Dazs Ice cream, which has gone all out to help honey bees.

Their support is directly related to the fact that a large percentage of the flavorings for their ice creams come directly from products produced by honey bee pollination. There’s good incentive in keeping bees around.

They have a dynamite web page (HelpTheHoneyBees.com), bee items to sell, and special flavored ice cream, and have donated cash and their special ice cream product to a wide variety of organizations that support honey bee and pollinators in general.

They officially started their program last January, so they’ve been at it quite awhile. I’m not sure of the total of their donations so far, but it is in the tens of thousands of dollars in cash, purchases and donations. They certainly are beekeeping’s newest friend.

2. Dundee Brewing

Dundee Brewing has a Save The Honey Bee campaign going on also. Though just begun, it’s off to a good start and beekeepers appreciate their efforts. Well, those that are at least 21 do (which you have to be go see their web page).

The web page (DundeeForTheBees.com) has information on pollinated products, CCD and what you can do to help. Of course their Honey Brown beer benefits directly from the honey those affected bees produce, so they have good reason to help out. They have teamed up with The American Beekeeping Federation (the ABF, see below) and state that a percentage of their sales, up to $25,000, will go to the ABF for CCD research. That’s a good chunk of money and will keep some scientists busy for quite awhile. ...

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As of Labor Day weekend ... bees are still dying from symptoms that have been identified as Colony Collapse Disorder. Not many, yet. But this is when it starts. So let’s look at what’s going on.

So far the villain in Colony Collapse Disorder is mostly the lack of information.

Viruses

Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus was implicated early on, but so far it hasn’t moved past the 'found in some samples' role. Continuing greenhouse research, where individual honey bees are infected with the virus definitely shows that the pathogen kills bees. But so do a host of other viruses that were found in the initial samples. The jury is still out on IAPV, at least until newer studies are published.

Other researchers are studying viruses, some known, some not, but so far nothing concrete has turned up ... or at least nothing that anybody is talking about. That’s the trouble with science ... too often the information gets sat on until the results are published ... not reviewed and given the green light but actually put on paper (or turned into electrons to grace your computer screen) and released. Some publishing outlets are quicker, some slower but all have the same criteria. So if there’s something out there we’ll just have to wait.

Pesticides

Some of the early work -- simply collecting samples of bees, wax, larvae, and pollen -- are finally coming to the top of the pile and the results, some of which have been explored here, have been eye-opening, and mostly downright scary. Beekeeper-applied chemicals to control varroa certainly are hugely evident in the samples collected ... not unlike the termite chemicals, lawn chemicals, garden chemicals, pet chemicals, and all the rest that we walk in, swim in, eat, touch and absorb everyday in our homes, work and play. Pesticides, to no one’s surprise, are abundant in our lives and equally abundant in the lives of our honey bees.

One of the unknowns, or maybe-unknowns, are the effects that those well-publicized new pesticides are having. They have made international headlines and definitely can’t be overlooked. And advocacy group, Beyond Pesticides, commented recently on these, and said that two of the primary active ingredients of concern are clothianidin and imidacloprid, both in the neonicotinoid family of chemicals. They are systemic pesticides, meaning the chemical is incorporated into plant tissue and can therefore be present in pollen and nectar, which is of particular importance to bees. They also have long persistence in the soil and can be absorbed by multiple generations of crops, increasing the likelihood of exposure for bees. Meanwhile, the manufacturers claim the chemicals safe and have data to prove it. But others in France and Germany claim just the opposite and are doing everything in their power to rid the world of these new poisons, and in the U.S. the EPA stands in the middle ... and may soon be standing in court defending their role in approving these chemicals for use.

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The Giant knotweed plant, commonly called Goliath (the scientific name is Reynoutria sachalinensis), can be unsightly in roadside landscapes, a noxious weed in the home landscape, but is always a favorite forage plant for honey bees. It grows primarily in the eastern U.S. and when in plentiful supply produces a mild, medium amber honey that is favored by many, especially beekeepers who get to harvest the surplus.

The plant is an aggressive invasive weed that was introduced into the U.S. several years ago as an ornamental. It is native to Japan and Korea, grows to about 12 feet tall and can grow as much as 6 inches overnight. Its huge leaves actually offer shade in the summer and are often used around homes as a screen or shade producer. Of course that shade can be problematic for other plants, and left alone, Giant Knotweed soon commands large areas of land, shading out any competitors and out competing almost any other plant for water and nutrients. It doesn’t like company.

However, Pam G.Marrone, Ph.D reports on the development of a new "green" pesticide obtained from an extract of this giant knotweed plant, at the recent American Chemical Society meeting in Philadelphia. "The product is safe to humans, animals, and the environment," says Marrone, founder and CEO of Marrone Organic Innovations, Inc., in Davis, California.

The new biopesticide has active compounds that alert plant defenses to combat a range of diseases, including powdery mildew, gray mold and bacterial blight that affect fruits, vegetables, and ornamentals. The product will be available this October for conventional growers, according to Marja Koivunen, Ph.D., the director of R&D for Marrone. A new formulation has also been developed for organic farmers and will be available in 2009.

Biopesticides are derived from plants, microbes, or other natural materials and are proven to be safer for humans and the environment. The active ingredient of the company’s first product came from lemongrass oil.

Synthetic pesticides dominate the $30 billion pesticide market, but biopesticdes should reach $1 billion by 2010, about 4.25% of the global pesticide business.

One biopesticide commentator acknowledged that knotweed extract "induces phytoalexins which infer a plant’s resistance to powdery mildew and other diseases such as Botrytis". In other words, the extract helps the crop or ornamental plant fight the mold rather than attacking the mold directly. When the extract is made with organic alcohol, the fungicide should be considered organic, a boon for organic growers everywhere.

Why is this important? ...

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