Colony Collapse Disorder

From Great Lakes Wiki

[edit] Colony Collapse Disorder

Western Honey Bee, common sufferer of CCD

Colony Collapse Disorder is a phenomenon that was first identified in October 2006, striking Honey Bee populations across the United States. It is now recognized as a problem in 33 states. Last year, over a third of the entire honey bee population of the U.S. disappeared as a result, with as much as 90 percent loss in some states. This could prove disastrous for much of America's agriculture, a third of which relies on honey bee pollination for the crops to grow.

[edit] What happens to a Hive affected with CCD?

Hives affected by CCD will lose the vast majority of their worker bee population in as little as two weeks. The bees leave the hive, but never return. Usually the entire hive vanishes, but sometimes a very small number remain. The Queen is usually left with less than 200 workers, as well as the entire larva population. Those left behind will die shortly after without the care of a large hive.

*Burt's Bees CCD PSA	Watch this video called "Vanishing Bees"
*USDA's Jeffrey Pettis talks about CCD
*CG Video showing stresses of modern society on Bees

[edit] What Causes CCD?

Unfortunately, researchers across the country are still trying to figure out what the exact cause of CCD is. There are many threats to honey bees already, including disease, pesticides, mites and external stresses. Dr. Zachary Huang, an entomologist at Michigan State University, has been working with labs across the country to figure it out.

Professor Zachary Huang, Ph.D in Entomology @ MSU

"There are many threats to honey bees that we've been dealing with for years," Huang said. "But in studying colonies, we have ruled them all out as singularly responsible for CCD. It's either a combination of environmental stresses or something we haven't even seen yet." There are some new developments that Huang is investigating. A new pathogen called Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus(IAPV) was identified in 2004 by an Israeli research lab, and has been documented in the U.S. In 2005, a large number of Australian Honey Bees were introduced in the U.S., and may have contributed to CCD by introducing new strains of virus and disease that domestic bee populations have no immunity to.

[edit] What effects will CCD have on Great Lakes Agriculture?

It has already had substantial effects for farmers who pay for commercial bee pollination. CCD has been reported in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, all of which border the Great Lakes. Michigan has 65,000 bee colonies and over 1,000 beekeepers. It is ninth in the country for reliance on bees in agriculture. Over 4.4 million pounds of honey are produced every year in Michigan, valued at $4.3 million.
Michigan farmers with flowering crops like apples, blueberries and cherries rely on honey bees to pollinate large fields of crops. They will have to pay more for colonies than before, and face huge losses of revenue if the bees don't pollinate the majority of their crops. Dr. Huang warns that if the practice of commercial honey bee pollination were to fail, the only sustainable large-scale crops we could grow are corn, wheat, rice and potatoes. "That's it," Huang said. "Everything else is just that reliant on bee pollination."
David Kidd, an MSU graduate of 1956, kept two colonies of western honey bees just south of campus as a hobby for five years. He said his bees have fed on and pollinated many of the crops on the MSU campus. That is, until one day over the summer when he found both hives empty and abandoned save for the dead queen and a handful of workers.

"I had heard about colony collapse disorder, but it was quite a shock to find my two colonies completely empty," Kidd said. "Right where a healthy colony had been only a month before too."

Interested in how your state is being affected by Colony Collapse Disorder? The best way to find out is to get in contact with professors of entomology and beekeepers in your area. If you find specific information for any Great Lakes state, it would be great to put up a subsection for each state.

To find a Beekeeper near you, try The Honey Locator

[edit] What alternatives do we have?

Very few, unfortunately. Other species of bee like the bumblebee are not well suited to commercial pollination. They have shorter range and become stressed much easier than honey bees. They can't be transported in bulk like honey bees and are really only ideal for small-scale pollination such as greenhouses.
In China, where commercialized pollination is , there are many farms that have had to resort to the worst-case scenario: Hand Pollination. Farmhands go through orchards climbing trees, working one flower at a time. Huang said he visited one of these farms and asked why they went to such trouble, joking that it must be infuriating just trying to keep track of which flowers had been pollinated. Their answer was,"Because we don't trust the bees."
In fact, although CCD is limited to the United States, bee populations across the globe have fallen in recent years due to disease, pests, pesticides and stress.

CCD Research Group in Washington, DC