Buzz kill! Is this 'bee Armageddon'?

[Guest guest]

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view & pageId=143737

 

 

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6984630.html

Bee die-off accelerates, putting an industry in peril

By WILLIAM PACK San Antonio Express-News

April 30, 2010, 10:42PM

 

1 2

 

TOM REEL: Express-News Youngblood tends to hives this week near Pearsall in South Texas. His

bee population has stabilized recently amid the general decline.

SAN ANTONIO — Dropping in droves, bees are still puzzling agriculturists.

It is the fourth straight winter that more than a quarter of the existing

honeybee population has disappeared. This year, however, the rate of loss

hit its second-highest point since 2007-2008.

Beekeeper Raymond David Park was not surprised Thursday when the U.S.

Department of Agriculture reported an accelerated rate of bee losses for a

fourth straight winter.

“There are a lot of people that are about ready to give up,†said Park, who

watched his colonies in the Devine area near San Antonio shrink by more than

half in the last three years. “You make new hives and they die again. â€

The newest estimates on the extent of the losses of the nation's honeybee

populations jumped back past the 30 percent level this winter to nearly 34

percent.

If the decline can't be corrected, some officials worry about the continued

economic viability of the nation's commercial beekeeping industry.

“Thirty percent losses four years in a row really is hard for anyone to take

†said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, past president of the Apiary Inspectors of

America and an entomology researcher at Penn State University. “I'm

surprised not more have gone out of business already.â€

Bees are called on to pollinate about 100 crops, adding about $15  billion

to the value of agricultural commodities, Kim Kaplan, a spokeswoman for the

USDA's Agricultural Research Service said.

Kaplan said her agency is spending about $10 million this year on

researching a key component of the declining bee population problem called

Colony Collapse Disorder.

Exported from Texas

California imports hives from Texas and other states to pollinate about 680

000 acres of almonds. Officials said each acre of almonds needs about two

hives, and farmers have been paying top dollars to beekeepers for

pollination services.

Commercial beekeepers also produced more than $232 million worth of honey

last year, the USDA reported. It said honey prices reached a record high

last year of $1.45 cents a pound.

What it's not

Kaplan said research has helped exclude certain conditions as causes of the

ailment but so far has identified no smoking gun.

Scientists believe the syndrome arises from a combination of factors — bee

diseases and parasites, environmental factors like drought and crop

pesticides, and management stresses that include the number of times hives

are moved around and how they are fed.

Texas has about 500,000 colonies that move in and out of the state every

year, some of which have been hit hard by the ongoing disappearing bee

syndrome, said Paul Jackson, the Texas Apiary Inspection Service's chief

inspector.

Some beekeepers can lose 75 percent of their hives and other beekeepers

close by may get by unscathed, said Jackson.

He agrees a variety of factors are contributing to the problem and he

worries it may take years for a solution to arise.

Honey prices strong Youngblood, a Pearsall beekeeper who is president of the Texas

Beekeepers Association, said he has seen his bee count stabilize since rains

started falling again last fall, but he knows other operations have been hit

hard.

With honey prices strong, he is optimistic about the industry.

A new survey showed almost 34 percent of the nation's honeybees were lost from

October 2009 to April, the fourth straight winter of unexplained

higher-than-normal bee losses.