Mysterious honeybee losses spreading

Back in February, I first wrote on the mysterious mass disappearances of honeybees that have been devastating bee colonies. "Colony collapse disorder" is the subject of a two-day meeting of entomologists and government officials this week in Maryland. The scientists will be presenting their early findings and formulating plans to address the growing emergency.

A DKos diarist, jhritz, has a good rundown of the situation, including some of the testimony at a hearing last month of the House Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture.

Today, the NYTimes has a report from the Maryland meeting:

More than a quarter of the country’s 2.4 million bee colonies have been lost — tens of billions of bees, according to an estimate from the Apiary Inspectors of America, a national group that tracks beekeeping. So far, no one can say what is causing the bees to become disoriented and fail to return to their hives.

As with any great mystery, a number of theories have been posed, and many seem to researchers to be more science fiction than science. People have blamed genetically modified crops, cellular phone towers and high-voltage transmission lines for the disappearances. Or was it a secret plot by Russia or Osama bin Laden to bring down American agriculture? Or, as some blogs have asserted, the rapture of the bees, in which God recalled them to heaven? Researchers have heard it all.

I had seen some of the testimony at last month's House subcommittee meeting on C-Span. Lawmakers seem to be taking this seriously and it's not surprising, since honeybees are the principal pollinators for hundreds of different crops worth billions of dollars.

I would also not be surprised to find out that whatever is happening to the bees has its roots in industrial agriculture, including industrial apiculture. From the Times:

Genetic testing at Columbia University has revealed the presence of multiple micro-organisms in bees from hives or colonies that are in decline, suggesting that something is weakening their immune system. The researchers have found some fungi in the affected bees that are found in humans whose immune systems have been suppressed by the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or cancer. [...]

Bee colonies have been under stress in recent years as more beekeepers have resorted to crisscrossing the country with 18-wheel trucks full of bees in search of pollination work. These bees may suffer from a diet that includes artificial supplements, concoctions akin to energy drinks and power bars. In several states, suburban sprawl has limited the bees’ natural forage areas. 

Although several researchers have found evidence that a pathogen is at work, chemical causes haven't been ruled out:

In the late 1990s, French beekeepers reported large losses of their bees and complained about the use of imidacloprid, sold under the brand name Gaucho. The chemical, while not killing the bees outright, was causing them to be disoriented and stay away from their hives, leading them to die of exposure to the cold, French researchers later found. The beekeepers labeled the syndrome “mad bee disease.”

The manufacturer of the pesticide, Bayer, claims that despite the French banning its use, colonies hadn't recovered as expected. However, since the symptoms reported by the French beekeepers -- disorientation and failing to return to the hive -- are the same as colony collapse disorder, researchers will need to investigate the same class of pesticides.

I have been mulling over the idea of putting a beehive in my backyard and I've done some research. Frankly, if I were a honeybee, I'd hate to live in a modern, industrial apiculture hive. The Langstroth hive is a layered and tiered affair that allows easy access by the beekeeper and rapid expansion of the colony.

Modern beekeepers don't make their real money from collecting and selling honey. They make it by renting out colonies of bees to farmers for pollinating services. The hives themselves are structured to be opened wide regularly -- to harvest honey, to check on hive health and to feed or treat the bees. Beekeeping is really bee managing, and I wonder if all that interference, with smokers, open hives and traveling all the hell and gone, isn't too damn much.

Couple that with hives from all over the country converging on schedule to pollinate one crop or another, and you've got bees mingling in the same neighborhood for days or weeks on end before returning to their home state. If pathogens arise in one hive, they'd be quick to spread far beyond the bee's natural radius. Colony collapse disorder, first reported last fall, is now present in 27 states. That is a stunningly rapid advance.

If I do decide to install a beehive out back, I'm leaning toward a top-bar hive. It's far simpler than a Langstroth hive, suitable for hobbyists and start-ups in developing countries. The honey yield is only 20% of that from a Langstroth which was designed to maximize honey production. And that's fine with me. I'm not looking to have a colony of little honeybee peasants, obliged to hand over the lion's share of their production to the Lady of the Manor.

Low-tech and sustainable sounds right to me. Here's what one top-bar enthusiast has to say:

From the perspective of the early 21st century, one can look back over the last 150 years and see how commercial beekeeping developed from the Victorian desire to dominate the natural world and subjugate its inhabitants to the will of man. This was the dominant paradigm throughout the first two thirds of the twentieth century, until we began to wake up to what was happening to the planet as a result of our arrogant assumption that we could treat it as a bottomless waste pit. Some of us looked out at decimated forests, depleted soil and polluted water and realised that we had collectively to change our ways. [...]

So it is with the bees. For a century and a half, we have assumed that we know better than they do what living conditions they require, what size cells they prefer to build, how many colonies can live in close proximity - and every other detail of their lives down to the mating of their queens, we have sought to bring under our control. And now we are reaping the rewards of our arrogance: bees that are dependant for their survival on chemical inputs and human interventions.

Things are looking bleak these days for the honeybee and, therefore, for us as well. Bees may actually need our help now to survive. Whether that help should be active intervention or a return to less intensive methods of apiculture remains to be seen.