The nation-wide scare over a mysterious honey bee ailment and
relative impact on fruit and vegetable farmers may not hit the
local area as hard as other parts of Pennsylvania.
State and national news agencies have reported recently on a
mysterious illness affecting bees – mostly in larger commercial
operations -ðreferring to it as “colony collapse disorder.” What
seemed at first to be a concern mostly for the larger honey bee
farms, however, is trickling down to the smaller keepers and
farmers.
Dennis vanEnglesdorp, acting state apiarist for the Department
of Agriculture, said “in Pennsylvania, some smaller beekeepers have
reported losing up to 75 percent of their colonies after checking
their hives over the last week.”
On average, 20-30 percent of the hives are lost after the winter
months.
Tom Butzler, horticultural educator for the Penn State
Cooperative Extension, wasn’t sure if many hives in this area were
affected by the disorder.
So far, there’s no reason for the disorder to happen.
Butzler said one hypothesis is that the bees are stressed out by
mites or they succumb to secondary pests or viruses. Another
possibility is toxins build up in the wax.
Butzler said there is no timeline on how long this disorder will
last, but added there is “a lot of money being pumped into
investigative work” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the
Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
The impact on apiarists, however, is only the beginning. The
honey bee ailment has the potential to impact fruit growers and
other farmers negatively, as they rely on the bees to help
pollinate commercially grown crops.
Butzler, based in Clinton County, explained a lot of vegetable
crops require pollination.
“Mostly rely on honey bees to do that.”
A House Agriculture subcommittee has scheduled a hearing on the
issue for today.
Dave Kibble of Smethport, self-proclaimed “novice” apiarist of
10 years, said he had only one colony of honey bees going into last
winter. While he says his were not affected by the mysterious ”
colony collapse disorder,” he did lose quite a few bees due to the
cold winter weather.
Kibble has only one small “cluster about the size of a
grapefruit” left, he said, adding the bees traveled to the top of
the hive – a place they don’t normally go in the winter – and many
died there. He added he is not sure the ones he has left will make
it through spring.
Glen Guthrie of Custer City, who has been keeping bees for seven
years, said he lost a number of bees over the winter, but like
Kibble, attributed the loss to the winter weather. Of the 38
colonies he had in the fall, he said, he has only three left. A
friend of Guthrie’s who is also an apiarist, Craig Johnston, has 33
of 150 hives left after last winter, he said.
Guthrie said he is confident the his bees were not affected by
colony collapse disorder, however, that descriptions of that
problem include the bees “absolutely leav(ing) the hive,” he
said.
According to reports from the Associated Press, “remains of dead
bees from otherwise healthy colonies are littered around the hives
… one common thread among colonies stricken by the mystery ailment
is that no dead bees are found near the hives. Scientists assume
these bees have flown far away and died, perhaps while searching
for more nectar.”
Although locals are blaming the bee mortality rates on the
winter this year, however, Guthrie said he has noticed the effects
of colony collapse disorder elsewhere. It has been unusually
difficult getting the packaged bees and queens to replace those he
lost, he said.
Guthrie went on to say he was still very concerned about the
potential effects of colony collapse disorder locally.
