Bee colony losses threaten beekeepers, agriculture

Rick Wills

May 29, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- For the third straight year, the honeybee population in the United States declined by about a third, with even steeper losses in Pennsylvania.

Year after year of dramatic losses jeopardize the viability of the nation's approximately 900 migratory commercial beekeepers, who operate with no federal assistance yet are responsible, through pollination, for contributing about $15 billion to the value of American agriculture.

In time, the situation will become difficult for growers, agricultural experts say. In three years, the cost of renting a colony of bees for almond pollination in California has risen from $50 to $155.

"Even if they can keep paying, there might not be enough bees left," said Dave Hackenberg of Lewisburg in Union County -- Pennsylvania's largest beekeeper.

In the year ending last month, Hackenberg lost 65 percent of his bee colonies and has spent time and profits in frantic efforts to replenish them. In Maine last week, Hackenberg had trouble meeting a client's demand for the first time.

"I had to lease some bees to pollinate blueberries. I've never had to do that before," he said.

Last winter, honeybee colony losses nationwide were about 29 percent. In Pennsylvania, losses were 40 percent, according to a study released this week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The survey gathered information on about 20 percent of the country's 2.3 million commercial bee colonies.

The losses have resulted in the smallest amount of colonized bees ever in the United States.

Three winters ago, many beekeepers experienced sharp and unexplained death in their colonies, identified two years ago as Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD -- an unexplained phenomenon where a colony's worker bees simply disappear.

Dennis van Engelsdorp, a researcher and the chief bee entomologist at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, says years of investigations have not produced definite answers about the causes of CCD.

"It is frustrating because we don't have clear-cut answers. Right now, we are coming up with more questions than answers," he said.

Van Engelsdorp worries about beekeepers' ability to stay in business.

"They are a hard group of people to replace. They have to know how to drive a truck, care for bees. They have to have the stamina to be everywhere from Florida to Maine and California at exactly the right time. And the average age of a beekeeper is now 55," he said.

In the past three years, Jim Doan, New York's largest commercial beekeeper, nearly emptied his IRA and 401(k) accounts to keep his business afloat.

"We have dumped in vast amounts of money into this. I might sell my farm. But if I do, that money will not be going into bees," said Doan, 46, who is considering going back to school to take up a new profession.

Between October and February, Doan lost 1,700 of his 2,300 bee colonies.

A beekeeper since age 5 and -- as the owner of Doan Family Farms in Hamlin, N.Y. -- one of the country's largest commercial beekeepers for a quarter century, Doan would like to sell the 600 bee colonies he has left, but can't. "I am trying to get rid of my bees, but nobody wants them. They are too scared by what's happened to me."

By pollinating everything from Maine blueberries to California almonds and New York apples, beekeepers are responsible for about every third bite of food in the United States, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, a New York-based environmental advocacy group.

In the past year, the council has filed two lawsuits against the Environmental Protection Agency in search of information about the approval of pesticides that many beekeepers view as the primary cause of Colony Collapse Disorder.

"There has not been a comprehensive review. The EPA apparently is putting these things on the market while still doing research," said Aaron Colangelo, a lawyer with the council who is handling the two lawsuits.

While researchers have established no link between the pesticides and CCD, Hackenberg and Doan each say they have no doubt.

"I am almost positive that's what it is. The problem is that researchers can't duplicate it. I'm sure they will prove pesticides are causing this," Doan said.

Rick Wills can be reached via e-mail or at 412-320-7944.

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