This is a question I am asked often these days (& years…). For most of this summer, my answers were ambiguous: well, they seem to be alright, but they sure are not making much honey, they are swarming a lot; in general, they seem to be holding their own, but not really kicking butt, y’know what I mean?
Then a raised eyebrow and “any CCD?” (colony collapse disorder). No, no, I reassure them; fortunately, we have not had that scenario.
We currently have 20 hives (including 2 top bar hives). We harvested a little honey a few weeks ago: the second consecutive year of lowest ever honey harvest – average of 1.5 gallons of honey per hive (our average had been 5 gal/hive). Then I got worried: maybe we took too much honey and did not leave them enough for winter (that happened last year).
BUT – here it is Oct 2 and y’know what? Our bees are doing fantastic! Better than they have all year (maybe 2-3 years…): they have good brood & populations, energy in the hives is focused, and they are bringing in honey & pollen. It is being a beautiful fall: finally, some dry weather, comfortable temperatures, and lots of wildflowers (as well as our planted buckwheat). The change in the hives is remarkable.
My current theory: we have not done any of the “chemicals” for 10 years and now we are off all “treatments” – even organic ones. We are also not bringing in queens from the outside. I figger the bees are coming back to their equilibrium in this environment – which is a mixed one: there are conventional crops within their flying range – but not very many; however, some of the symptoms we saw this summer were eerily similar to effects of exposure to pesticides. Yikes! That’s scary.
AND – I am reading an AWESOME BOOK: I highly recommend it:
FRUITLESS FALL by Rowan Jacobsen, subtitle – The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crises. It reminds me of Michael Pollan’s writings: great explanations of how things work woven into the larger context. I am re-orienting how I think of bees.
October 6, 2010 at 2:08 am |
There has been almost nothing in news about colony collapse for many months now
October 7, 2010 at 3:12 pm |
Interestingly CBS news last night had a story on what scientists think is causing colony collapse- they said a combination of a parasite and a virus. The virus is one that occurs in other insects and I got impression from story not too often in bees. They did not say what the virus was. They also said that diet may play a roll with bees that are hired as pollinators getting too restricted a diet on one crop perhaps for pollen etc,
October 8, 2010 at 10:54 am |
I have had at least 5 different sources refer this latest “breakthrough” to me. thank you!
Pardon me for being skeptical:
This “breakthrough” is totally in the paradigm of finding “the culprit”, the smoking gun – or whatever term you find appropriate.
However, everything I’ve read in the last several years (well summarized in the book referred to above) indicates many different factors are involved – basically, that our our current agriculture and lifestyle pits us humans against insects (& other life forms).
If this “breakthrough” becomes accepted truth, then hallelujah, they will develop some product to stop/kill the culprit and we can all continue on our merry way.
most convenient, business as usual.
September 6, 2011 at 5:24 am |
I’m curious if you think my theory that this might all be because honeybees aren’t native to N. America rather to Europe, but only naturalized here, and thus, when the environment/s starts really stressing, these species are affected most?
October 25, 2011 at 10:09 am |
thanx for sharing the theory.
my first gut reaction is negative – it does not make sense to me – but hey, what do i know? i’ve been wrong plenty of times.
my thoughts: honey bees have been on this continent now for 400 years or so. I don’t know much about adaptation time, but it seems that would be long enough – especially, since the “generation” time for bees is about 6 weeks during the summer. of course, genetically, the queen is replaced only every few years – but still, that’s a lot of generations.
Further, the experience of European beekeepers is virtually identical to those on this continent.
My current take: it’s environmental; specifically, the agric chemicals: GMO, and now the systemic seed treatments on corn. Pollen collected from the corn is stored and then used in the late winter/early spring – which is the time our bees have the hardest time these years. It used to be they would explode in the spring to get ready for the honey flow. Nowadays, they languish, barely holding their own and then finally in summer (with bees raised on new spring pollen), they flourish.
Now, how about bees in areas where there is no conventional corn? i don’t know. We have conventional corn close enough for our bees to visit. I can’t seem to entice them to stay home. i plant buckwheat, etc – still, they tend to wander….