Bee-Ware!!!

In the early weeks of April 2007, very little media attention was given to an environmental issue that just may now reemerge in the coming months and years following the devastating earthquake in Japan. As continued detections of radiation and contamination levels across globe at present, the question then asked by most scientists in the spring of 2007 was, what was causing a mysterious illness killing thousands of honey bee colonies across the U.S. and Canada. With now reported contamination found in Japanese Beef and just recently in milk from the state of Washington, rising radiation levels may play a role in further crippling an already fragile species. 

Late in the month of November 07, David Hackenberg, a Pennsylvanian Beekeeper, was the first bee farmer who reported this phenomenon to researchers at Penn. State University. He stated that he had lost about 2,000 hives which housed anywhere from 50,000 to 60,000 bees during the summer months. Researchers scrambled to find the cause of this disease naming it Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD. Scientists started to believe this epidemic was the equivalent of HIV/AIDS to humans.  Reports began coming in from all over the country, totaling 20 states that were affected with CCD as well as  recent losses in some European countries.

In the past, bee colonies faced decline from two parasitic bugs. The Varroa and Tracheal mite caused widespread viruses affecting the U.S. bee population since the mid 1960’s. What was being face in the fall of 2007 was complete abandonment of the hive. Normally the bodies of dead bees are often littered around the hives or sometimes carried away by worker bees. In these cases, no bee remains were found around the colonies struck by this mysterious disease. Scientists believed that these bees had left the hive before dying to preserve the remaining colony.

 Another baffling mystery was that in situations where a hive was weakened, competing colonies or pests did not attack to steal the honey supply. It was if the mark of the plague hung over theses hives, warning others to stay away. After dissection of the insect, the bee remains revealed high numbers of fungi and bacteria and a weakened immune system.  Questions are now being raised that if radiation levels from the Japanese reactors continue to rise and detection is found all over the planet, this may speed up the bee’s already downward spiral, eventually having a domino effect that will not pale into comparison to the debate on global warming and shrinking polar caps.

The steady drop in bee colonies will have a devastating effect on the agricultural economy. Along with being producers of honey, a staple to the diet of the entire planet, bee colonies are important to agriculture as pollinators. The National Research Council stated that three-quarters of all flowering plants rely on pollinators (bees) for fertilization to bear fruit. Certain fibers, drugs and even fuels rely on the strength and survival of the bee. The very lives of farmers who cash in on crops such as apples, blueberries, tomatoes and strawberries depend on the honey bee. Bee farmers alone estimate a loss of over $350,000 dollars each due to CCD. With the now potential of radiation poisoning an important and fragile part of their lives, farmers are playing even closer attention to news from all across the world.