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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><a
href="http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/117505052781130.xml&coll=7">http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/117505052781130.xml&coll=7</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><img border=0 width=179
height=34 id="_x0000_i1025" src="cid:image001.gif@01C7720B.2ADC8410"
style='margin-bottom:20px'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<h1><b><font size=6 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:24.0pt'>Researchers
puzzled at the sudden drop of honeybees <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Pollination - Die-offs of the
hard-working insect stump beekeepers and worry growers </span></font></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Wednesday, March 28, 2007<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>MICHAEL MILSTEIN <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>The Oregonian</span></font></b> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Scott
Keene's bee colonies buzzed with life last fall. Then, about December, the
southern <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Oregon</st1:place></st1:State>
beekeeper realized his prized insects -- an unsung hero of agriculture -- were
disappearing. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>He'd
check a hive that had been churning with insects and, "It'd just be an
empty box." It looked as though the bees had abandoned house, leaving
helpless young behind. By February, 1,000 of the 1,400 colonies of bees he
hires out to pollinate crops through <st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State>
and <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Oregon</st1:place></st1:State>
were gone. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Worse
yet, neither he nor other beekeepers around the country who have suffered the
same fate know why. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Researchers
investigating the scattered but sudden crash of honeybees, which festered
through last year before exploding nationwide, are just as puzzled. They call
it "colony collapse disorder," and though it bears some resemblance
to past outbreaks of deadly mites and viruses, it appears especially sudden and
severe. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>No common
threads seem to explain the cases. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Even
people who thought a month ago they were in good shape are having
trouble," said George Hansen, a beekeeper based in <st1:City w:st="on">Colton</st1:City>
who is about to move his bees from <st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State>'s
almond groves north to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Hood</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">River</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> fruit orchards. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><st1:State w:st="on"><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Oregon</span></font></st1:State> and <st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:State> cherry, pear,
apple and other crops depend on hired bees to ferry pollen from tree to tree
and flower to flower in spring. Pollen sticks to bees' hind legs, falling onto
other flowers as they go, fertilizing the blossoms so they ripen into fruit
that arrives plump and sweet at your table. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Northwest
beekeepers and farmers cross their fingers, hoping there will be enough bees to
work their crops. But bee ranks are shrinking here and nationwide even as
demand for their services rise, forcing fewer bees to labor harder than ever
while they endure mounting assaults from parasites, pesticides and disease. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>"Working them to death" </span></font></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The bees
roll from field to field, crop to crop, aboard rattling pallets, trucks and
forklifts, often sustained on the same sort of high fructose corn syrup that
goes into soft drinks and junk food. Keepers divide hives to rapidly build
numbers to pollinate more crops. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The bees
get little rest. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"We're
working them to death is what we're doing," Reedsport beekeeper Larry
Williams said by cell phone from the groves of central California, where he
works about as hard as his bees -- sleeping in his truck rather than wasting
time finding a motel room. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>He lost
2,000 of his roughly 4,000 hives last year to ill-timed spraying of pesticides
among cranberry fields on the coast. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"We're
just stressing them so hard, and then we have all these diseases and things,
and they can't take it," he said. "You just need that one thing, and
it pushes you over the edge." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Beekeepers,
who know their bees as well as you might the family dog, worry about all this
pressure as much as anyone. But they're driven to it by global economic forces
and a desperate need for bees as a buzzing backbone of agriculture. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>Quiet on numbers </span></font></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>They are
an itinerant and independent bunch, especially as spring approaches, making it
tough to tell exactly what's happening to bees statewide. In the apiary world,
asking beekeepers about their losses is a bit like asking people about their
bank accounts. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>There are
about 100 beekeepers in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Oregon</st1:place></st1:State>
with five or more hives, according to the Oregon Department of Agriculture. A
hive holds tens of thousands of bees, depending on the season. At least a few <st1:State
w:st="on">Oregon</st1:State> and <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:State>
keepers have been struck by colony collapse disorder, reports Bee Alert
Technology Inc. The <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Montana</st1:place></st1:State>
company tracks the outbreak but promised to keep specific numbers and locations
private. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"We've
seen beekeepers of every scale and size and every amount of experience getting
hit," said Jerry Bromenshenk, a professor at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Montana</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>
and president of Bee Alert. One keeper who lost about 75 percent of his bees
will spend $1.2 million to rebuild his hives. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
disorder first gained attention in Eastern states last year. But as
Bromenshenk's team looked deeper. "It didn't take us two weeks to realize
it was happening all over." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>They have
details of some 400 cases, but there are all sorts of variables -- some with
traces of curious fungi or pesticides, but others that are different. "You
get an idea of the needle in the haystack we're looking for," he said.
"There may be no one cause." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Any one
of many factors may be pushing already stressed bees too far, he said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"You've
got guys who have been doing bees their whole lives, and they're losing
everything, and they don't know why," Williams said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><st1:City w:st="on"><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Keene</span></font></st1:City>, 37, and based west of
<st1:City w:st="on">Medford</st1:City>, may be the worst hit <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Oregon</st1:place></st1:State> beekeeper so far. He gave up on
taking his hives to pollinate the <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>
almond crop, where beekeepers earn their biggest income of the year -- up to
$150 a colony. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"I
didn't want to haul a bunch of bees down there and end up putting out a bunch
of empty boxes," he said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>Trouble over decades </span></font></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Keene</span></font></st1:place></st1:City> suspects
that a bad batch of manufactured corn syrup, fed to his bees just before they
started vanishing, may have poisoned them. Some -- but not all -- other
beekeepers who suffered losses used such syrup. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>But most
beekeepers will tell you that their hard-working bees have endured more than
their share of trouble in the past few decades, any of which, or all of which,
could be contributing to what is happening now. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"How
many things can you pile on to bees that are already stressed?" asked John
Jacob, who raises bees in Rogue River and in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Portland</st1:place></st1:City>. He sells queen bees to other
keepers and said demand is through the roof from other keepers who need new
queens as they try to rebuild hives after they collapsed. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>He
suspects the problem is a mounting combination of factors. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Everybody
wants to find one smoking gun, and I don't think we will," he said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Bee
die-offs struck before, and nobody ever figured out what caused them, said
Michael Burgett, an entomologist at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Oregon</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">State</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>.
Mites may cause bees to leave their hives in search of new colonies, only to
die of exposure, he said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Says
Bromenshenk: "We're asking a lot of these colonies these days." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Michael
Milstein: 503-294-7689; michaelmilstein@ news.oregonian.com <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><br clear=all>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>©2007 The Oregonian<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#004000" face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:#004000'>Jennifer Tsang<br>
<a href="http://coevolution.org">Coevolution Institute</a><br>
<st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">423 Washington St.</st1:address></st1:Street>
5th Fl.<br>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">San Francisco</st1:City>, <st1:State
w:st="on">CA</st1:State> <st1:PostalCode w:st="on">94111-2339</st1:PostalCode></st1:place><br>
T: 415.362.1137</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#004000" face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:#004000'>F: 415.362.3070</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#004000" face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:#004000'><a
href="http://www.nappc.org">www.nappc.org</a></span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#004000" face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:#004000'><a
href="http://www.pollinator.org">www.pollinator.org</a></span></font><font
color="#004000"><span style='color:#004000'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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