<html>
<body>
<img src="http://media.miamiherald.com/images/site_logo_149x40.gif" width=149 height=40 alt="Print This Article">
<br>
Posted on Thu, Apr. 10, 2008 <br><br>
<h2><b>Beekeepers stung by disappearing bees</b></h2>BY PHIL LONG AND
LESLEY CLARK<br>
With a third of the nation's honeybees disappearing because of a
mysterious malady, Florida's beekeepers are working to restore their
hives and nurse their bee colonies back to health. <br><br>
Not only do the bees create Florida's $11.3 million annual honey crop,
they're also responsible for the pollination of a significant part of the
state's winter vegetable, fruit and citrus crops. Nationwide, pollination
is an estimated $18 billion segment of the agricultural industry.
<br><br>
''One out of every three bites of food that we put in our mouths is put
there by the honeybee pollinating those crops,'' said Dave Hackenberg, a
46-year veteran beekeeper, pausing between checking hives south of Dade
City. Bees buzzed noisily around him in the balmy afternoon sun.
<br><br>
Most people equate bees just with honey and miss the critical role they
play in the state's agriculture. Bees are so critical to agriculture,
said Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, partly because
they are ``our No.1 pollinator.'' <br><br>
''We're the fruit and vegetable basket for the whole northeast United
States basically, and big parts of Canada, during the winter,'' Bronson
said. <br><br>
The honeybees pollinate a wide range of crops, from strawberry, avocado,
and blueberry to cucumber, squash, tangerines and zucchini. <br><br>
The abrupt disappearance of honeybee colonies in North America began in
2006. It's been attributed to Colony Collapse Disorder, but scientists
have been unable to pinpoint the cause of the disease. <br><br>
When CCD happens, adult bees vanish from the hive, leaving and never
returning. <br><br>
It could be the result of a combination of factors, experts say,
including pesticides, stress caused when the bees travel from state to
state to pollinate; drought; varroa mites, a tiny but fierce enemy of
bees that by itself has been devastating, or perhaps even a completely
unknown disease or a known disease breaking out at a more severe rate.
<br><br>
''I guess the biggest thing that upsets me is that scientists have been
at this for 16 months, and, not their fault, but we don't have any
answers,'' Hackenberg said. <br><br>
Statewide, about 33 percent of the bee population has been affected.
South Florida's honeybees have been less impacted by the disorder.
<br><br>
Lee del Signore, a Homestead-based beekeeper, said that might be
attributed to the area's year-round warm weather, rich diversity of fresh
pollen and nectar for the bees. Also, the bees that are sent out for
pollination are transported shorter distances. <br><br>
But Hackenberg and many other of the state's 165 or so commercial
beekeepers have felt the sting of CCD. <br><br>
Hackenberg said he has been hit with $400,000 in lost bees and revenue
over the past two years. He has replaced most of the colonies, but not
all of them. <br><br>
He's had to increase his prices to recoup his losses. Once charging $45
per hive to pollinate apples, he now charges $65. Blueberries have gone
from $60 to $90. <br><br>
And those prices, he adds, are passed on to consumers. <br><br>
He and other beekeepers have had to rebuild their colonies, mostly by
installing new groups of bees into hives. <br><br>
The workers scurry from hive to hive, gently calming the bees with a few
puffs of smoke, installing new broods of young bees, sometimes adding
queens and checking on the health of each hive. Each step adds to the
growth of the hive. <br><br>
Now he's readying about 2,900 colonies of bees for the fruit orchards and
vegetable fields from mid-Florida to the Northeast where they will
pollinate everything from apples to pumpkins. <br><br>
On Wednesday, a panel of bee experts convened in a Senate office in
Washington, D.C., discussing research into what one called an ''alarming
decline'' in the bee populations. <br><br>
It is unlikely the bees will become extinct but the beekeepers might,
said May Berenbaum, who heads up the entomology department at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. <br><br>
''Our pollinator portfolio is in great disarray,'' Berenbaum said.
<br><br>
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who is pushing for $20 million in federal
funding for bee research, noted that many of her state's crops, including
almonds and berries, are dependent on ``healthy pollinators. <br><br>
''There is so much for people to be concerned about here,'' Boxer said.
``Our food supply is under a grave threat.'' <br><br>
California is the biggest honey producing state, followed by North Dakota
and Florida. <br><br>
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been scrambling to assign more of
its money to honeybee health issues. The Senate has passed the five-year
farm bill with $100 million over five years for bee health while the
House has passed one that spends just under $85 million over five years.
The two numbers will be worked out by a conference committee. <br><br>
''This is a serious problem nationwide and some other places in the
world,'' said U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat, who
majored in zoology in college and has introduced funding legislation in
Congress to help the beekeepers. <br><br>
''I can tell you that it impacts us an awful lot. And not just from the
standpoint of those who are in the industry,'' he said. ``But if there
are no bees, there is no pollination.''<br><br>
<br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
*************************<br>
Scott Hoffman Black<br>
Ecologist/Entomologist<br>
Executive Director<br>
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation<br>
4828 SE Hawthorne <br>
Portland, OR 97215 <br>
Direct line (503) 449-3792<br>
sblack@xerces.org<br><br>
<i>The Xerces Society is an international, nonprofit organization that
protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their
habitat. <br>
</i> <br>
To join the Society, make a contribution, or read about our work, <br>
please visit
<a href="http://www.xerces.org/">www.xerces.org</a>.<br><br>
<br>
</body>
</html>