The daily Astorian., June 10, 2016, WEEKEND EDITION, Page 3C, Image 23

3C
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2016
Beekeepers struggle to keep ag buzzing
U.S. honeybee
colonies, 1989-2015
4 million
Continued honeybee
die-offs are caused by a
combination of factors,
researchers say
3,528,000
Struggling with losses
(Honey producing colonies by market year)
2,660,000:
Down 24.6%
from 1989
3
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
G
OODING, Idaho — On a cool Idaho
morning in late May, the bees are more
active than Jed McGuire had expected.
The fourth-generation beekeeper doesn’t usually
wear much in the way of protective gear to work
his bees, but today he dons a hat and veil — and
gloves, to protect an angry rash of poison ivy on
his wrists.
He and his right-hand man in the family busi-
ness, nephew Tyler Magnelli, are starting their
annual ritual of placing bee boxes in one of the
30 bee yards McGuire rents around the Magic
Valley in exchange for honey.
They’ve spent the last four weeks remak-
ing their dead hives after winter losses, adding
a new queen to each colony they’ve rebuilt with
a lean supply of existing brood and bees. The
brood includes eggs, larvae and pupae.
With smoke cans at the ready, they calmly
open each box and meticulously inspect every
tray to determine the health of the colony and the
viability of the queen. The bees they are placing
in a fi eld outside Gooding will be used to polli-
nate onions grown for seed in Minidoka County.
The bees will be treated for pests and para-
sites if needed, given a pollen supplement and
left to forage fl owering plants nearby to nourish
the hive. Corn syrup will also be provided in an
open-feeding system to ensure the bees are get-
ting the sustenance they need.
But not all of the colonies will be up to the
task of pollinating onions about a month from
now.
“We have to make sure they’re big enough,
have enough bees to go to the onions. We’ll
leave the smaller ones behind and nurse them up
for winter,” McGuire said.
‘Nursing up’
Beekeeping these days demands a lot of
“nursing up.” McGuire and about 2,000 other
commercial beekeepers in the U.S. have been
fi ghting an ongoing battle to keep their colonies
thriving for at least the last decade. A commer-
cial beekeeper is classifi ed as one with 300 or
more colonies.
In the last year, more than 40 percent of hon-
eybee colonies in the U.S. perished, succumbing
to several factors, which in combination have
more than doubled the normal losses seen in the
past.
Environmental stressors, sub-lethal levels of
pesticides and pests and disease have been tak-
ing their toll on agriculture’s most important
pollinators for the last decade, claiming as much
as 45 percent and as little as 29 percent of hon-
eybee colonies per year.
The losses are a threat to farmers and produc-
tion agriculture, considering that honeybee pol-
lination is critical to the success of a vast array
of crops — including fruits, vegetables and nuts,
as well as the alfalfa fed to cattle to produce milk
and beef.
All told, honeybees are responsible for polli-
nating at least 90 commercially grown crops in
North America, accounting for more than $15
billion in crop revenue in the U.S., according to
the U.S. Department of Agriculture .
This past year, the commercial beekeepers
who keep U.S. agriculture buzzing — as well as
part-time beekeepers and backyard enthusiasts
— lost 44.1 percent of their colonies, accord-
ing to the Bee Informed Partnership, a national
research collaboration supported by USDA and
the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
“The problem it seems like we’re having is
it’s hard to keep them healthy,” McGuire said.
Many stresses
There are many stresses, including a lack of
forage, lack of a diversifi ed diet, pesticide expo-
sure and varroa mites, he said.
McGuire’s home base is in dairy coun-
try, where alfalfa is now cut before bloom for
high-quality hay for milk cows. Canal banks that
used to bloom with nourishing fl owers are now
mowed or sprayed barren. And his bees’ “work-
ing vacation” in California’s Central Valley
offers only thousands of acres of almond trees
that limit their diet.
With the lack of forage variety, “there are
now areas where beekeepers have to feed their
bees all year,” he said.
McGuire feeds his bees heavily in the spring
and fall. This year he bought about 150,000
pounds of corn syrup. At $32 per hundred-
weight, that’s a $48,000 expense.
Despite his efforts, he’s still experiencing
annual losses of 30 percent to 40 percent —
compared with 10 percent in a bad year in his
early days in the family business.
Source: USDA NASS
2
1989 ’91
’93
’95
’97
’99
’01
’03
’05
’07
’09 ’11
’13 2015
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
U.S. managed honey bee colony loss
Annual loss
Winter loss
Acceptable loss
50
(By percent loss)
44.1%
*Preliminary
40
30
28.1
20
16.9
10
Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press
0
2010-11
’11-12
’12-13
’13-14
’14-15
2015-16*
NOTE: Based on annual survey data collected from beekeepers representing approximately
20 percent of the industry. In 2015, there were more than 2.6 million U.S. colonies.
Source: Bee Informed Partnership
Carol Ryan Dumas and Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
McGuire’s 2,800 colonies
were down to 1,600
strong enough to
take to Califor-
nia in Decem-
ber to get them
out of the cold and
ready for almond pol-
lination. That left a lot
of empty hive boxes at his
apiary in Idaho — and more
empty boxes would be coming
home in April.
The number of bees in a col-
ony varies widely by season,
with USDA estimating most
at 20,000 to 40,000. Hives of
40,000 to 60,000 at the peak are
common but at that population
bees typically swarm to split the
hive.
These days, McGuire plans
on bringing 20 percent of his
hive boxes home empty — dou-
ble what a bad year used to be
on the California trek — but he
has had losses as high as 45 per-
cent, he said.
‘It’s
important to
everybody,
not just
beekeepers
but also
the farmers
who grow
the crops
that take
pollination
and the
people that
eat the
crops.’
Commercial beekeeper Jed
McGuire points out a queen
bee on a frame in one of his
beehives near Gooding, Ida-
ho, in May .
well-managed for mites,”
reported Nathalie Stein-
hauer, a graduate student
in the University of
Maryland’s Depart-
ment of Entomol-
ogy who leads data
collection for the
National Honey Bee Dis-
ease Survey.
“We are seeing more
evidence to suggest bee-
keepers who take the right steps
to control mites are losing colo-
nies in this way, through no fault
of their own,” she said.
Pesticides a factor
The varroa mite has become
one of the main issues in col-
ony loss, along with some pes-
ticides and insuffi cient nutrition
that compromise bees’ immune
systems, Brandi said.
But in his opinion, the
increasing use of neonicotinoids
— a systemic insecticide fi rst
registered in the mid-1990s —
was a major factor in the accel-
Growing threat
erated loss of colonies. Other
Beekeepers have always lost
pesticides, including fungicides
bees, but those losses started
and insect growth regulators,
accelerating in 2004 — two
added to the downfall, he said.
years before colony collapse
Those other pesticides aren’t
disorder captured media atten-
toxic to adult bees, but they
tion, said Gene Brandi, a Los
impact the development of
Banos, California , commer-
brood, he said.
cial beekeeper and president
“Anything that disrupts the
of the American Beekeeping
normal development of brood
Federation.
impacts the sustainability of the
Jed McGuire
Brandi started working in the
colony,” he said.
beekeeper
bee business in the early 1970s
Poor nutrition is another fac-
and opened his own apiary in 1978. Back then, tor, as malnourished bees are more susceptible
he considered winter losses of more than 5 per- to disease. The drought in California has cer-
cent of his colonies to be a bad year.
tainly impacted nutrition, but the issue is more
Even with the arrival of the varroa mite in the widespread, he said.
U.S. in the late 1980s, beekeepers weren’t expe-
The combination of factors has led to winter
riencing the kind of losses they’ve seen the past losses in some years of more than 35 percent and
12 years. The mite gradually grabbed a foothold total annual losses of well over 40 percent, he said.
in the U.S. but with proper controls, it wasn’t a
“We never used to see that,” he said.
big deal, he said.
The critical role of honeybees and their star-
The mite feeds on both adult bees and devel- tling losses have drawn more research. But the
oping brood and spreads rapidly from one hive culprits are varied and their interaction complex.
to another, transmitting viruses that cause defor-
“Beekeepers are struggling to manage all
mities, paralysis and death. Varroa control con- the things affecting their colonies. It’s a whole
sists of both mechanical and chemical methods, laundry list,” said Jeffery Pettis, a USDA senior
as well as the introduction of mite-tolerant stock. entomologist and co-coordinator of the Bee
“You’ll always have them; you just try to Informed colony loss survey.
keep them manageable,” McGuire said.
In addition to poor nutrition from not getting
But varroa mites have become a major threat mixed pollen, a lot more chemicals from pesti-
that is growing, according to a recent study of cides are in the hive than in the past. Pests and
multi year honeybee disease surveys by the Uni- parasites are gaining ground, and queens are
versity of Maryland and USDA.
failing at a high rate, he said.
Released in April, that study found the varroa
Historically, queens lived two to three years,
mite is far more abundant than previously esti- but now at least half are failing and must be
mated and is a particularly challenging problem replaced within six months. It’s an issue he and
among backyard beekeepers.
other researchers are exploring.
“Many backyard beekeepers don’t have any
With queens only lasting a year, “you’ve lost
varroa control strategies in place. We think this two years of pollination and honey production
results in colonies collapsing and spreading and the ability to split the hive for a couple of
mites to neighboring colonies that are otherwise years,” compared with the past, McGuire said.
Beekeepers are struggling with both winter
and summer losses, with summer rates rivaling
winter losses for the second consecutive year
in the Bee Informed annual colony loss survey.
Both were at 28.1 percent last year.
While summer losses are easier to replace,
the increase is concerning because that’s when
bees should be their healthiest — and those
losses still cost beekeepers time and money,
USDA’s Pettis said.
Summer losses are being replaced at the
cost of weakening the colony they’re being
taken from and limiting beekeepers’ supply of
bees for pollination, he said.
“The high rate of loss over the entire year
means that beekeepers are working overtime to
constantly replace their losses,” he said.
A new survey on honeybee colony health
by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics
Service — which uses different methodology
than the Bee Informed survey — shows U.S.
beekeepers with fi ve or more colonies lost
1.65 million colonies from April 2015 through
March .
It also shows they renovated 1.33 million
colonies and added 1.31 million over the same
period.
“I have to replace colonies every year. If I
don’t, I’m out of business,” Brandi said, adding
that he splits his strong colonies after almond
pollination.
He and his son Michael operate 2,000 colo-
nies, buying 1,500 to 1,600 queen bees a year.
Queens with desirable traits cost $23 to $25
apiece, he said.
McGuire bought 1,250 queens this year and
devoted a month of 10-hour days rebuilding
300 dead boxes a week.
Raising bees today takes a lot more time
and money than it used to, but most beekeepers
have adapted, he said.
“It’s defi nitely harder to keep bees alive,
but we’ve gotten pretty good at replacing and
rebuilding,” he said.
Growing demand
Honeybee demand for almond pollination
has grown signifi cantly over the past 10 years,
but the managed bee population hasn’t, Brandi
said.
Pollinated in February, more than 900,000
acres of bearing almond trees in California —
at two colonies per acre — demand 90 percent
of the nation’s available, viable colonies, he
said.
The high losses to beekeepers are certainly
concerning but more importantly, the indus-
try needs commercial bees to meet the grow-
ing demand for pollination services, Pettis said.
“We urgently need solutions to slow the rate
of both winter and summer losses,” he said.
Researchers are focused on every aspect of
failing colonies, he said.
McGuire said he’s glad for third-party
research, but it’s a slow process and likely
needs more funding.
The pesticide factor of the equation is the
hardest to handle, and it seems research in that
area is mostly coming from the big chemical
companies that have a vested interest — and
he’s not particularly comfortable with that, he
said.
Beekeepers tell farmers that bees are bring-
ing pollen with fungicides back to the hive,
which is killing larvae. But the chemical com-
panies’ fi eld men tell them that’s not the case,
citing their research on the amount that is lethal
to adult bees, he said.
Some farmers are starting to listen to bee-
keepers — but just like research, education and
changing farming practices is a slow process,
he said.
Profi t margins have also become tight in
the beekeeping business, although pollination
fees have increased as a function of supply and
demand, Pollination fees for almonds range
from $150 to $200 per colony, depending on
the size of the colony.
Those fees carry McGuire’s operation,
which gets about half the honey production it
did several years ago.
“If we can get a honey crop, it defi nitely
relaxes it (production margins) a bit … but I
count it as a bonus; I don’t plan on it to begin
with,” he said.
While beekeepers have become adept at
replacing and rebuilding colonies, it’s not with-
out consequences.
“It’s stressful, just not knowing what’s
going to happen long term,” McGuire said. If
you get a high die-off, you lose money, he said.
“Like anything in agriculture, you just don’t
know what natural disaster might hit — but
natural disaster is becoming a little more com-
mon in the bee world,” he said.
It’s important to fi nd solutions to all the fac-
tors killing bees, he said.
“It’s important to everybody, not just bee-
keepers but also the farmers who grow the
crops that take pollination and the people that
eat the crops,” he said.
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