Sustainable Planet: July 2008 Archives
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| Caucasian (dark-colored) bee originates from the Caucasus region that separates Europe from Asia. |
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| Italian bee is the most common bee in the United States. Its origin: Italy. |
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| This is one of Susan Cobey's New World Carniolan bees.The Carniolans originate from the Northern Balkans, Slovenia and Caucasian mountains.(Photos by Kathy Keatley Garvey) |
Susan Cobey is internationally known for her expertise in honey bee breeding and instrumental insemination. She teaches classes that draw students from throughout the world. A bee breeder and geneticist for more than 30 years, she developed and maintains the world-renowned New World Carniolan stock.
“Researchers are still collecting more samples from collapsing colonies and trying very hard to process those and previous samples to see what may be causing the problem,” said UC Davis Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen, who believes that CCD is not caused by one single factor, but multiple factors, including malnutrition, pesticides, diseases, parasites and stress.
“Nearly every state in the U.S. has some to many beekeepers who are having difficulty with losses that appear to be CCD,” said Mussen, Extension apiculturist at UC Davis since 1976 and a former state and national beekeeper of the year. “Many countries are encountering similar bee losses. Since we don't know what is causing ours, or theirs, we cannot say that the cause(s) is the same, but it is likely.”
In CCD, nearly all adult worker bees unexpectedly fly away from the hive, abandoning the stored honey, pollen, larvae and pupae. Usually they leave in less than a week, and only the queen and a few young workers remain, Mussen said.
CCD is not a new occurrence, Mussen said. “Similar phenomena have been observed since 1869. It persisted in 1963, 1964 and 1965 and was called Spring Dwindling, Fall Collapse and Autumn Collapse. Then in 1975, it was called Disappearing Disease. But the disease wasn’t disappearing—the bees were.”
Can we surmise what the future holds for bees? “No, we cannot,” Mussen said. “We hope that this episode will just be one in a number that have occurred, and resolved themselves, in the past.”
At the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture hearing on June 26 to review the status of pollinator health and CCD, subcommittee chair Cong. Dennis Cardoza of California’s 18th District, said that the “importance of bees and other pollinators cannot be underestimated. Nearly 130 different crops—totaling over $15 billion in annual farm gate value—depend on pollination to grow.”
Testimony revealed that the lack of pollinators could further increase food prices. Said Cardoza: “USDA desperately needs to better coordinate their research and response to this ongoing crisis, and more clearly define their needs so that Congress can adequately respond.”
“Should the CCD crisis continue unchecked, pollinated ingredients such as strawberries, cherries and almonds could become scarce or too expensive to obtain, forcing us to evaluate whether we can continue offering popular flavors that depend on pollinated ingredients because of higher production costs,” Pien said.
Those interested in making online donations to UC Davis to help save the honey bees can access the UC Davis Department of Entomology Web page. Or, checks may be made out to “UC Regents” and mailed to the UC Davis Department of Entomology, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616.
