Chapter 11

Colony Collapse Disorder

IN THIS CHAPTER

check Getting familiar with colony collapse disorder (CCD)

check Understanding what the fuss is about

check Thinking about what might be causing CCD

check Getting answers to frequently asked questions

check Looking at ways you can help save honey bees

Special thanks to the USDA and Dr. Dewey Caron for their help with this chapter.

Unless you have been living in a remote cabin on the side of a forgotten hill, you have likely noted that the media has been abuzz with news about “the vanishing bees.” The last few years have been unhappy ones for our bees. Since 2006, thousands upon thousands of honey bee colonies have been vanishing. Gone without a trace. Poof!

Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is the name that was initially given to what seems to be the most serious die-off of honey bee colonies in decades. And to get right to the point, after years of study, it’s not known with precision what is causing it.

Although this topic is an unhappy one, don’t despair. Becoming a new beekeeper is one of the most useful things you can do to help save our lovely honey bees.

As a new beekeeper, you will find that many people will ask your “professional opinion” as to why honey bees are dying. This chapter gives you plenty of information that you can use to answer their questions.

What Is CCD?

In the autumn of 2006, a beekeeper in Florida filed the first report of a sudden and unexplained disappearance of his bees. They didn’t die. They just packed up and left. More reports of heavy losses (mostly from commercial migratory beekeepers) quickly followed. In subsequent years, beekeepers have reported losing anywhere from 30 percent to 90 percent of their hives. Like a firestorm, this tragedy has swept across nearly all of the United States as well as some countries overseas. It has affected both commercial beekeepers and hobbyists. It is a far-reaching problem that has serious consequences (see the upcoming section “Why All the Fuss?”).

Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is characterized by the sudden and unexplained disappearance of all adult honey bees in the hive, usually in the fall. In one scenario, a few young bees and perhaps the queen may remain behind. Or in another scenario, there may be no bees left in the hive. Honey and pollen are usually present, and there is often evidence of recent brood rearing. This abrupt evacuation is ordinarily highly unusual because bees are not inclined to abandon a hive when there is brood present.

Another puzzling characteristic is that opportunists (such as robbing bees from other hives, wax moths, and small hive beetles) are slow to invade colonies experiencing CCD. There are no adult bees present to guard the hive and lots of goodies to loot, yet these invaders stay clear. Hmmm. What do they know that we don’t?

Sometimes (rarely) bees abandon (we call it abscond) a hive because conditions are too unpleasant to remain in the hive: too hot, too many pests, not enough food, no queen, and so on (see Chapter 10). But CCD is different from absconding. Conditions don’t appear to be unfavorable. And it’s happening at an alarming rate.

Colonies that experience CCD have the following characteristics:

  • All or nearly all of the bees pack up and leave within a two- to four-week time period. But there are no dead adult bodies in or around the hive.
  • In some instances the queen and a small number of young-aged survivor bees are present in the brood nest. These too eventually disappear.
  • Capped brood is left behind.
  • There is stored pollen and capped honey.
  • Empty hives are not quickly invaded by opportunists (robbing bees, wax moths, small hive beetles, and so on).

What to Do If You Suspect CCD

If you think your hives have fallen to CCD, don’t panic. As a new beekeeper, you may be jumping to unwarranted conclusions. To date, CCD has been far more prevalent among commercial beekeepers, although losses among hobbyists like us happen sometimes.

Tip If you believe you may have a problem, I urge you to call your state’s department of agriculture and ask to speak with the head bee inspector. He or she is likely to provide you with some helpful information. If you have records of the number of mites in your hive prior to the collapse, it will be helpful for the inspector to know (see Chapter 13 for more about mites).

Why All the Fuss?

The media is all over this story. It has hit the evening national news. It’s made the cover of Time magazine. Why is CCD making headlines? Imagine a world without bees. That would be an unhappy world. Did you know that honey bees account for 30 percent of everything you eat? Commercial beekeepers provide honey bees to farmers all around the country to pollinate the crops that wind up in our supermarkets. If these pollinator mavericks were all to disappear, there would be reduced crop variety and most likely higher prices in your grocery store. No question about it. Honey bees are critical for agricultural pollination — adding more than $15 billion in value to about 130 crops — especially crops like berries, nuts, fruits, and vegetables. The unexplained disappearance of so many colonies is not a matter to take lightly. Table 11-1 summarizes some of the consequences of a world without bees.

TABLE 11-1 Pollination Experiments

Crop

Without Honey Bees

With Honey Bees

Pears

99 lbs. fruit

344 lbs. fruit

Alfalfa

62 lbs. seed per acre

220 lbs. seed per acre

Apples

25 apples per tree

1,200 apples per tree

Experiment results showing comparison of crops pollinated by honey bees versus the same crops netted to prevent pollination. Source: W.R. Roach Company Orchards and other sources.

What’s Causing CCD?

No one knows for certain what’s causing CCD, at least not at the time of this writing. But researchers have managed to dismiss some “wild” theories and are now focusing on other, more probable causes. In all likelihood, CCD is not due to a single factor.

The cellphone theory

A number of years ago there was a well-publicized theory the explosion of cellphone usage was causing CCD. Could it be? The short answer is no.

A small study done in Germany seemed to indicate that a particular type of base station for mobile phones could screw up honey bee navigation. But, despite all the media attention that this study received, it had nothing to do with CCD. The researcher who conducted the study told the Associated Press that there is “no link between our tiny little study and the CCD-phenomenon and anything else said or written is a lie.” Fake news! The scientists studying CCD agree. Case closed.

It may be the perfect storm

Far more likely it is not one single thing that is causing CCD, but rather a brew of many different challenges that have contributed to this problem. In a nutshell, several potential causes are being studied by scientists around the world. If CCD is a combination of many factors, it makes investigating the root cause especially complex. There are so many variables!

Although this is not a complete list of what’s being studied, here are some of the more significant ingredients to this dire cocktail. I call them the four P’s.

Parasites

The spread of varroa and tracheal mites has seriously affected honey-bee health in the United States and around the world. Varroa once had nearly wiped out honey bees in the wild (feral hives), although these populations are now slowly recovering. Both of these mites have put a major stress on our honey bees and could certainly make our girls far more susceptible to some of the other causes being studied.

Pathogens

In Chapter 12, I talk about bee viruses. The varroa mite has been shown to spread several different viruses among honey bees and to change the normal mix of virus as it feeds on adult body fat and developing pupal bees. Although many different viruses can impact honey-bee health, a few in particular are being studied in connection with CCD. These few may become epidemic, pushing out other viruses and overwhelming the normal bee defense systems.

One is Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV). This particular virus is not necessarily the cause of CCD, but is more likely one ingredient to that cocktail that might trigger CCD. This research is being headed by Dr. Diana Cox-Foster at Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences. For the most up-to-date information on the potential connection between CCD and IAPV, visit http://cas.psu.edu/.

Deformed wing virus seems to have increased in its prevalence and is one that appears particularly deadly to honey bees. It has been found in very high concentrations in sick bees.

Other viruses, such as the acute bee paralysis virus, chronic paralysis virus, Kashmir bee virus, black queen cell virus, and sacbrood virus, also contribute to some degree and cause honey-bee viral disease epidemics in different colonies. Although more than 20 viruses may be present, these few seem to cause the greatest problems.

Another virus that recently gained attention is called tobacco ringspot virus (TRSV). Researchers have found this virus (that typically infects plants) has been systemically infecting honey bees. The rapidly mutating virus jumped from tobacco plants to soy plants to bees. The study provides the first evidence that honey bees exposed to virus-contaminated pollen can also be infected and that the infection becomes widespread in their bodies. Researchers state that honey bees can transmit TRSV when they move from flower to flower during the pollination process. The virus may be causing systemic infection in honey bees. And it may be inadvertently stored by bees in their hive.

I know, I know. This is all sounding gloomy and overwhelming. But rest assured that smart people are working diligently on remedies. Researchers are exploring the ways in which these viral cocktails not only travel and migrate, but how they systemically infect the bodies of honey bees and lead to the eventual collapse of hives.

Pesticides

Another factor in bee loss is pesticides. Researchers have found higher-than-expected levels of miticides (used and sometimes misused by beekeepers to control mites) plus traces of a wide variety of agricultural chemicals in the pollen, wax, and even stored honey of hives.

Some believe that pesticides, especially a relatively new class called neonicotinoids, may have a role in CCD. Neonicotinoids are known to be toxic to individual bees. They can impair olfaction memory, motor activity, feeding behavior, and the bees’ navigation and orientation. Neonicotinoids and some fungicides are synergistic, meaning that after exposure to one type of chemical, subsequent exposure to another chemical results in a far more toxic situation. What is not clear is how neonics (as they are termed) may harm entire colonies.

What is suspected — and probably the most unsettling is the concern over sublethal or chronic long-term effect of neonicotinoids. Exposure to continued levels of pesticides over time may weaken bee defenses and thus make them more susceptible to viral infections that can then decimate the colony. It is like two body blows; the bees just can’t take the one-two punch. All in all, this is some nasty stuff. Pesticide involvement as a primary stressor remains a strong possibility for colony losses.

We have known for a long time that some pesticides are acutely toxic to bees. Such pesticides kill the adult foragers, and sometimes the hive bees. The foragers die in the field. With some chemical pesticides, the sudden appearance of large numbers of dead bodies may be evident at the front of the hive (see Figure 11-1). A small number of pesticides are even more damaging when they are brought back to the hive in contaminated pollen, causing death of the nurse-aged bees and eventually the brood. Adult bodies and brood pile up in front of the entrance or on the bottom board. Colonies may lose a whole generation of brood rearing, seriously setting back the development of the expanding colony.

Photograph depicting a huge pile of dead bees in front of a bee hive, which is a telltale indication of pesticide poisoning.

Courtesy of Katie Lee, Bee Informed Partnership

FIGURE 11-1: The huge pile of dead bees in front of this hive is a telltale indication of pesticide poisoning.

CCD, on the other hand, is different. No dead bodies are found in or around the hive. The bees die away from their hive. Likewise, we do not see such death and destruction from neonicotinoids.

Poor nutrition

Poor nutrition can be a factor in weakened colonies or colonies not developing properly. We are seeing the loss of flowering weeds in agricultural fields (due to increasingly heavy use of herbicides). Increasingly, monocultures of single flowering sources are all that are available in the bee diet (for example when the bees are involved in commercial pollination). There are effects on the bees’ intestinal microflora (perhaps due to heavy reliance on artificial feeding of colonies or antibiotic and pesticide exposure). To top it off, there is decreasing natural forage due in part to human disturbance of the habitat where bees need to forage. Bees that are weakened because of one or more of these nutritional factors may become more susceptible to other factors.

Tip See Chapter 12 to learn more about bee nutrition and the steps you can take to keep your bees strong and heathy.

Other possibilities

A host of other possible causes is now under study, including the following:

  • Stress from widespread movement of bees for crop pollination
  • Effects of lack of, or poorly timed management decisions by inexperienced beekeepers
  • The improper use of honey-bee antibiotics
  • Feeding bees high-fructose corn syrup (as is common with commercial beekeepers) versus feeding syrup made from sucrose sugar
  • Overreliance on supplemental proteins, none a perfect diet, fed with vegetable oils requiring bees to cannabalize stored body reserves to survive
  • Lack of genetic diversity and lineage of bees

All in all, honey-bee colonies are suffering from a toxic whammy of multiple negatives.

Answers to FAQs

Is honey from CCD colonies safe to eat? To date, there is no evidence that CCD affects honey. The impact of CCD appears to be limited to bees.

Is it safe to reuse the equipment from colonies that are lost during the winter? If it can be determined that the bees starved or died because of other reasons associated with typical winter loss (such as mites), it is safe to reuse equipment, including the remaining honey and pollen. In addition, if your colonies died from what appears to be CCD, reusing equipment is still okay. Just allow your equipment to air out for a few days before reusing.

Who is working on this problem? An army of researchers, apiculture extension specialists, and government officials have come together to work on CCD. One particular group is the Mid Atlantic Apiculture Research Extension Consortium (MAAREC). For up-to-date information on the research, visit the website: http://agdev.anr.udel.edu/maarec/.

The Honey Bee Health Coalition is a broad-based, diverse assembly of beekeeping organizations, commodity and specialty crop producers, agro-business, supply chain companies, non-government organizations, universities, and agencies that promote a vision of “Healthy Bees, Healthy People, and Healthy Planet.” Consult its website at www.honeybeehealthcoalition.org.

Project Apism is a non-profit that is focusing research on the health and vitality of honey bee colonies while improving crop production. The project is especially focused on bee nutrition and planting to benefit bees. See their website: www.projectapism.org.

Additional information on CCD can be found at the website for the United States Department of Agriculture, www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdahome.

What You Can Do to Help

There are a lot of things you can do to fend off CCD in your neck of the woods. Although we don’t yet know the actual causes of CCD, here are some sensible actions you can take immediately:

  • Become a beekeeper! What a great way to reintroduce honey bees in your area. Hopefully, this book will get you started.
  • Keep colonies strong by practicing best-management practices. In other words, follow the steps in this book religiously!
  • Replace old brood comb with new foundation every three years. This will minimize the amount of residual chemicals/pathogens that may be present in old wax.
  • Avoid unduly stressing your colonies. Seek to provide adequate ventilation; supplementally feed your bees when pollen and nectar are scarce; keep mite infestations in check; and medicate against Nosema (see Chapter 12).
  • Monitor varroa mite populations and take steps to treat your colony when mite levels become unacceptable. Visit www.honeybeehealthcoaltion.org/varroa for guidelines for varroa management. Also, look at Chapter 13 for more information on varroa mites.
  • Always practice an integrated pest management (IPM) approach, which includes varroa mite control in honey-bee colonies. This can minimize the need for chemical use in your hives and lessen the bees’ exposure to chemicals (see the “What is IPM?” sidebar later in this chapter).
  • Avoid the use of chemicals and pesticides in your garden and on your lawn. The use and misuse of pesticides is on the short list of factors that may be harming honey bees. Limit the use of these chemicals, or better yet, go au naturel (after all, my dandelion lawn is beautiful!). Convince your neighbors to do the same.
  • Plant a bee-friendly garden. Use a wide variety of flowering plants that are beneficial to bees — not merely highly selected flowers that may look good but offer little in nectar or pollen to bees. Good nutrition is vital to the overall health of the colony. See Chapter 18 for some ideas of flowering plants that your bees will love.
  • Write your congressional representatives. Funding for honey-bee research is more critical than ever. Let the feds know you care about our precious honey bees.

Don’t let all this gloomy news hinder your enjoyment of beekeeping. Although CCD is a serious concern for our honey bees, I am confident that remedies will be forthcoming. As mentioned earlier, becoming a backyard beekeeper is the single best thing you can do to help our honey bees. Embrace and enjoy this glorious hobby, and feel good about helping the honey bee get back on its feet. All six of them.

allnatural Scattered throughout this book is information that features “natural” approaches for keeping your bees healthy. Be on the lookout for these best-practice examples that minimize or eliminate the use of chemicals in your colonies.