BEEWARE!

This week, I would like to talk a bit about the honeybee. These busy little bees do a lot for us and they go basically undetected and unappreciated from our day-to-day activities. As the phrase goes “out of sight, out of mind”, we don’t ever think about these important little insect because they are not really part of our daily lives… Or are they? It turns out, honeybees are actually very important to our wellbeing and to the economy; this post will hopefully shed some light on something that many don’t usually think about.

The Baseline

I’m sure we all have a decent grasp of what honeybees do, they pollinate. Pollination is great; it’s a huge part of the reproductive cycle of plants. When plants don’t reproduce, we basically don’t eat. Now I’m not saying that the world is going to end because plants can’t make baby plants, I’m just trying to get the point across. Honeybees pollinate about 1/3 of our plants each year. Bee declines can have a very close tie with many crops, for example, the almond industry in California (which had a crop value of $1.5 billion in 2006).  In 2000, the total U.S. crop value that was wholly dependent on honey bee pollination was estimated to exceed $15 billion. It is important that we be aware of the importance of our honeybees, because the little honeybees’ affects more than one might think!

Where could they BEE?

Since late 2006, the world has seen an astronomical decrease in bee populations. Most every country, between Taiwan and the United States, have experienced unexplainable hive die-off; some countries have experienced a disappearance of close to 50% (such as Northern Ireland) in a given year. Hive die off during the winter is normal and expected, but it is clear when a hive could not survive the winter due to the dead bees. Lately, the bees just have vanished without a trace. Scientist have been working towards solving these hive collapse since 2006, but it is very difficult to pin point any one culprit. Some of the listed causes have been: Pesticides, malnutrition, electromagnetic radiation, global warming, genitally modified crops, viral and fungal combinations, and immune deficiency.  In the United States, we have been calling it Colony Collapse Disorder.

Colony Collapse Disorder

In July 2007, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its "CCD Action Plan", which outlined a strategy for addressing CCD consisting of four main components:

      1)      survey and data collection;

      2)      analysis of samples;

      3)      hypothesis-driven research; and

      4)      mitigation and preventative action.

In July 2009 the first annual report of the U.S. Colony Collapse Disorder Steering Committee was published. It suggested that colony collapse may be caused by the interaction of many agents in combination. The bee industry has been recovering since the appearance of CCD, but it still exists and is very much a threat to hives and to our economy.

There have been many books, reports, and scientific journals that are written about CCD and how it affects each and every one of us. Here are a few books and sites to check out for more information on the topic:

Jacobsen, Rowan (2009). Fruitless fall: the collapse of the honey bee and the coming agricultural crisis. New York: Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781596915374.

"Saving the Honeybee" . Scientific American 300 (4): 24. 2009-04.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/07/disappearing-bees-progress-or-frustration-1.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/honey-bees-dying-scientists-suspect-pesticides-disease-worry/story?id=10191391#.T59rCasV0kc

In the end, just let us be mindful to what is going on outside of our little box, and do what we can to make a difference in each of our lives. If you would like to learn how you can do your part in protecting our local bees, then stay tuned for part 2 of this post later on this week!!

~Daniel

“What lies behind us and what lies before us, are tiny matter compared to what lies within us.”

-quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes