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A Third of the Nation's Honeybee Colonies Died Last Year (usatoday.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the spoonful-of-honey dept.

A third of the honeybees in the United States were lost over the last year, part of a decade-long die-off experts said may threaten our food supply. USA Today reports: The annual survey of roughly 5,000 beekeepers showed the 33% dip from April 2016 to April 2017. The decrease is small compared to the survey's previous 10 years, when the decrease hovered at roughly 40%. From 2012 to 2013, nearly half of the nation's colonies died. The death of a colony doesn't necessarily mean a loss of bees, explains vanEngelsdorp, a project director at the Bee Informed Partnership. A beekeeper can salvage a dead colony, but doing so comes at labor and productivity costs. That causes beekeepers to charge farmers more for pollinating crops and creates a scarcity of bees available for pollination. It's a trend that threatens beekeepers trying to make a living and could lead to a drop-off in fruits and nuts reliant on pollination, vanEngelsdor said. So what's killing the honeybees? Parasites, diseases, poor nutrition, and pesticides among many others. The chief killer is the varroa mite, a "lethal parasite," which researchers said spreads among colonies.

28 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. Impacts by quantaman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There are two things I'm really curious about with this.

    1) What are the real impacts of the die-offs? ie are is the total stock of bees going into decline or are beekeepers needed to put in overtime in order to breed replacement stock.

    2) What's the cause of the decline in the decline? It looks like the loss has been slowly levelling off over the past few years, 30-40% is pretty drastic, is this evidence that they've evolving some kind of resistance to whatever is happening?

    --
    I stole this Sig
    1. Re:Impacts by Rei · · Score: 5, Interesting

      There is no threat to honeybees (which in the US aren't even native). Queens can be bred in bulk (there are tricks to make a hive produce lots of queens), and starting a new hive only takes a queen and a handful of workers. Beekeepers can order them by mail.

      These dieoffs are not about fundamental threats, but economics. It means more labour and cost to beekeepers, which they have to pass on.

      The Slashdot summary presents a pretty accurate description of the reasons for the dieoffs - they appear to be multifactor, but varroa is what you find most commonly in afflicted colonies.Note that annual dieoffs are normal among honeybee colonies - 15-20% over winter is pretty typical, although it depends on location.

      Bees are amazing creatures, and many of their problems have been brought on by humans. There are many bee species around the world, and many have long had their own specific parasites, which they're adapted to. As people have moved around the world, they've taken honeybees with. As a consequence, they've spread all of these local parasites and diseases around the world, into European honeybees that have no natural resistance to them. Ironically some were accidentally spread by programmes trying to breed resistance to other pests and diseases, bringing in bee stocks from around the world (a big example being the Buckfast Bee). Also, attempts to optimize bees for docility and honey production ended up reducing honeybee genetic diversity; for example, the European dark (formerly the most common in northern Europe) was considered an inferior breed, and was reduced to just a handful of colonies. But it appears that the European dark has some natural resistance to varroa, as well as being better at defending its hives from wasps (they're also much better adapted to cold climate areas).

      It's interesting the means different bee species use to defend against the pests and predators that they evolved to in their natural range. One of my favorites is how Japanese honeybees fight off the nightmarish Japanese giant hornet (don't look it up if you have any fear of being stung by a huge insect). It's far too well armoured for honeybees to hurt it, so instead what they do is swarm it and beat their wings like crazy, creating heat. Because their maximum survivable body temperature happens to be just a couple degrees hotter than the hornet's maximum temperature, so they basically cook it to death ;)

      --
      You're treating a symptom while the disease rages on. The fish rots from the head. Why not cut off the head?
    2. Re:Impacts by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Informative

      2) What's the cause of the decline in the decline?

      Most likely restrictions and better education on the use of neonicotinoid pesticides.

      30-40% is pretty drastic

      Is it? What is a "normal" amount of die off? TFA gives no context for these numbers. A quick google search indicates that the natural lifetime of a queen bee is about 5 years. So that would mean a 20% die off under natural conditions.

    3. Re:Impacts by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      Also worth mentioning that it's a pain for crops that blossom early in the season (like almonds). Harder to get bees delivered to your farm.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    4. Re:Impacts by serbanp · · Score: 5, Interesting

      When the queen gets old, the workers simply produce a new one (or several, it all depends on what are the larvae fed with) and kills the old. The hive goes on. BTW, the life span of a worker bee is several months, therefore over the queen's life span multiple generations of regular bees have died - this is normal.

      Colony collapse happens when a large majority of workers die off relatively quickly, straining the food supply to the point that the queen dies or there are not enough workers to tend the larvae.

      The recent trend of collapse is caused by a perfect storm of more potent insecticides used in agriculture, running out of chemical options to contain the Varroa mites, and regulatory decisions to reduce the number and amount of chemical treatments the bee keeper is allowed to administer.

    5. Re:Impacts by jandersen · · Score: 3, Informative

      There is no threat to honeybees (which in the US aren't even native). Queens can be bred in bulk (there are tricks to make a hive produce lots of queens), and starting a new hive only takes a queen and a handful of workers. Beekeepers can order them by mail.

      Not quite true - farming practices and the beekeeping practices that are common in the US, are major threats. Pestices are not all that discerning - if they kill harmful insects, then they probably also kill the beneficial ones, and systemic pesticides like the neo-nicotinoids are absorbed into the crop plants and secreted in the nectar. Non-systemic pesticides are less likely to find their way into bees. But possibly the worst threat comes from the fact that beekeepers rely on a narrow monoculture, created by exactly the practices you described, plus of course the way in which American beekeepers in particular transport their hives from all over the US to California, where they can then exchange diseases.

    6. Re: Impacts by Demena · · Score: 2

      It is reasonably certain (from France) that the use of new insecticides persist and weaken the hive enough to make varroa resistance hard.

    7. Re: Impacts by Rei · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You see people, that's what Kushner was trying to talk to the Russians about: food assistance in the upcoming beepocalypse. But all of you are too negative and partisan to stop and think about how he was trying to save everyone from a horrible death through starvation.

      --
      You're treating a symptom while the disease rages on. The fish rots from the head. Why not cut off the head?
    8. Re:Impacts by BCGlorfindel · · Score: 4, Informative

      There is no threat to honeybees (which in the US aren't even native). Queens can be bred in bulk (there are tricks to make a hive produce lots of queens), and starting a new hive only takes a queen and a handful of workers. Beekeepers can order them by mail.

      Not quite true - farming practices and the beekeeping practices that are common in the US, are major threats. Pestices are not all that discerning - if they kill harmful insects, then they probably also kill the beneficial ones, and systemic pesticides like the neo-nicotinoids are absorbed into the crop plants and secreted in the nectar. Non-systemic pesticides are less likely to find their way into bees. But possibly the worst threat comes from the fact that beekeepers rely on a narrow monoculture, created by exactly the practices you described, plus of course the way in which American beekeepers in particular transport their hives from all over the US to California, where they can then exchange diseases.

      Nice how you entirely ignored the largest threat the GP stated, as did the article and summary. The varroa mite is the primary cause of death in hives right now, outside the natural die off rate. Ironically, all the calls from the anti-pesticide crowd to protect the bees with tougher regulations on chemical usage is contributing to the problem. The only effective treatments right now for hives from the varroa mites are all... chemicals. Restricting chemicals bee farmers are allowed to use to control the mites, and mites developing resistances to what is used are a big problem and if beekeepers could receive a magic solution from the sky a method to better control mites is hands down what they would ask for. But go ahead and make arm chair proclamations about how entire industries are doing everything wrong and you've got 3 simple steps that would solve it all that somehow has eluded them entirely despite the enormous financial incentives to them in improving their methods.

    9. Re: Impacts by walterbyrd · · Score: 3, Insightful

      My understanding is: the same pesticides (neonics) are used in Australia, but bees in Australia are fine.

      Maybe it's pesticides and the parasites together that are proving too much for the bees?

    10. Re: Impacts by TRRosen · · Score: 2

      And of course this is categorically false. The majority agriculture does not need pollinating at all. Rice, Wheat, Corn, Oats, tomatoes, peas, green beans, peppers, chiles, oranges.pretty much all herbs,spinach, lettuce, asparagus. The fact is only about 10% of crops depend on pollinators and a large number of those are dependent on non-honey bee species or even non-bee species. Some crops are even hurt by the presence of honey bees. True lemons and limes would get scarce but they are both easily replace by chemical factories (their juice that is).

    11. Re:Impacts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yeah. I can. Oxalic acid, the most effective chemical for treating for the varroa was just allowed in the US a few months ago.
      So, it wasn't available to me last year when my beehive was almost lost to what was most certainly a virus caused directly or indirectly by varroa.

  2. Imagine That by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You mean that genetically engineering the nation's major food crops to create their own pesticides is harmful to HELPFUL insects too? Pffft. Next you'll be telling us it's toxic to humans.

  3. What about natural bee colonies ? by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No mention of their state of health. Only the ones enslaved by keepers.

    1. Re:What about natural bee colonies ? by Rei · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Enslaved" is a pretty mean way to describe having their shelter provided by the beekeeper, along with routine inspections for (and treatments of) parasites that would kill them. Yes, the keeper will rob honey from the hive, but not enough to kill it during the winter - and may well supplement the hive for the winter. Keepers that offer pollination services also move their bees from one rich food source to the next.

      --
      You're treating a symptom while the disease rages on. The fish rots from the head. Why not cut off the head?
    2. Re:What about natural bee colonies ? by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 4, Interesting

      No mention of their state of health. Only the ones enslaved by keepers.

      Whenever I pull waterlogged bees from my pool, I put them on the bench and give them a drop of honey. They slurp it up while they dry off then they fly away. Don't know if it helps in the grand scheme of things, but, hey, I saved and fed some wild bees ...

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    3. Re:What about natural bee colonies ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      You need a 6-hour course on human privilege to truly begin to understand.

    4. Re:What about natural bee colonies ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Enslaved? Are you REALLY that stupid? Do you need a safe space?

    5. Re:What about natural bee colonies ? by Zemran · · Score: 2

      I am now imagining unionised bees. The Bee Workers Union...

      --
      I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
    6. Re:What about natural bee colonies ? by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 2

      The bees used in US factory farming have a terrible life. The hives start the year in the south eastern US where they are kept for the winter. They are sent on a loop across the US with stops in California for the almond pollination and Washington State for the apple pollination to end back up where they started. The hives are stacked up on the back of a tractor trailer and covered with a tarp when moved via the highway system. The bees arrive at an area and are fed a diet of one crop for a couple of weeks before being packed up and moved to the next place. It's not a healthy way to use the bees.

      The bees need a varied diet and shouldn't have the hives shipped around everywhere because it stresses the bees. But in order to have hives present on the fields year round the farmers would have to provide some other food source for the bees and that would cut into the profits. Almond, or apple, trees bloom for just a couple of weeks in the year so what does the farmer do for the other approximately 11 months? We can't continue treating nature as if it is just something for us to use without worrying about the consequences.

    7. Re:What about natural bee colonies ? by martinfb · · Score: 2

      Agreed. "Enslaved" shows a misconception about beekeeping.

      Having a pet is more closely related to "enslaving" anything.
      Bees are free to go. When a colony grows strong and big, usually as a result of the beneficial care of beekeepers, they will make another queen and half the colony will split with her. This is how the species propagates.
      (Of course, saavy beekeepers would provide a new home for that swarm, and the cycle continues.)

      On the other hand, if your dog does it's natural thing, like bark at a passer by, the owner usually shushes the pet.
      Which is closer to being the "enslaved" entity here?

      --


      Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
  4. plant some clover or other flowers where you live by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    you can buy 10lb bags of pesticide-free clover seed cheaply from amazon or elsewhere.
    blossoms with nice little white or purple flowers which bees just love-- you'll get hundreds of them buzzing around in a 5'x5' patch.
    the clover is self-propagating if you let it mature to drop it's own seed, and when it's dried out you can mulch it or feed it some critter.

  5. Re:Honey bees are invasive by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The honey bee is an invasive species in North America.

    So are humans.

  6. Re:Honey bees are invasive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I fail to see the problem here

    Then you must be a complete idiot.

  7. Re:plant some clover or other flowers where you li by freeze128 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Do you want bees?
    Cause that's how you get bees.

  8. Re: Honey bees are invasive by Imrik · · Score: 2

    Stop bringing climate change into stories where it doesn't belong. Blaming things on climate change that have nothing to do with it only serves to make the climate change deniers case seem stronger.

  9. Re:Honey bees are invasive by Imrik · · Score: 2

    Humans also brought a lot of the crops in question here.

  10. Re:Charging for pollination? by TRRosen · · Score: 2

    This is because farms are smaller in Europe and there is much more diversity. But when tens of thousands of acres are planted with the same crop as in america's corn and wheat areas there is little open land to support bees. This is referred to as monoculture. When the area is so dominated by one crop, even if it is bee friendly it all flowers within a few weeks leaving almost no food source outside that window. This is why California Almond growers as so dependent on commercial bees. The groves were made by irrigating the desert and there is not no other fertile areas for other plants.