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What Is Bee Colony Collapse Disorder

By Nora Quiason

A disturbing phenomenon in recent years is the seeming loss of bees. Bees are important in the pollination of plants. Their loss threatens the food supply. Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is the term given to the complete absence or low number of adult bees while having a live queen bee and the absence of dead bees in a hive or a colony. While CCD is not the sole cause of the absence of bees, it is considered a very ominous event and is the subject of research.

Since bee keepers expressed concern over bee loss in 2006, the Apiary Inspectors of America and the USDA-ARS Honey Bee Lab began an annual survey 20 per cent of estimated 2.4 million bee colonies in the USA during the winter months, the season when some bee colony loss is expected. Scientists found that bee loss from all causes and from CCD to be:

Winter 2006/2007 Loss (all causes) 31.8 %
Winter 2007/2008 Loss (all causes) 35.8 % Loss from CCD 32%
Winter 2008/2009 Loss (all causes) 28.6 % Loss from CCD 26%
Winter 2009/2010 Loss (all causes) 33.8 % Loss from CCD 44%

Scientists warn that this loss is not sustainable and are looking into causes and possible remedies.

They theorize some causes of bee colony collapse to include:
• Poor nutrition due to colony overcrowding, decrease in flowers with pollen and nectar and pollination of low nutritional value plants
• Pesticides
• Infection with parasites especially the varroa mite that feed on bee blood and transmits the Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV), virus found in CCD cases and not in non-CCD colony loss
• Stress which lower the immune system such as apiary overcrowding, migratory stress and limited or contaminated water supply

Marla Spivak, an entomologist at the University of Minnesota and recipient of the 2010 McArthur Foundation Fellowship Award, has devoted her life to the protection of honey bees. In 1994, she collaborated with fellow scientist Gary Reuter, to begin to breed what is now known as the Minnesota hygienic bee. It appears that when bees die, certain bees called hygienic bees break open the cells and remove the dead bees from the colony thus protecting the rest of the population from whatever killed the dead bee. This is important because hygienic bees remove the virus containing varroa mite from the hive thus limiting the infection. The Minnesota Hygienic Bee was especially bred to remove and clean out the varroa mite from dead bees.

While the Minnesota Hygienic Bee may be a break through, it is by far not the only cause of CCD. You can help by decreasing pesticide use or not spraying on midday, when bees are most likely to pollinate. The water you leave out for the birds also feed the bees. You can also plant nectar rich flowers such as foxglove, bee balm and red clover

Nora Quiason is a physician and an online book seller. She also writes articles on senior living, book reviews,health care and earth consciousness.

Contributor's Note

The honey bees are part of our lifeline. Save the bees; save ourselves.

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Thank you for sharing this well researched and well written 5***** intel, Nora. These are sad facts of our not paying attention to nature.
Keep up the good work.
Best wishes.
Frederick

Sad and scary. In 1940 there were 5 million bee colonies in the country. In 2010, there are only 2.5 million.

"Bee Colony Collapse Disorder"?
Isn't that just absolutely typical? Give the slaughter of the bees a scientific sounding name and organise more research while the slaughter goes on. Most people would accept that pesticides combined with herbicides are changing the flora of the world are having a major effect on the bee populations.
The pesticides simply slaughter them in vast numbers - the reduction in numbers can lead to specialist bees losing their necessary plant population because there aren't enough of them left to polinate them.
The herbicides kill plants indiscriminately and reduce the availability of pollen bearing flowers. Some systemic herbicides could even be transmitted by the bees to their hives and start the slaughter all over againm - in the hives!

So true, so true. Rachel Carson, a biologist, warned about this in the 60's in her book, Silent Spring, when there were no more birds to sing because we killed them all. She died of cancer shortly after the book came out. I saw on TV once where the animals in the Galapagos which is the farthest place for pollution to travel, now have large amounts of PVC in their blood.

This is so depressing. I've been aware of inexplicable bee deaths for several years now, and I avoid reading news headlines with "bee" in them, because it's so depressing and I can't do anything about it, just like I avoid any news headline with the word "polar bear" in it. The planet is starting to pay the price for mankind's massive industrialization, and my sense is that things will only get worse, and worse, and worse...

Sad, indeed. We can do little things, though, like I now just use vinegar, ammonia and water for cleaning my house. I re-purpose plastic canisters then take them to recycle. Have a bird bath. Every little thing counts. I stay away from synthetic cleaners. As the bees go, so does mankind.

As a youngster, my parents raised bees; we got stung so much that I think we are all immunized forever. But, back then, fertilizers, pesticides, etc were not prominent and poisonous cleaning products I don't think were even available. It does make me sad as well;let's all get back to basics and help nature recover.

Thank you for sharing the sentiment.

I appreciate your well researched intel Nora. I was a bee keeper many moons ago when the children were young. I love honey and enjoy being an organic avocado grower. I look forward to bees pollinating the blossoms. Indeed, to be in harmony with nature is so rewarding. I wonder what the future holds for our grandchildren and the busy bees...

It is a delicate ecosystem that we tend to take for granted. Thank you for caring.

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