Honey Bees and Colony Collapse Disorder, CCD

January 11, 2012

An article came out showing what may be causing millions of bees in hives to quickly disappear from their hive.  A picture of a small fly on a bee may show the cause.  The fly lays its eggs in the bee, the eggs hatch, the larvae grow, the bee gets disoriented, flies out of the hive towards light and dies.  The larvae mature and the cycle continues until the hive is empty.  How could this go undetected for this many years?  Science is a never ending learning process.

This may solve the question causing CCD or cause more confusion as to the cause.  Previous to finding this fly scientists from many major Universities thought it may be a combination of a virus with honey bee mites aggravated by some carry over disease or pesticide damage.  Science has not been able to link any direct cause to CCD.  Bees like all other animals have ectoparasites (insects that live on other insects or animals) and diseases caused by bacteria and viruses. Most of the ectoparasites and diseases are well understood and beekeepers treat hives to control these maladies.  Pesticide science is good at providing instructions to nearly eliminate bees being killed or damaged from insecticides.  The best way to maintain good hive health is to have a good queen and a good strong hive.  The survival of the fittest rule, rules.  There are treatments for most of the diseases and parasites. 

How does this affect you and your garden?  Some of the garden vegetables do not need bees to pollinate.  Most produce originating from a flower needs pollinated.  Some are self pollinated, some are pollinated from other insect species other than the honey bee, but some do produce much better yields if honeybees are in the area.  These crops are apples, blueberries, strawberries, cane berries, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, and the melons.  Many crops like onions will produce a good supply of vegetables, the onion bulb, but need pollination to produce seeds which are not eaten.  

I keep a few colonies of bees and through the years have had great success overwintering bees, even in the state of Wisconsin.  Three years ago I may have lost all my hives to CCD.  Beekeeping is a fascinating hobby with extremely sweet rewards.  This past summer my 5 hives produced over 60 lbs each.  The excess honey I can’t use is sufficient to supply The Downtown Grocery which is a store that offers many unique foods including a good supply of organic produce for those that desire that life style.

The Garden Doc