Since 2006, more than one in three honeybee colonies have died nationwide, with some beekeepers losing 50-90 percent of their colonies, often within a matter of weeks. The effect of thousands of dead colonies and millions of dead bees poses a serious risk to our natural food supply, according to the Mid-Atlantic Apiary Research and Extension Consortium (MAAREC).
Honeybees are responsible for pollinating more than 100 crops, including fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, and are depended upon for $15 billion in U.S. agricultural crops each year.
Colony Collapse Disorder
The major cause of these losses is an alarming phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), when honeybees mysteriously desert their hive and die. CCD has been reported by more than 35 states across the U.S. and in many other countries.
Researchers don’t know exactly what causes CCD, but contributing factors include viruses, chemical exposure, poor nutrition, modified plants, systemic pesticides, electromagnetic frequencies and especially the Varroa Mite, a parasite introduced from Asia in 1987, which attacks a honeybee’s ability to defend itself from viruses and other maladies, as in an immune deficiency.
Beekeepers to the Rescue
According to Jamie Morehead of Blue Sky Bee Supply in Hiram, Ohio, “Pollinators are our future,” and the future looks tenuous at best. Our local produce bears the evidence of poor pollination with misshapen and underdeveloped fruits and vegetables – and poorer yields overall -- from our gardens, orchards and fields.
When honeybees pollinate a crop while it’s in bloom, the result is more flowers, then more top-quality fruits. Beekeepers say, if you don’t see a honeybee on your garden plants between 8 and 9 on a sunny morning, then you can anticipate why you don't get any fruit set on your cantaloupe.
One way to reverse this trend is to raise more healthy bees. Beekeepers are on a mission to attract new people to the art and science of beekeeping. They’d like to see every gardener with a colony or two in their backyard. “Individual beekeepers will be our savior,” Morehead says.
As it is now, most honeybees are raised by a few mega-beekeepers across the country, then are trucked to locales across the nation. The result is a monoculture of weakened honeybees. If more beekeepers become established at the local level, bee populations will grow stronger through genetic diversification, and vigorous pollination will once again become the norm.
Morehead says that, nutritionally, honeybees provide a nearly perfect food, producing 60 pounds of honey per hive annually. Honey contains pollen from the area, which carries all the trace elements a human needs to sustain life. The pollen also works like an antibiotic for people prone to seasonal allergies, providing a built-in resistance to allergens in goldenrod, aster and other local triggers.
If you want to support honeybee health but aren’t ready to become a beekeeper, consider these tips:
- Contact a local beekeeper if you discover a swarm of honeybees near your home, so they can come remove it. Hiving a swarm is a community service provided by beekeepers.
- Avoid using pesticides. If you must, do not apply to plants in bloom, even weeds.
- Leave wild areas for native pollinators to nest. Some species nest in sandy soil, some in fallen wood and others in rough grasses, so even small areas of untended land can support a diverse population.
- Leave forage areas in their natural state. Pollinators need plants in bloom throughout the growing season. Leave hedgerows between fields, let cover crops bloom and permit some natural growth in your yard.
Nature’s balance in modern times is not to be taken for granted. Helping the honeybee may be one vital key to restoring that balance.
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