My Two Cents on Colony Collapse Disorder

It’s great that this issue is getting attention and funding is coming through for research, but in my opinion it doesn’t take a million dollars and a pack of scientists to identify some of what is going on in the commercial beekeeping industry. You have two clues right there: commerical and industry. This speaks to both volume and focus. Volume creates standardized procedures and monoculture; the focus is on profit and productivity at the cost of long term health of the bees. The problem of honey bee die-off is widespread and it has been going on for over 10 years. It has escalated (or at least finally gotten big media attention) in the last year. But small-scale organic beekeepers are not being affected in the same numbers, and top bar beekeepers to an even lesser degree.

Here are a few things to consider:

1. Genetics - Beekeepers have been selectively breeding honey bees for characteristics such as gentleness and productivity for over a hundred years. In-breeding of this sort erodes genetic diversity and can lead to genetic deficiencies. Bee breeders and purists decry feral genetics as contaminants. I see feral bees as survivalists and consider their genetics precious. They are surviving and floursihing without our help or interference.

2. Antibiotics - Many commercial beekeepers regularly administer antibiotics as a preventitive measure against brood diseases. The use of antibiotics has been proven to contribute to immune system deficiencies and when used over long periods of time to promote the development of antibiotic resistant super-pests and diseases.

3. Chemicals – Large scale beekeepers use a host of other chemicals including fumigants, drugs and pesticides. Just as many drugs made for human consumption can have negative side effects this is true as well for bee drugs. Many of these treatments are toxic and carry label warnings that they should be handled only wearing gloves and must be kept out of eyes nose and mouth.

4. Sugar Water- It is the industry standard to feed bees high fructose corn syrup during dearth periods (winter or storage of colonies in mass apiaries where there is limited access to floral resources). Some beekeepers even maintain sugar water is healthier for the bees than honey—that honey may contain pathogens. This is ridiculous. Honey is the perfect food for bees. It contains trace nutrients and perhaps even natural immune enhancers for a balanced bee diet. Just try feeding your own children high fructose corn syrup for 3 months straight and see how it affects their health. Ha.

5. Cell Size – Over a hundred years ago beekeepers got the idea of increasing the cell size of the bee comb by nearly a half a millimeter. They did this by increasing the cell size of the wax foundation installed in the beehives. The increase was from the natural brood cell size (of the European honey bee) of 4.9mm to the manipulated cell size of 5.4mm. Their reasoning was that bigger cell size would produce bigger bees and therefore more honey. However the life cycle of the varroa mite, one of the bees biggest enemies, takes place inside the brood chamber where the developing mites suck on the bee larvae. More room in the brood chamber means more room for mites. Mite populations and the resultant stress they cause have sky-rocketed in the last 10 years contributing greatly to colony die-off. In the top bar system the bees are free to build as they wish. Left to their own, they tend to build the brood cells smaller and the honey storage cells larger. And in my limited time as a beekeeper I have never had much problem with mites--except for the year I worked with the Langstroth system and used pre-formed foundation. Fortunately things are shifting as this knowledge becomes more common and bee equipment suppliers are now offering "small cell foundation" which is closer to the size the bees would naturally build their brood comb.

So what to do? There are some ideas:
1. Capture and keep feral swarms. These swarms signify bees living in your area in colonies strong enough to reproduce.
2. Let your package bees interbreed with feral colonies—take splits from your package bees and let the queen mate as she will
3. Hold on to and multiply feral strains and mixes that are healthy and perform well.
4. Limit your use of chemicals and employ gentler disease control systems. There are many.
5. Feed your bees honey, or better yet always leave them enough honey to survive dearth periods
6. Use small cell foundation or use hive systems which allow the bees to build comb in the natural size.
7. Spread the word, buy organic honey and demand that large scale beekeepers change their hive management strategies.

Honey bees are an extremely successful species. Next time you are out and about check out any flowering lavender or rosemary bush and it will be covered in honey bees. I don’t think honey bees as a species are in any danger of dying out just yet. But I do think the commercial bee industry and big agriculture which rely upon it may be in danger if they do not get a clue and change their practices.

The source of the issue is human short-sightedness and human greed. Bees have an elegant self-sustaining life cycle and millions of years of evolution behind them. They know best how to survive and what they need to do it. Assuming we know better and feeding them sugar and chemicals is ridiculous. By getting in tune with nature and observing the bees, we can learn what to do to support them in what they already do naturally. This is just common sense.

Disclaimer: I intend no offense to those good caring organic beekeepers out there that are also having some of these issues. Through no fault of their own, they are also at the whim of several hundreds of years of human interruption and manipulation of the honey bee. I am also not suggesting that there not other external, environmental factors contributing to CCD: gmo crops, pesticides, radio waves and the lot. It is just that the factors I mention above, relevant to the practice of beekeeping itself, and so obvious when seen from a holistic, organic, non-allopathic perspective are rarely sited in the many, many articles about CCD. It is exactly these factors that we as beekeepers and bee-friends people can address and take action on.