Honeybee Decline Concerns Congress

For reasons yet unknown, the U.S. honeybee population is experiencing its most serious decline in history. First reported by beekeepers along the East Coast in late 2006, the phenomenon now called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) quickly spread across the nation and has now drawn the attention of the U.S. Congress.

If you think this problem is just about the honey, forget it. Far beyond honey, agricultural crops pollinated by honeybees accounts for about one-third of the U.S. diet. No bees, no crops. The monetary value of honey bees as commercial pollinators in the United States is estimated at about $15 billion annually. Worldwide, three-quarters of all flowering plants require pollination to reproduce.

While honeybee declines have come and gone in the past, Colony Collapse Disorder is unsettlingly different. In it's March 26, 2007 report Recent Honeybee Colony Declines (.pdf), the Congressional Research Service (CRS) found that current bee colony losses differ from past situations in that:

• colony losses are occurring mostly because bees are failing to return to the hive (a behavior uncharacteristic of bees),

• bee colony losses have been rapid,

• colony losses are occurring in large numbers, and

• the reason the losses are occurring remains largely unknown.

Among food crops considered to be from 90-100 percent dependent on bee pollination are almonds, apples, avocados, blueberries, cranberries, cherries, kiwi fruit, macadamia nuts, asparagus, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucumbers, onions, legume seeds, pumpkins, squash, and sunflowers. Other important crops, including many fruits and citrus fruits, peanuts, cotton and soybeans are dependent on honeybees to a lesser degree, according to the CRS report.

Possible causes of CCD identified so far by researchers, include pesticides, parasites and diseases, stress, poor nutrition, lack of genetic diversity among bees and "a combination of several factors."

Bee Decline Map from Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium