Trouble In the Hive

How the forces of nature threaten to eliminate the honeybee

Story by Alan Fanitzi

The morning is filled with wonder; trees are uncovered from the night's darkness revealing green leaves. Birds begin their chirping, siginalng the start of the day. Significantly quieter is the buzzing of the honeybee visiting its favorite flower. The bees’ busy hum can be a precursor to a painful sting, but it also represents life and growth. As the noise subsides, it is replaced with the peace of pollination, a process that is vital to our food supply.

“Bees are pollinators, meaning that 90 percent of what we eat, like tomatoes, peppers, and fruit, comes from bees,” says Dan Kirkwood, a member of the Southern Adirondack Beekeepers Association.

These small buzzing insects are responsible for giving us most of what’s on our dinner table, but unfortunately, these insects are beginning to die off. If this trend continues, the after-effects may have a drastic impact on agriculture. The fewer honeybees there are, the fewer crops get pollinated, which means a decrease in the amount of available food to eat.       

Bee experts understand just half of the problem. The other half is a 3-year-old phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder.

“Honeybees have had one major problem for the past 20 plus years and that is the varroa mite, it has infested the entire United States honeybee colonies, even the wild ones”

As the honeybee returns to its hive from buzzing outside, its normally crowded home seems unusally empty. This unprcedented event recurs as time passes until the hive, which was once thriving with bees, is now reduced to a handful of survivors, the queen and an army of larva.

This result of colony collapse disorder is an emerging trend among honeybees, a trend that is imputing their population. “The bees will dwindle until there are just a handful left. This can occur in short amount of time. They may also totally be gone from the hive”, says Samuel Radicella, a beekeeper from the Chautaugua Beekeepers Association.

The end result is a hive that can’t produce any offspring, causing the colony to collapse. Although the causes of colony collapse disorder are a mystery, it is only part of the problem.

“Honeybees have had one major problem for the past 20 plus years and that is the varroa mite, it has infested the entire United States honeybee colonies, even the wild ones”, Radicella says.

Even the USDA has proclaimed Varroa mites a major threat to honeybee health.

"If we don’t solve this problem were in a lot of trouble”

 These extremely small creatures, which look like small, red jellyfish with eight “legs” act as vampires around honeybees. In a report by Ric Bessin, an extension entomologist at The University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, the mite’s attach themselves to the honey bee and suck the blood out of them until the bee becomes so weak that it dies.” If we don’t solve this problem were in a lot of trouble,” Kirkwood says.

Mites are just one problem for honeybees. Diarrhea may seem like a peculiar killer, but according to Kirkwood, nosema, a digestive infection that causes the honeybee to defecate within the hive, can also lead to their demise. Nosema shows up in cold weather, especially during winter when harsh conditions prevent the honeybee from flying outside to defecate. Instead, it does its business inside the hive, infecting its fellow honeybees in the process.

Many experts think the declining honeybee population is a negative thing; however, some believe this trend may have some positive long-term effects regarding native bees like bumblebees. 

" From an ecological perspective, as honeybees decline we are likely to see an increase in populations of the native bees that have been suppressed by the highly competitive exotic honeybee ” says Christopher T. Martine, an assistant professor in SUNY Plattsburgh’s biological sciences department. “In the long run, the decline of the honeybee is likely to benefit native bee populations; though, at the same time, it could also have massive negative effects on our ability to produce certain food crops.”

Since traveling into the future is not an option, all we can do is wait and see if the declining honeybee population will eventually lead to more bumblebees, and without honeybees, life will not be the same. Albert Einstein once said “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination ... No more men!”

What do you think would happen if there were no more honeybees?

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