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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Unsung Hero Bees


Responsible for pollinating the region’s fruits and vegetables, honey bees are crucial to our crop farmers – and the food we eat everyday. But they’re dying off in massive numbers due to a mysterious disease. Our own Bob King, director of the Agriculture and Life Sciences Institute, explained the situation to reporters last week. Visit the Rochester Business Journal, 13 WHAM TV and R News Web sites for their stories; also, copied below is the article that ran in the Democrat and Chronicle.

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Democrat and Chronicle:

A honey of a mystery stings area

Hamlin farmer to testify in Congress today about puzzling loss of bees.

Lisa Hutchurson, Staff writer

(March 29, 2007) — In his four decades of beekeeping, Jim Doan has never seen anything like it. He'll check on a hive and the bees will be gone.

Like other beekeepers across the country, this Hamlin man is witnessing a mysterious phenomenon. Bees are vanishing from hives without a trace.

Called colony collapse disorder, this enigma has already killed tens of thousands of honeybee colonies in at least 21 states, including New York. The reasons for it are unknown. Possible causes might include everything from an unknown disease-causing agent to parasitic mites to a class of insecticides called neonicotinyls used on turf grass, fruit and vegetables, said Nicholas Calderone, an assistant professor of entomology at Cornell University who is researching the problem.

"It's a big problem here for western New York," said Bob King, director of the Agriculture and Life Sciences Institute at Monroe Community College. "The more west you go, the worse it is."

Our area, he said, has already lost about half its bees. That's about 20,000 to 25,000 colonies gone, according to New York state hive estimates from Calderone.

Doan will testify on Capitol Hill at 10 a.m. today during a hearing before a subcommittee of the House of Representatives' Committee on Agriculture. He will ask that research money be allocated to find the cause of colony collapse disorder and that a national survey be conducted to determine pests and diseases currently threatening honeybees.

Losses affect fruit crops

Colony collapse disorder, first noticed at the end of last year but suspected to have begun a few years ago, has some local fruit growers concerned. Many of them rent hives of honeybees to pollinate their crops. The practice ensures large and shapely fruit — the only kind accepted at market. "Of course it's of concern," said Craig Michaloski, who rents bees to pollinate strawberries, blueberries and apples at his 50-acre Green Acre Fruit Farms on Latta Road in Greece. "Now as far as pollination goes, we do get some from wind, from insects and from native bees, of which there seems to be a supply, but you don't know."

Honeybees help guarantee full pollination by visiting the same blossom over and over again, explained Michaloski, also president of the New York State Berry Growers Association. Without such repeat visits, fruit can end up smaller, misshapen or even absent. And anything less than perfect is only fit for juice, which in terms of profits only brings pennies on the dollar.

"I'm not saying there's going to be a shortage of bees, but it's going to be tight," said Doan.

Not a good thing when you consider that the total economic impact of agriculture in New York state is $3 billion a year, and that honeybees are to thank for much of that.

There's no short list to what Doan's bees have pollinated, starting with watermelons, blueberries, apples, peaches, cherries and pumpkins. Then you've got your cucumbers, pickles, squash, pears, plums, apricots, blueberries, cranberries and vine crops.

Apples are of special concern in our area. New York state is second in the nation for apple production with 25 million bushels, or 1 billion pounds, and contributes an estimated $170 million to farm revenue, according to Cornell Cooperative Extension.

What's more, the counties of Niagara, Orleans, Monroe, and Wayne produce about 40 percent of the total New York apple crop, and Wayne grows more apples than any other county in the state.

Strawberries are another concern. There are 31 farms in Monroe County that grow strawberries, accounting for about $1.5 million in sales, according to Cornell Cooperative Extension.

Even the dairy industry could be affected, said Doan, noting bee pollination increases corn and alfalfa yields used for feed. "It's that extra 5 to 10 percent production where farmers make that money," added King.

Some prices might rise

King said the cost of locally made honey could also increase. Guessing whether fruit prices will rise is tougher, though.

Michaloski, for instance, sells his fruit to packing houses, and they in turn set retail prices. In such a globally competitive market for fruits and vegetables, Michaloski predicts he'll take the financial hit, not the consumer.

Beekeepers, many of whom travel around the country renting out their hives, are meanwhile trying to secure their livelihood. Doan, owner of Doan Family Farms in Hamlin, is buying more bees where he can and creating new hives with the introduction of new queens. But he's had a rough time finding replacement bees.

Although Doan says there could be a number of causes for colony collapse disorder, its pervasiveness in many climates and the complete disappearance of the bees makes him suspect insecticides. He notes the use of imidacloprid, a neonicotinyl, which is controversial in France, because it's believed to disorient worker bees so that they can't find their way back to the hive. The queen and her larvae then die of neglect.

The United States bee population had already taken a hit from burrowing mites, which had decimated some beekeepers' hives. Researchers, however, don't know how big a factor that tiny, parasitic bug has been in colony collapse disorder, beyond perhaps weakening the bees' resistance. Locally, a wet fall and frigid February didn't help raise new bees, either.

"Really, the bees are the foundation for the plants," said King. "They're the unsung heroes as to why we have food every year. Unfortunately, we tend to place little value on them till they're gone."

Dianne E McConkey
Public Affairs
04/02/2007