Many losses occur in January, after heavy winter investments

By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press

PALO CEDRO, Calif. -- Colony collapse disorder returned with a vengeance this winter, and beekeepers and researchers are still trying to nail down what's causing it.

Queen bee breeder Shannon Wooten said he lost about 30 percent of his bees to the winter die-off, up dramatically from the 5 percent or so he loses in a normal year.

Some beekeepers lost 50 percent or more of their bees this winter, he said.

"I'm one of the lower ones," said Wooten, co-owner of Wooten's Golden Queens in Palo Cedro, Calif.

What's worse is, by the time the bulk of the losses occurred in January, beekeepers already had considerable money invested in the hives, he said.

"The problem is, I figure I've got $220 in every hive in treatment, feeding, hauling and maintenance," Wooten said. "Then when they die in January, we've already fed them, checked them and given them their protein."

Growers last year thought CCD -- a phenomenon of bee disappearances in North America since 2006 -- was on the wane. While a survey by the Apiary Inspectors of America found that 75 percent of respondents had lost some bees for various reasons, only 25 percent thought the reason was CCD.

However, the disorder shows "a little bit of an every-other-year quality to it," said Eric Mussen, a University of California Cooperative Extension apiculturist in Davis, Calif.

CCD is marked by growers finding bee boxes empty or with a queen and only a handful of bees. But the problem with gauging occurrences is that its symptoms are not clear cut, said Jim Case, a research entomologist with the USDA's Utah-based Bee Biology and Systematics Laboratory.

Scientists have examined all sorts of data and have yet to find a definitive cause or causes, Mussen said.

"It just looks like there are a horrendous amount of stresses out there on the bees," Mussen said. "When one gets a little far ahead, that seems to be enough to tip it over.

"We've told the beekeepers the best chance they're going to have is to try to keep the bees as healthy as possible," he said. "The problem in California is there isn't a lot of good quantity of mixed pollens in the summer and fall. Individuals have tried all sorts of supplemental feeds ... (but) we haven't got a supplemental feed as nutritious as an adequate mix of pollens."

Because of the latest die-offs, many bee producers are running short of the hives they'll need to cover outstanding contracts with growers, Wooten said.

"I conservatively contract, so I keep 40 or so (hives) out," he said.

"One of the things I've stressed to other beekeepers is to create a circle of friends among beekeepers" and share bees among each other, Wooten said. "Job one is to get bees in the orchard."

He said sudden shortages make it more difficult to plan ahead. Also, a huge overage of bees last year pushed prices so low that it was hard for beekeepers to make enough of a profit to reinvest in their hives, he said.

Price increases for a sugar syrup used to feed the bees have cut further into beekeepers' bottom line, Wooten said. The stresses have caused some older beekeepers to retire and others to sell their businesses to other beekeepers, he said.

"It's very difficult to get into the business now if you don't know anything because the die-off is so bad," Wooten said. "In today's world, there's no room for 'whoops.'"