The first time I heard the word, I was studying population control within groups of mammals. The relationships between some predators and their prey are a self- adjusting rhythm. I’m thinking here of rabbits and deer and their predators. When the rabbit population expands so does that of the (let’s say) foxes. At some point there are too many foxes for the area and the rabbit population diminishes. As you would expect, the fox population follows with a dip of its’ own. When the foxes get low enough, the rabbits start to increase. They are good at that! The cycle repeats.

What do you suppose happens if all the foxes are killed off in one stroke? Rabies, for instance, could do that. A rabbit clan in this situation will go only just so far (in reproducing) before they start to damage the food source. About that time a die-off occurs. For a time the fields will be littered with rabbits that died for no apparent reason. They will be a little under normal weight and with adrenals over developed. That is all investigators can say about them.

The same thing happens with deer. A population of deer overcrowded an island where they were being studied. A sudden die-off occurred and the population was reduced. Low body weight and abnormal adrenal function was found there. It appeared as if the creatures were under stress. (Long term stress affects the adrenal glands.)

In rat studies an enclosed population was allowed to increase. At a certain population level they lost their basic instincts. Mothers abandoned their young and mating rituals were absent; there were other abnormalities, and the population crashed.

There are cycles within cycles and these occur within cycles too big to notice except in a bigger picture–the alternating ice-ages for instance. Humans tend to think in terms of the seasons. Not everything is yearly, however.

There are 13 year and 17 year cicada. When it’s their year and the soil temperature is between 64F and 68F they emerge from the ground, flourish for a few weeks and go back underground. Oh yes, they mate while they are out in the air flourishing. The mated adults lay eggs which become nymphs. The adults then die. The nymphs drop from the trees to the earth, burrow down and settle in for a nap (of 17 years) and a bit of suckling on a root. And you thought your life was dull! It is believed that the mass emergence of the cicada is part of a survival strategy. With so many of them, they collectively overfeed their predators within a few days. Then the billions left uneaten are free to mate. Also, there is no time for predator build up.

For more see:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/03/0329_040329_cicadas_2.html
For excellent pictures see:
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/steincarter/cicadas.htm

Look for cicada brood XIII in ’07. This emergence will be in Eastern IA, Northern Illinois, Southern Wisconsin, and along the southern edge of Lake Michigan. Dense populations will emerge in woods, forest preserves and along rivers as well as in suburban Chicago backyards.

This was a lot of two-finger typing to impress you with some of the lesser known strategies of nature and the cycles in which they occur. There are many more. You are already glad I’m keeping this short. I’m hoping this has something to do with bees.

OK here it is. They do have a mechanism we call “absconding.” (When my ex-wife did it I had another word). Whatever is bothering the bees, they leave it behind. That includes of course, their old (possibly polluted) comb; it also includes Varroa in the brood and a dozen or so viruses and fungi.

Since die-offs seem to happen every once in a while, at least since 1915, perhaps there is a rhythm at work–and we are too close to the woods to see the trees. Maybe the bees are dying in a sort of a mass absconding. Certainly a lot of varroa died too; perhaps everything but American Foul Brood (AFB), which, like the cicada, will wait for years.

Could this be evidence of a master plan? I didn’t think so either. Is it something to think about perhaps? Is it an artifact of the ease of communication in the bee world? (Someone will say this; it may as well be me.)

This was the sort of speculation I was writing when I left CT for FL. in Jan 07.

I went there to look at “Fall Dwindling.” It changed to “Colony Collapse Disorder” (CCD) while I was there. They could have called it “Death.”

First I learned what it was.
In a very short time a colony or a bee-yard will go from healthy and active to dead. There are plenty of stores. There may be capped brood. There may be a few bees left in the hive and a laying queen. These will always be young bees. There are no dead bees in the hive. No bees go into it to rob even where other hives exist in the area. Small hive beetles avoid the deadout hive. Wax moths also avoid it. It seems to be contagious, yet 100 yards away another yard may be untouched.

For a quick look at where things were in Dec. 06 go to: http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/pressReleases/PrelimReportFallDwindle.pdf for a preliminary report fielded by Maarec. People on the east coast and elsewhere were reporting losses of from 20 to 80%. Imagine losing 80% of 13,000 hives. It happened. Let me establish now that this is not limited to the east coast although Fl and PA are hard hit and are pushing the ball to get it rolling.

So there I was, in Florida. Jerry hooked me up with Todd. Todd sent me to Dave. Dave said come on up! Dennis will be here. Want to come along? OK so I’m name-dropping. Suffice it to say I wound up in the belly of the beast on the “Dwindle” phenomenon. Of course it wasn’t that any more. As I said, it’s Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD now because it started long before fall. What were the other names I dropped? Todd Jameson is a bee inspector for the Tampa area. Dennis van Engelsdorp is acting Chief Apiarist for the Dept of Agriculture in PA. He is also researching with the University of PA.

Jerry Hayes told Dave Hackenberg that he was either famous or infamous-they had named a disease after him. He (Dave) was the first one to report it. What Dave says, is that he was just the first one to open his mouth. He’d heard a story, months earlier, from someone in another state with high losses that didn’t cry “Dwindle!” That person didn’t want the “gubmint” to get involved because “they never help anyway.” I wonder how many held back information in the beginning because losing bees is not something beekeepers usually brag about. I suspect there may have been others that didn’t want to be put under a microscope.

Dave and his son Dave are running something less than 5,000 colonies. They pollinate and make honey as far north as the Canadian border and end up in PA. From there they move back to FL in the fall. They had one load of 2900 colonies dwindle to 1400 and they are still going down. They used cobalt radiation on 960 boxes of empty comb in hopes of reducing pathogens; they are feeding High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) and pollen supplements. Young Dave had just one question. “Can someone tell me what to do?”

On Oct 11 they made up 400 splits (divides) of good strong bees in the Pa. yard. Mite counts were very low. These were good “four-framers.” He brought them down to Florida and dropped them. On Nov. 12 there wasn’t a bee to be found in that bee-yard. He’s been at this for forty years and this was a shocker. In the words of Dave senior: “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

In two days (Jan. 28 & 29) we looked at half a dozen yards owned by as many people. Some had mites but most didn’t. We looked at strong yards, mixed yards and mostly-dead yards. Anyone that thinks this is due to sloppy beekeeping or not keeping on top of the mites, leave the room now. You won’t learn anything.

I should explain the “we.” On both days there were up to six people working with Dennis van Englesdorp. He flew in to do some investigation. We were local beek’s with losses (or without losses) that chipped in, as well as some Florida bee inspectors–and this lone free lance writer. It still amazes me that two men could diagnose the strength of a four colony pallet of bees faster than I could write it down. These boys work hard.

First we would go through a yard and assess the stage the individual hives were at. We mapped the “strong” ones, the “dwindling and dying” ones and the “dwindling and recovering” ones. The fourth category was “dead.” In one yard of 248, 100 were dead and maybe 20 were strong. Of interest were the dwindled but recovering colonies. A few seemed to be making it back. This distinction between “on the way up” and “on the way down” seemed to be a fine one. I asked Dennis about that and he said that he’d learned to trust the beekeepers on things like that. The point is that some of the bees may be throwing this “disease” off.

I’m usually the guy with a joke in the group like I’ve described. I won’t say we didn’t have a laugh or two but I just couldn’t make light of what we were doing. It reminded me a little of being in a hospital hallway when someone you care about is in ICU. The best way I can describe the pace is grimly determined. It was a pace that kicked my butt and I wasn’t doing anything very physical. They are taking it as “It is what it is,” but everyone knows it isn’t over and no-one knows where it is going. I heard Dave take more than a dozen calls from other beekeepers presumably looking for information.

Knowing what is normal is of paramount importance in any investigation. A lot of stuff goes on in a bee colony that one could squint at and get on with ones work. Now, each slightly unusual thing gets scrutinized. I looked at a lot of bee guts laid out on Dennis’s wrist. There was normal, infection of the sting gland, wrong color and distended with pollen chunks. How much abnormality is “normal” in a bee colony? Good question.

There were dead bees collected that were chalky, slimy, incomplete, and decomposed. There was a little European Foul Brood (EFB). At one point a wet looking dead bee removed from a cell was placed in the middle of a frame of bees and the bees retreated from it as if it were poison. This happened two other times. Does it mean anything? What do you think? It was certainly not normal. Those bees will be analyzed. There were dead bees with fungus growing on them, all too quickly. All of these samples are headed for serious study. There are bees in alcohol and bees frozen in foil. There are samples of comb with brood, honey and pollen in evidence. We started cutting comb with a hot (therefore sterile) knife. We ended up bringing whole frames back to the shop so they could be sawn up. Ever try to cut plastic with a hot knife? In all, we examined about 1,000 colonies. They ranged from unaffected to every degree of distress.

Dennis has an interest in Aspergillus as the fungal pathogen. http://www.apimondia.org/apiacta/articles/2003/glinski_1.pdf
One variant is known to cause Stonebrood.
http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/bkCD/Bee_Diseases/Stonebrood.html
The assumption is that it may have mutated enough to act on the bees in a different and more deadly way. In addition it can create toxins in hive products that would explain why robbing is at a minimum as is predation by wax moths. (We did however see robbing going on, after comb had been aired out) Since this is a pathogen that attacks when colonies are weakened by other stressors, careful questions were being asked regarding moves, splits and mite levels. It does seem that hives that do not move in pollination do better but are not exempt. “What if it turns out to be many things,” Dennis wonders?

A major player on this stage is Jerry Bromenshenk, PHD. If you don’t know him, he’s a well known scientist from the University of Montana and his private company “Bee Alert.” He’s been using the sniffing talents of the honeybee in unique and creative ways. You’ve probably heard of the bees he encouraged to find land mines and other explosives. Next he wanted to imitate them. He is presently using a technology that will allow us to determine the health and other parameters (like queenlessness) of a hive by simply inserting a probe and sampling the airborne clues that reside there. A second probe analyzes the acoustic environment of that hive. He (and his “Bee Alert” company) has jumped into this with both feet and a crew of four. He and his equipment have been to CA, GA, FL, and PA–and back to CA. A major database has been developed from samples taken in these states. Surveys from 21 states are in it as well.

In his words: “. . . we’re looking to see if there’s a chemical inside the hives that appears with/after the collapse. One that may be the reason we see older bees, hive beetles, wax moths all leave — and that keeps everything away for 2-3 weeks (even robber bees) until it dissipates. I think we may have something that we’ve had all along, just never really got a handle on it. (It) flares up periodically . . . maybe something that all of the additional stressors that we now toss at the bees — foreign chemicals in the hive, movement from coast to coast, bad honey year, etc –pushes (them) over the edge.”

“Disappearing Disease” not only makes the bees disappear–like a cartoon cat eating its tail-it then disappears itself. It has been called: Spring Dwindling, Fall Dwindling, May Disease, and Autumn Collapse. The Isle of Wight Disease, first seen on that isle in 1904, had all the symptoms and is the only time a cause was supposedly found. (It was 17 years later). Maybe not. Read on. (From: http://apis.ifas.ufl.edu/apis91/apjun91.htm)

“Dr. Leslie Bailey, a renowned authority on bee diseases, called the “Isle of Wight Disease,” presumably caused by the tracheal mite, a myth (L. Bailey, “The ‘Isle of Wight Disease’: The Origin and Significance of the Myth,” Bee World, Vol. 45, pp. 32-37, 1964). Dr. Bailey said a primary reason for the notoriety of “Isle of Wight Disease” was sensationalized press releases which caught beekeepers’ attention.”

E. Oertel (1965) noted that the (disappearing) “disease” occurred in Louisiana from late September to early January when colony populations literally disappeared within a short time; only a “handful” of bees were left; honey stores were present; small amounts of pollen were sometimes present although pollen was generally absent; and brood rearing was almost nonexistent.

From Malcolm Sanford, 1984 http://apis.ifas.ufl.edu/apis84/apjun84.htm
“Another possible reason for slow population buildup in citrus groves may be just coming into focus. According to Dr. Randolph McCoy, University of Florida Agricultural Research and Education Center, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, certain worm-like organisms called spiroplasmas have been found in flowers which are related to those implicated in a condition called “May disease,” in France. Again according to Dr. Shimanuki, “May disease” previously has implicated pollen of buttercups (Ranunculus species), and has had many names, including running about illness, running-in-the-sand sickness, frenzy sickness, wing paralysis, trembling sickness, flight incapacity, paralysis, and reeling sickness.”

Same Guy, 1994 http://apis.ifas.ufl.edu/apis94/apdec94.htm
“This fall many beekeepers have seen their colonies crash–the “disappearing disease.” Some have been wiped out, and the colonies went from very strong to dead in a very short time. The experts reported finding the same [those reported by Mr. Bach] viruses (chronic paralysis virus and Kashmir virus) in some of these dead colonies. So they associate these viral infections not with tracheal mites, but with Varroa mites. Are the viruses carried by one or both? Or are these viruses always present and their effect associated with stress from any source? It’s a frustrating yet fascinating time!”

Jim Tew: http://www.orsba.org/htdocs/download/Dtew.htm
“In 1915, after a particularly wet Spring, significant colony losses were reported. One beekeeper lost 400 hives. The problem was noted in multiple states from Florida to California. Hives came out the Winter in good shape, but adult bees began to vanish at the beginning of the Spring nectar flow.”

“From 1915 until this time, no single pathogen has even been isolated.”

“During the Spring of 2002, numerous Alabama beekeepers experienced an inexplicable bee colony die-off. There was no obvious cause – even after USDA analysis.”

Australia had a more or less yearly disappearing disease that wasn’t pinned to a pathogen. See “Denis Anderson,” below.

What could it be?
“Preliminary work has identified several likely factors that could be causing or contributing to CCD,” said Dennis van Engelsdorp, acting state apiarist with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. “Among them are mites and associated diseases, some unknown pathogenic disease and pesticide contamination or poisoning.”

There are lots of possible candidates for CCD, ranging from the “new Nosema,” to Neonicotinoid insecticides, to Hydroxy-methyl-furfural (HMF) from bad corn syrup, even honeydew. Maybe we’ve got a new disease – it appears to be communicable. That said, the symptoms are exactly the same as seen in Louisiana and Texas and other states in the mid-60s. We have the same problem with identifying the cause; same guesses by beekeepers, etc.

When and where was/is it?
As of 2/2/07: It has been playing out all through 2006, and many beekeepers want us to go back at least two years. It seems to have started in the spring in MI, Iowa, WI (maybe other states), moved through the mid-west to the Dakotas early to mid-summer. It was on the east coast and SE in the fall. It hit places like Oklahoma hard last few weeks. Now seems to be in scattered locations throughout California. Oregon and Washington were just added to the list.

Nutrition:
Denis Anderson 1997, Australia (AU) http://www.rirdc.gov.au/reports/HBE/04-152.pdf “These results suggest that disappearing disorder may result from unusually high levels of trace elements in pollen and nectar collected by colonies in the affected areas. Further studies are needed to determine which trace elements might be responsible.” In 2001 there was a study in AU that concluded that poor acid soil either harbored a pathogen or didn’t put nourishment in the pollen. Bees were helped by trapping OUT the pollen and feeding supplements. Improvements were seen when Pollen was trapped OUT of the hive and supplements were fed. (As far as I know Denis doesn’t know of our troubles. I just thought these citations were tantalizing.)

Feed?
Beekeepers feed High Fructose corn syrup as a normal thing. It allows them to sell the honey and it makes a better winter feed because it has few residues. This is bought in tanker loads sometimes by groups of beekeepers and transferred to “Totes” to haul to the bees and is dispensed through a hose that looks a lot like a gas pump. Sometimes it needs to be stirred and every clever thing from outboard motors to air pumps has been employed to do this. Sometimes water needs to be added. When all is right with the world, it’s a reliable adjunct to beekeeping.

There are standards that the beekeepers require and the sugar people strive to meet. Otherwise bees will die. If a load doesn’t meet those specifications (is “Off Spec.”) some risk-takers may get a better price and feed it anyway. I’ve seen totes full of chocolate syrup. This has been its own lesson for a number of beekeepers-an expensive lesson. What if the load is off spec and no one knows it, even the producers? This has been problematic for decades. The fructose degrades and forms HMF. Heat accelerates this.

I spoke with Midwest beekeeper and author/researcher Bob Harrison. (His article on this subject may precede the one you’re reading.) He learned at the American Beekeeping Federation (ABF), and from others–that part of the problem with off-spec HFCS occurred because of temperature problems in transit. The material was being transported at too high a temperature. Beekeepers have been advised to check temperature of loads when accepting. In his words, “HFCS contains two sugars which shorten bees lives. In fact, kills bees when spiked into syrup in certain doses (Roy Barker USDA-ARS 1974). The sugars: Stachyose & Raffinose. These sugars are not found in sucrose.” Researchers vary in opinion but at least some feel that these sugars may occur in higher amounts in off spec loads. “Recent research done at the Weslaco Research facility (Dr. Pamela Gregory 2005/2006) found similar results when tests were set up using the research of Roy Barker as a guideline. In the bees fed the fructose, lifespan was much shorter than the bees fed the sucrose syrup.”

Rumor has it that this happened in Northern CA in 06. I couldn’t pin it down as a fact. Eric Mussen, Cooperative Extension Apiarist at UC Davis said: “There are only observations that shortly after some colonies were fed HFCS they collapsed. However, given this winter, the bees could very well have collapsed if they had been fed sucrose syrup. Sometimes, stimulating a very unhealthy population of bees to begin brood rearing before adequate pollens are available leads to their collapse. We have no data.”

Pesticides:
Neonicitiniods are a class of pesticides that came out in 1985, produced by the German company, Bayer. They are related to nicotine and like that drug, they operate on the nervous system. In insects they disrupt the nerve channel which results in death. Gaucho contains Imidacloprid which is one of the more popular forms. It is used on seeds but is taken up by the plant. See http://www.bulletinofinsectology.org/pdfarticles/vol56-2003-051-057maus.pdf for some Bayer sponsored research. This drug was thought to be the cause of massive die-offs in France (May disease) years ago. It was supposed that affected bees could not navigate home from the fields.
http://www.beekeeping.com/articles/us/imidacloprid_bayer.htm Other Neonicotinoids are: acetamiprid (Assail), imidacloprid (Gaucho,Admire,Provado), thiacloprid (Calypso), and thiamethoxam (Actara).

The report on bee-deaths, published by the French Comité Scientifique et Technique (CST) 2003, shows that the use of the pesticide GAUCHO is jointly responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of bee colonies. Environmental activists and beekeeper unions are calling for a ban on the agricultural toxin. The summary of the report states: “The results of the examination on the risks of the seeds-treatment GAUCHO are alarming. The treatment of seeds by GAUCHO is a significant risk to bees in several stages of life.” The 108-page report was made by order of the agricultural ministry of France by the universities of Caen and Metz as well as by the Pasteur Institute. http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2003/11/26/millions_of_bees_dead_bayers_gaucho_blamed.htm The writer read a lot of old newsblogs on the subject. Here’s a chilling line from one of them: “The researchers also found traces of Imidaproclid in neighboring plants that were not treated by the pesticide.” Gaucho was banned in France until a reassessment could be done in 2006. The ban was upheld in Apr of 06

Fungus/Virus
Since it seems to be communicable any number of pathogens could vote themselves a place at the table. Aspergillus, the fungus that causes Stonebrood is a bad actor. (There are many strains) In humans it can kill, especially those that have compromised immune systems. There is, for instance, a form of Meningitis attributed to this fungus. As mentioned elsewhere, Dennis is working this angle if only to eliminate it. It’s not news to the researchers but may be news to the casual reader that the bees normally carry a number of viruses that do not seem to affect them. Some of them were found but not in enough places to point a finger. If the problem were a compromised immune system, one supposes it could be all of them. Scarring on the innards and black residue in the sting gland point to the possibility of infection, as does crystalline structures found in wing muscles and “kidneys”.

Mites
There are always mites. All of the original reports were from migratory beekeepers. They get together and swap strains of mites and disease. Then of course these bees are weakened by moving and splitting making the effects more deadly. Parasitic Mite Syndrome (PMS) mimics a number of diseases. The trouble is that this doesn’t seem to be a brood disease. It’s killing the older adult bees and they are dying far from home. Heavy mite loads in the fall can make the formation of a cluster of good strong “winter” bees unlikely. (I was just learning about PMS when my “Ex” absconded.)

Environment? Weather?
The comb has become suspect. There are two ways this can happen. Either the comb is so laced with the many pesticides and acids that it affects the longevity of the bees, or the aging combs have a heavy load of virus with the same effect. Some beek’s have irradiated comb. I’ve heard a theory about using ozone for this purpose. It is being researched. The 20 states reporting have had a variety of weather. If anything, the northeast, while having a reduced fall flow, did have warm temps late in the fall. It should have helped.

Nosema disease/Amoeba disease
While there is a new Nosema problem on the horizon, Nosema Ceranae, so far it’s not widespread, as far as we know. Sept: 2006:

“Yet another ‘new emerging or invasive pathogen’ threatens our honeybees. It’s Nosema Ceranae, similar to the well known Nosema Apis with which most of us are familiar. Unfortunately it seems that ceranae is likely to be worse than apis although at present the symptoms are not clear. It has been reported that Fumidil-B is apparently works against ceranae” (Mariano Higes, Spain, poster at the Eurbee conference in Prague, Sept 2006).

Jan 07: From the Georgia Bee Letter:

“Dr. Tom Webster at Kentucky State University has recently found Nosema ceranae in one of their KSU hives. This particular hive had migrated from Kentucky to Florida last October. Bees sampled in December tested positive for Nosema ceranae. The N. ceranae spores were also found in a Kentucky beekeeper’s operation whose colonies had migrated to Florida. Dr. Webster stressed that this information is extremely tentative at this point.”

Did that move fast, or what? For sure the “New Nosema” is a killer. Just Google “Nosema, Spain,” to learn about serious devastation there.

In researching this I heard of Nosema Ceranae in FL TN and KY but haven’t confirmed that yet. Dr Robert Paxton: Queen’s University Belfast, and his team developed a test that will discriminate the various Nosema genes. He’s looked for it and found it. His manuscript is unpublished at this point but he shared with me:

“Working at Queen’s University Belfast, Julia Klee, Andrea Besana and Robert Paxton have now demonstrated that N. ceranae is actually far more widespread and is found in western honey bees across the New World, Europe and Asia; their full report has been submitted for peer-review publication in the Journal of Invertebrate Pathology.
“. . . it has spread remarkably rapidly. It is found nowadays in the western honey bee in North and South America, the Caribbean, across Europe (from south to north and west to east) and Asia. Only on the islands of Ireland and New Zealand have we looked but found only Nosema Apis, We lack samples from Africa, Australia and (cannot) say anything about those locations. However: given its rate of spread and occurrence even on isolated islands of the Danish archipelago, it is quite possible that Nosema Ceranae: is, or will soon be, spread worldwide.” (From Bees for Development Journal (81))”

Bottom line: If it ain’t here it will be. We can’t convict it for CCD. Disassembled bees showed some digestive abnormalities but nothing constant. Nosema was not absent in samples but was not present in profusion. Amoeba disease is found in the Malphigian tubules (sometimes referred to as kidneys) and there was an occasional cyst only. On the other hand these tubules were abnormally swollen and discolored in many samples.

In short, for every candidate there is an opposing argument. Some of the best brains and equipment are being called into play, even some from those working in human medicine.
If you think the worry is limited to beekeepers, check out this almond grower site.
http://www.almondgrower.com/

The question that the younger David Hackenberg asked remains unanswered. “What can I do now?”

——
Dick Marron is a retired psychologist living in a bee-yard in CT. He would like to thank the following folks for their help.

Jerry Bromenshenk; Paul Burt; Bob Craig; Dennis van Engelsdorp; Jerry Hayes; Dave(s) Hackenberg; Bob Harrison; Todd Jameson; Eric Mussen Randy Oliver; Andy Miksa; Robert Paxton; David Westervel

BEEKEEPING IN THE UNITED STATES
AGRICULTURE HANDBOOK NUMBER 335
Revised October 1980
Pages 64 – 72

Colonies of bees existing in the wild, away from the control of human beings, will produce small surplus crops of honey above their requirements for survival. Such surplus will vary, depending on the region or locality, but will seldom exceed 25 to 30 pounds. In the same area and with the same nectar resources, colonies properly managed will produce surplus honey crops exceeding 100 pounds. Intensive two-queen colony management often can result in surplus crops of 300 pounds or more with the same resources available. The key to these differences is management.

Proper management employs practices that harmonize with the normal behavior of bees and brings the colony to its maximum population strength at the start of the bloom of major nectar-producing plants. Management practices are similar in basic principle wherever bees are kept and vary only as regards timing for the desired nectar source of the region or locality concerned.

Honey bee biology is constant. Bees respond to their environment as temperatures and food supplies are changed. Beekeepers, in managing or manipulating colonies, are merely facilitating normal biological colony changes to suit their purpose. They can accelerate brood rearing by pollen feeding and hive manipulation, or they can crowd or restrict colony activity by certain other manipulations. Responses of the colony, wherever it is kept, are predictable. Thus, the basic handling, management, and manipulation of bees are universally similar, varying only as to localities and the timing of bloom of the major nectar and pollen plants.

Regardless of the type of hives or equipment used, proper management aims at providing colonies with unrestricted room for brood rearing, ripening of nectar, and storage of honey, plus provision of adequate food requirements, both pollen and honey, for the time of year concerned. Swarming is minimized and the storing instinct encouraged when proper management is used.

(1) Research entomologist, Science and Education Administration (deceased).

Preparing Colony for New Season

In the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, August to October is the time when beekeepers prepare their colonies for the coming year. This is when the major honey flows are usually past and the bees must be made ready for the coming winter.

All queens of questionable performance with only a small amount of brood of irregular pattern (fig. 1, A) should be replaced. Frequently, the bees of the colony will replace or supersede queens of subnormal performance even before the beekeeper senses a problem. Some queens may be satisfactory in their second year; queens less than a year old are usually best.

FIGURE 1. – Queens with (A) irregular and (B) good brood pattern.

To requeen a colony, certain principles of queen acceptance must be borne in mind: (1) Strong colonies more reluctantly accept a queen than weaker ones, (2) temperamental bees are more reluctant to accept a new queen than gentle bees, (3) young bees accept a queen more readily than older bees, (4) the colony to be requeened should first be made queenless, and (5) the queen to be introduced should be in egg-laying condition.

There is less risk in requeening a colony by giving it a laying queen with some of her own brood and bees than by giving it a queen in a shipping cage. A new or valuable queen should first be introduced into a small colony or divisions of one in a queen-shipping cage. After she is laying, the small colony can be united with a large one.

A drone-laying queen can be replaced if she is discovered while the colony is still strong. If the colony is weak, the bees should be removed and the equipment added to another colony.

Assuming colony conditions and the condition of the queen are favorable, the effect of environmental or working conditions and the time of year are factors that affect queen acceptance. Best acceptance is usually obtained when some nectar is available in the field.

One possible period for requeening is during the broodless period of late fall. Queens are easily introduced at this time, and the bees are passive to their presence. However, the uncertainty of the weather, the difficulty of finding old and shrunken queens, and the danger of inciting robbing make this time of year less desirable for requeening than the summer.

Brood rearing declines in late summer and fall, and many normal colonies are completely broodless during much of November and December, particularly if the colony has no pollen. Older queens stop brood rearing sooner than younger queens.

Brood rearing should be encouraged as late in the season as possible. This can be assured by providing vigorous young queens in late summer, by preventing undue overcrowding and restriction of the brood nest with honey, and by encouraging pollen storage.

In areas where fall honey flows occur, partially filled supers should be kept on the colonies, especially if the brood nest is heavy

If brood rearing is restricted by a crowded brood nest or because of poor queens, the colony may enter the winter with a high percentage of old bees that will die early in the winter. Such colonies may later develop serious nosema infections and perish before spring. A colony should start the winter with about 10 pounds of bees and plenty of honey to carry it to the next spring.

Beekeepers in certain localities will need to think of winter stores for their colonies as early as the first of August if later honey flows are not dependable or are nonexistent. In October, colonies should have at least 45 pounds of honey in dark combs in the top brood chamber and 20 to 30 pounds of honey in each of two lower hive bodies – a total of at least 90 pounds of honey.

Preparing Colony for Winter

Population

The strength of a colony of bees is relative and difficult to describe. A “strong” colony to one beekeeper might be “weak” to another. Colonies with less than 10 pounds of bees should be united to stronger ones or several weaker ones combined. At between 40º and 50ºF, 10 pounds of bees will cover practically all the combs of a three-story standard hive wall to wall and top to bottom. Naturally, as the temperature drops, the cluster will contract.

The beekeeper must see that at no time is the available space for brood rearing reduced because of overcrowding with honey from the fall flow. A balance must be maintained between crowding the colony to get the brood chambers well filled with honey and adding space to relieve brood-rearing restriction. Partly filled supers kept on colonies in the fall may be necessary. Any subnormal colony should not be overwintered but united with another colony.

A colony may appear to have an adequate fall population, but if the bees are old, it will weaken rapidly as winter advances and may starve to death. Starvation occurs even with abundant honey in the hive because the cluster is too small to cover the honey stores.

Food Reserves

The colony should have a minimum of 500 square inches of comb filled with pollen in the fall. To insure uninterrupted brood rearing in late winter and early spring, the beekeeper may need to supplement these stores. The average colony of bees under intensive management may consume about 60 pounds of honey between the last flow in the fall and the first available food from the field in the spring. A weak colony may consume 20 pounds or less, but the very best colony will consume 80 pounds or more. To insure the survival of the top-quality colony, 90 to 100 pounds of honey should be left on it in the fall. A colony of bees not rearing brood will average about one-eighth pound of honey a day or 4 pounds a month. When brood rearing begins, the consumption of honey is greatly accelerated. Brood rearing should start in midwinter and accelerate as temperatures moderate in late winter and early spring.

When brood rearing is discouraged or curtailed, the colony will consume less winter stores but will emerge in the spring much weaker and with a population of primarily old bees. Such colonies will have difficulty replacing the small amount of honey they used over winter, whereas other colonies that have had normal, unimpeded rearing of brood will soon be able to replace all the honey they consumed over winter plus a substantial surplus.

Organization

To accommodate the best queens in standard Langstroth 10-frame hives, a minimum of 2 hive bodies, preferably three, should be used for year-round management. In the fall, most of the honey should be located in the top hive body. With experience, the beekeeper can soon learn to estimate the weight of hive bodies or frames by lifting them. A frame full of honey should weigh approximately 5 pounds. The top hive body should contain 40 to 45 pounds of honey. This means that all frames in the top hive body will be full of honey except for two or three frames in the center. The second body should contain 25 to 30 pounds of honey and some pollen. The bottom hive body should contain 20 to 30 pounds of honey plus pollen. If in the fall the combs in the top hive body are not filled, the beekeeper should reorganize them and if necessary feed additional sugar syrup so that this top hive body is well filled with stores.

As the winter progresses, the cluster of bees will shift its position upward as the stores are consumed. A colony of bees in a cold climate can starve with abundant honey in the hive if the honey is below the cluster.

With the advent of cold weather, the bees cluster tightly in the interspaces of the combs. Usually there are no bees in the bottom part of the hive near the entrance. For this reason, an entrance cleat or reducer should he used to exclude mice, such as 1-inch auger holes drilled into the hive bodies of the brood nest just below the hand-holds. In late summer, these auger-hole entrances are closed with corks so that the bees will fill the combs near them. During winter the top auger-hole entrance should be open. This allows the escape of moisture-laden air and affords a flight exit for the bees during warm spells (fig. 2).

FIGURE 2. - Colony during winter. Note auger-hole entrance (arrow).

Packing the Hive

Many beekeepers in the coldest parts of the country consider that some form of protection around the hive is essential. Others believe that colonies with strong populations and ample stores need no further protection. Factors to consider in deciding whether to pack are the cost of material and labor and any savings in honey or bees. Packing will not replenish colonies deficient in honey, pollen, or bees, replace poor queens, or cure bee diseases. Packed colonies will consume slightly less honey. The difference, however, is negligible. The most important consideration in preparing colonies for winter is a strong population and adequate stores.

When outside temperatures are near freezing, the temperature at the surface of a cluster of bees ranges between 43º and 46ºF. As the temperature decreases, the cluster contracts and the bees in the outer insulating shell concentrate to provide an insulating band 1 to 3 inches in depth. Metabolism and activity of the bees in the center of the cluster maintain a desired temperature. This may be around 92º if brood rearing is in progress. The temperature of the area of the hive not occupied by bees will be similar to the external temperature. The difference is that the temperature in the unpacked hive changes more rapidly and responds more quickly to that outside the hive. Heavy packing is worse than no packing, because during warm periods in midwinter when the bees should fly, those heavily packed do not fly at all.

It is important to consider the strength of the colony so that the bees can, at all times, cover a good percentage of their winter stores. If the population becomes weakened so that they cannot cover more than a few pounds of honey at a time, they can starve to death because they do not have contact with sufficient food.

Late Winter Manipulation

If colonies are inspected in later winter or early spring, adjustments can be made to save colonies that might be lost otherwise. Even weak or medium-strength colonies often can be saved if honey is moved into contact with the cluster. A strong colony with insufficient honey can starve if additional food is not provided at this time.

From this period until the bees can forage, such colonies can be fed either full combs of honey, or if these are not available, a gallon or two of heavy sugar syrup (two parts sugar by volume to one part water) can be poured directly into the open cells of empty combs.

Spring Buildup

Overwintered colonies usually will start brood rearing in midwinter and continue into the summer unless the stored pollen is all consumed before fresh pollen is available. If the supply is exhausted and not supplemented, brood rearing will slow down or stop entirely when it should proceed without interruption.

For best results in honey production, a beekeeper should have strong populations of young bees for the honey flow. Colonies emerging in the spring with predominantly old bees must build a population of young bees for later flows by using the early sources of pollen.

Some beekeepers trap pollen at the hive entrance from incoming bees by means of a pollen trap such as that described in “Trapping Pollen From Honey Bee Colonies” (Detroy 1976). This pollen is dried or frozen until needed, then mixed with sugar, water, and soy flour, and fed to the colony as a supplement to its natural supply (fig. 3). Various other types of pollen supplements and substitutes have been described and some are available on the open market.

FIGURE 3. - Strong colony feeding on pollen supplement cake.

Supplements containing pollen are eaten more readily by bees and generally give better results than those containing soy flour or other material without pollen. Pollen supplement is preferred by the bees in direct proportion to the amount of pollen it contains. The less pollen the supplement contains, the less is eaten. Substitutes made without pollen tend to be dry and gummy. A pound of pollen will make approximately 12 pounds of pollen supplement.

Swarm Control in Single-Queen Management

After pollen becomes abundantly available in the spring, the beekeeper should provide ample space for brood rearing and honey storage.

The natural colony behavior is to expand its brood nest upward, and a simple manipulation utilizing this tendency is to shift the empty frames or emerging brood to the top of the hive and the youngest brood and honey to the bottom part. This permits the expansion of the brood rearing upward into this area (fig. 4). Subsequent reversal of brood chambers can be made at about 10-day or 2-week intervals until the honey flow starts.

As soon as the three brood chambers are filled with bees, the first super should be given whether or not the honey flow is in progress. If this is done, most colonies with a vigorous queen will not swarm. However, any queen cells the beekeeper sees as he reverses the brood chambers should be removed. A simple method of reversing brood chambers is to lower the hive backward to the ground, separate the brood chambers, interchange the first and third hive bodies, and return to position.

After the honey flow starts, the danger of swarming lessens and brood chamber reversal can be discontinued. At the start of the honey flow, “bottom supering” should be used. The empty super should be placed above the top brood chamber but below the partially filled supers (fig. 4).

After the supers are filled and the honey extracted, they should never be put directly over the brood nest, but should be placed on top of the partly filled supers to prevent the queen seeking them and laying eggs in them. Why such combs attract the queen is not known.

FIGURE 4. - Basic colony manipulation for swarm control.

Two-Queen System

The establishment of a two-queen colony is based on the harmonious existence of two queens in a colony unit. Any system that ensures egg production of two queens in a single colony for about 2 months before the honey flow will boost honey production (Moeller 1956).

The population in a two-queen colony may be twice the population of a single-queen colony. Such a colony will produce more honey and produce it more efficiently than will two single-queen colonies. A two-queen colony usually enters winter with more pollen than a single-queen colony. As a result of this pollen reserve, the two-queen colony emerges in the spring with a larger population of young bees and is thus a more ideal unit for starting another two-queen system.

To operate two-queen colonies, start with strong overwintered colonies. Build them to maximum strength in early spring. Obtain young queens about 2 months before the major honey flows start. When the queens arrive, temporarily divide the colony. Replace the old queen, most of the younger brood, and about half the population in the bottom section. Cover with an inner cover or a thin board and close the escape hole. The division containing most of the sealed and emerging brood, the new queen, and the rest of the population is placed above. The upper unit is provided with an exit hole for flight.

At least two brood chambers must be used for the bottom queen and two for the top queen. Two weeks after the new queen’s introduction, remove the division board and replace it with a queen excluder. The supering is double that required for a single-queen operation, or where three standard supers are needed for a single colony, six will be needed for a two-queen colony.

When supering is required, larger populations in two-queen colonies require considerably more room at one time than is required for single-queen colonies. If a single-queen colony receives one super, a two-queen system may require two or even three empty supers at one time.

The brood chambers should be reversed to allow normal upward expansion of the brood area about every 7 to 10 days until about 4 weeks before the expected end of the flow, after which the honey crop on the colony may be so heavy as to preclude any brood nest manipulations. Thereafter, give supers as they are needed for storage of the crop. As the honey is extracted, the supers are returned to the hive to be refilled. They should never be replaced directly over the top brood nest, unless a second queen excluder is used to keep the queen out of them. The top brood nest may tend to become honey bound. If this occurs, reverse the upper and lower brood nests around the queen excluder. This puts the top honey-bound brood nest on the bottom board and the lighter brood nest with the old queen above the excluder.

There is no advantage in having a second queen when about a month of honey flow remains, because eggs laid from this time on will not develop into foragers before the flow has ended. However, entering the brood nest during the middle of the flow to remove one of the queens is impractical. Uniting back to a single-queen status can be done after the bulk of the honey is removed from the colony. By this time some colonies may have already disposed of one queen. When this happens, simply remove the queen excluder and operate the colony as a single-queen unit.

Improved Stock

Production of honey is one major criterion in selecting honey bee stock and breeding for improvement. Superior stock must also be reasonably gentle, not prone to excessive swarming, maintain a large but compact brood nest, and winter well. It should ripen its honey rapidly, seal the cells with white wax, and use a minimum of burr comb. To obtain all the desirable characters in a superior stock, specific inbred lines from many sources must be selected and developed and then recombined into a genetically controlled hybrid. When this is done, hybrid vigor or heterosis usually results (Moeller 1976).

Queens of common stock reared under favorable conditions and heading well-managed colonies probably will be more productive than poorly reared queens of superior stock. Queens of superior stock reared under favorable conditions will require a higher standard of management than is demanded of common stock. To realize the maximum benefits from improved stock, the beekeeper must provide unrestricted room for brood rearing, ripening of nectar, and storage of honey.

The queen breeder should produce the best queens possible to obtain the maximum benefits from improved stock and the honey producer receiving these queens should manage them in such a way that they can develop their maximum colony populations.

Disease Control as Affected by Good Management

If colonies are operated for highest honey yields, they must be kept in optimum condition (fig. 5). This includes rigid control of all bee diseases. For information about bee diseases, see pages 118 to 128.

FIGURE 5. – Brood combs showing (top) healthy brood necessary for high honey production and (bottom) diseased brood, which results in weakened colonies and low honey production.

References

DETROY, B. F. and E. R. HARP
1976. TRAPPING POLLEN FROM HONEY BEE COLONIES. 11 p. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Production Research Report 163.

FARRAR, C. L.
1937. INFLUENCE OF COLONY POPULATIONS ON HONEY PRODUCTION. Journal of Agricultural Research 54:945-954.

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1942. NOSEMA DISEASE CONTRIBUTES TO WINTER LOSSES AND QUEEN SUPERSEDURE. In Gleanings in Bee Culture 70:660-661, 701.

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1944. PRODUCTIVE MANAGEMENT OF HONEY BEE COLONIES IN THE NORTHERN STATES. 20 p. U.S. Department of Agriculture Circular 702.

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1973-74. PRODUCTIVE MANAGEMENT OF HONEY BEE COLONIES. American Bee Journal 113(8-12), Aug. through Dec. 1973; 114(1-3) Jan. through Mar. 1974.

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1952. ECOLOGICAL STUDIES ON OVERWINTERED HONEY BEE COLONIES. Journal of Economic Entomology 45:445-449.

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1960. OLD AND NEW IDEAS ABOUT WINTERING. American Bee Journal 100:306-310.

HOOPINGARNER, R., and C. L. FARRAR
1959. GENETIC CONTROL OF SIZE IN QUEEN HONEY BEES. Journal of Economic Entomology 52:547-548.

MOELLER, F. E.
1956. BEHAVIOR OF NOSEMA-INFECTED BEES AFFECTING THEIR POSITION IN THE WINTER CLUSTER. Journal of Economic Entomology 49:743-745.

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1961. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COLONY POPULATIONS AND HONEY PRODUCTION AS AFFECTED BY HONEY BEE STOCK LINES. 20 p. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Production Research Report 55.

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1976. TWO-QUEEN SYSTEM OF HONEY BEE COLONY MANAGEMENT. 11 p. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Production Research Report 161.

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1976. DEVELOPMENT OF HYBRID HONEY BEES. 11 p. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Production Research Report 168.

SCHAEFER, C. W. and C. L. FARRAR
1946. USE OF POLLEN TRAPS AND POLLEN SUPPLEMENTS IN DEVELOPING HONEY BEE COLONIES. 13 p. U.S. Bureau of Entomology and Plant
Quarantine, E-531 revised.

I’ve been thinking.

Over the years we see a lot of posts on BEE-L, sci.ag.bee, and elsewhere in which people are — basically — worrying about their bees. There is a blizzard of replies in which other people try to guess what is the problem. All of us worry. I know I do, and it’s usually when I know I’ve ignored one of the basics, or tried to get fancy.

The thing is that bees — we are told by good authority — have managed to survive in widely varying conditions without — or in spite of — mankind’s assistance since time immemorial. So why do we worry? If we put enough good bees into the right number of good boxes in a good place and watch for disease and predators, and feed them if they get too light, why should we worry?

I think we worry mostly because we want to exceed the natural level of success of bees in terms of multiplication, survival, and production of hive products, and we often do it in locations that may not favour bees. As a consequence, we place heavy demands on the bees.

From time to time, I think we need to sit back and realise that the bees usually do fine by themselves if we have followed the mainstream practices outlined in all the books and avoided oddball ideas or tricky manoeuvres. Some of the books get into strange manipulations like Demareeing and shook swarming, but if one sticks to the simple basics, there is little likelihood of serious problems. If we keep it simple we have a lot less worries.

Basically, bees need to have good nutrition, good quarters, and a good location. Beyond that, nature will ensure that there is reasonable success. In today’s environment, some awareness of detection and prevention disease and predators is necessary in addition, but here again, simplicity and conservative approaches pay off in high success rates.

That’s why we suggest that beginners get more than one hive and also that they identify someone local who has had good success over the years — in the opinion of his/her peers, not, necessarily him/herself — and do as (s)he does. With several hives, the natural failure rate will not normally leave one without bees, although a loss here or there is perfectly normal. Beginners need to know that commercial operators run thousands of hives profitably, and some seldom do more than glance under the lid once in a while to ensure there are still bees there and that they look OK. Sure they take some losses, but they always have a (simple) plan to make up for them.

Bees are tuned to work, ‘straight from the factory’. The more one plays with the bees, the more risk of failure or trouble there is. It’s much like a modern car: if you do the regular preventative maintenance and do checkups periodically, reliability is pretty well assured. If you try to soup up your machine or alter the factory configuration, you are asking for reduced reliability, and moreover no one will stand behind you to make things right. You MAY get improved performance, but you may also have bad economy — or even a wreck.

The best advice is to keep it simple and let the bees do what they have been doing for millennia.

allen

If honey bees would build smaller cells the six-sided cubbyholes that are a hive’s basic architectural units these beneficial insects might better withstand devastating parasitic mites.

“Commercial beekeepers nationwide have lost about half their hives over the past several years to infestations of tracheal mites that originated in Europe and varroa mites from Asia,” says Agricultural Research Service entomologist Eric H. Erickson. “The 1990s have been even harder for feral, or wild honey bees. A combination of mite attacks and the harsh 1996 winter killed up to 90 percent of feral honey bees in some parts of the country.”

“Cold weather kills honey bees, and bees already stressed by parasites are especially vulnerable,” says Erickson, research leader at ARS’ Carl Hayden Bee Research Laboratory in Tucson, Arizona.

Tracheal mites lodge in the breathing tubes of adult bees, suffocating them, while varroa mites suck blood from both the adults and pupae. Tracheal mites were first spotted in this country in 1984, varroa mites in 1987.

“During the winter of 1995-96, we had both colder than normal winter temperatures and widespread mite infections,” Erickson says. “My own backyard was affected. I used to see bees on my citrus trees, but I didn’t see any buzzing around last summer.”

Erickson’s research team has found improved honey bee survival through several research strategies. The latest is to get the bees to build smaller than usual cells to rear their young and store honey in.

The scientists did this by installing in the hive sheets of starter cells that are smaller than those typically used by beekeepers. Commercially managed honey bees use these starter cells as a blueprint for building their honeycomb. With wax they manufacture themselves, they form thousands of cells to create the many floors of the honeycomb. The smaller the starter cells, the smaller the cells the bees themselves construct.

“We’ve seen a 40-percent survival rate in varroa mite-infected hives equipped with honeycombs that have the smaller, more natural-sized cells that bees would create on their own,” says Erickson. “Hives with the larger commercial starter cells died out.

“Through experiments, we’ve learned that honey bees survive a varroa mite infestation better if they have combs with a diameter 22 percent smaller than what we’ve used in the past.”

Although the reason why this happens isn’t clear yet, Erickson suspects that building smaller cells may be easier on the bees, so they can better cope with the stress of a mite infestation.

In nature, bees build honeycombs that appear helter-skelter. But at the turn of this century, beekeepers learned how to harvest more honey by providing bees with a frame containing a wax base. Bees build onto this base to form a tidy honeycomb that beekeepers easily remove to harvest the honey. Today, beekeepers align up to 10 frames in a hive.

Honey bees pollinate crops worth about $10 billion annually. If it weren’t for bees carrying pollen from male flower parts to female parts, there wouldn’t be any apples or almonds. Other crops like some citrus and strawberries could have their yields slashed by as much as half.

ARS scientists at Tucson are seeking to identify beehives that appear to have escaped the mites. If further studies determine that the bees in them are naturally resistant, the queens could form a genetic base for developing new, mite-resistant strains of bees.

Tucson researchers are also working on a long-term study of bees’ immune response to mite attacks. By Dennis Senft, ARS.

Dennis Senft is on the Agricultural Research Service Information Staff; phone (510) 559-6068; email dsenft@asrr.arsusda.gov.

Eric H. Erickson is at the USDA-ARS Carl Hayden Bee Research Laboratory, 2000 E. Allen Rd., Tucson, AZ 85719; phone (520) 670-6481, fax (520) 670-6493; email ehejr@ccit.arizona.edu.