Why the honey bee population is disappearing
Last week in our Home Grown segment we talked about honey bees and how they are very important when it comes to pollinating in our agriculture fields. This week we continue talking about bees.
Since 1990, 25% of the honey bee population has disappeared. News 11 spoke with Dean Edwards from Priority Pollination to find out why this is happening.
“Colony Collapse Disorder is a phenomenon in which a seemingly normal honey bee colony decides to leave the hive and they leave the queen behind which is really weird,” Edwards said. “If it’s a swarm then the queen will go with them, but in the case of colony collapse the worker bees are actually leaving the queen behind,” he said.
Sadly, the queen bee cannot survive without her worker bees. There are three main causes of Colony Collapse Disorder: Parasites, pesticides and climate change. Edwards said a common problem he sees are Varroa Mites which are tiny parasites that leech onto bees.
Once this happens, the parasite weakens the bee causing pathogens to spread which eventually kills the entire colony. Beekeepers have to also work closely with pest control advisors to make sure that the bees don’t get sprayed by pesticides. An average worker bee lives up to five weeks. Decades ago, the queen used to live up to three years, now they notice the queen only lives about one year.
“The colony could actually supersede the queen so what that means is once the queen gets weak and stops laying, the colony would actually produce another queen to continue that colony,” he said. “It’s more difficult for a colony now to reproduce a queen so that’s where we come in and that’s why we graft so we can pick up the slack,” he said.
The good news is that beekeepers are able to reproduce their own queen bees.
“If I’ve got 4,600 hives this season, I’m going to have to graft over 5,000 just to keep what I have,” he said.
Even though some people may be afraid of bees they are crucial to be kept alive. Edwards shared that 30% of the fruits, nuts and vegetables that we eat every day are a direct result of pollination from honey bees.
