(HOST) Commentator Bill Mares has been a beekeeper for more than 30 years, so he’s been thinking a lot lately about the mysterious disappearance of millions of honeybees nationwide.
(MARES) Back a few weeks ago, I joined my friend Mike Palmer of St. Albans for our annual turn in the beekeepers’ booth at the Tunbridge Fair. Mike is president and I’m vice-president of the 220-member Vermont Beekeepers Association. For seven hours a steady stream of people gaped at bees in our observation hive, sucked up free samples of honey, and occasionally bought some. Over and over they asked variations of the same question: "What’s happening to the bees?" "What is this new disease?" "Are Vermont bees safe?"
Mike’s a professional, and I’m a hobbyist. We were both pleased that people were so curious about the health of the bees. Alas! in that crowded, noisy hall, we could not give them a quick answer or a single villain.
So far, we said, Vermont bees seem to have avoided the massive die-offs reported in other parts of the country. Nationally, we now know that there is no single cause for the bee malady dubbed "Colony Collapse Disorder."
You have to think of three strands in the investigative puzzle, we told our attentive audience – something old, something new and a lot in between. First, there’s a cyclical element. Significant die-offs have occurred before, going back at least 100 years. Second, a globalization of pests has brought new viruses and pathogens into bees’ lives, as well as our own. Third, and most important, has been the increased stress on bees over the last 25 years.
Now, remember that the importance of bees in the American economy is not in honey production – a measly $200 million annually – but in pollination for hire – some $15-20 billion dollars’ worth of fruits, vegetables, nuts and forage crops, especially $2 billion dollars of almonds in California. But that means hauling bees hundreds and thousands of miles each year.
Such long distance strain comes on top of the unrelenting scourge of Asian varroa mites. They arrived in the U.S. in the late 1980’s and – rather like the Iraqi insurgency – have become more malign over time. Other troubles include agricultural pesticides used outside the hives, overuse of chemicals inside the hives to fight the mites, and less nutrition for the overworked bees.
All these pressures of "feedlot beekeeping" have weakened the bees’ immune systems.
Most Vermont beekeepers are hobbyists with just a few hives that we don’t move around. This gives bees time to recover their strength over the winter. Of the handful of professionals like Mike, only one moves bees out of state each year.
"So what do we do?" asked our last customer, as we closed up shop at 10 p.m. and walked out into the chill air amid the lingering smells of cigarette smoke, onions, cotton candy and fried dough.
"Well," I said, "just keep buying lots of local honey."
Bill Mares of Burlington is a writer, former teacher, and legislator.