Con,
Do you have the source citation your quoted material?
Reading other source material, I wrote of this in our March
Northeast Tree Fruit newsletter (March 2007, Vol. 11 No. 2. "COLONY
COLLAPSE DISORDER MAY IMPACT HIVE AVAILABILITY, PRICE") and
encouraged regional growers here to check their own hives, or to
confer with their pollination contractors ASAP, to asses if there
might be an local risk of pollination shortfall.
To date, I have had no replies indicating any shortfall or
abnormality. Perhaps though, no news is not good news.
It would be good to learn if NE NY and New England constituents are
aware of any problems?
Best regards, Kevin Iungerman
Has there been any comment among apple growers in the US on the
continuing sharp decline in bee numbers?
I read the following recently, and believe that a few parts of
Europe are beginning to see localised colony collapses also.
Since last November, the US has seen a decline in bee populations so
dramatic that it eclipses all previous incidences of mass mortality.
Beekeepers on the east coast of the United States complain that they
have lost more than 70 percent of their stock since late last year,
while the west coast has seen a decline of up to 60 percent. In an
article in its business section in late February, the New York Times
calculated the damage US agriculture would suffer if bees died out.
Experts at Cornell University in upstate New York have estimated the
value bees generate -- by pollinating fruit and vegetable plants,
almond trees and animal feed like clover -- at more than $14 billion.
Scientists call the mysterious phenomenon "Colony Collapse Disorder"
(CCD), and it is fast turning into a national catastrophe of sorts.
A number of universities and government agencies have formed a "CCD
Working Group" to search for the causes of the calamity, but have so
far come up empty-handed. But, like Dennis vanEngelsdorp, an
apiarist with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, they are
already referring to the problem as a potential "AIDS for the bee
industry."
One thing is certain: Millions of bees have simply vanished. In most
cases, all that's left in the hives are the doomed offspring. But
dead bees are nowhere to be found -- neither in nor anywhere close
to the hives. Diana Cox-Foster, a member of the CCD Working Group,
told The Independent that researchers were "extremely alarmed,"
adding that the crisis "has the potential to devastate the US
beekeeping industry." It is particularly worrisome, she said, that
the bees' death is accompanied by a set of symptoms "which does not
seem to match anything in the literature."
In many cases, scientists have found evidence of almost all known
bee viruses in the few surviving bees found in the hives after most
have disappeared. Some had five or six infections at the same time
and were infested with fungi -- a sign, experts say, that the
insects' immune system may have collapsed. The scientists are also
surprised that bees and other insects usually leave the abandoned
hives untouched.
Nearby bee populations or parasites would normally raid the honey
and pollen stores of colonies that have died for other reasons, such
as excessive winter cold. "This suggests that there is something
toxic in the colony itself which is repelling them," says Cox-Foster.
--
Kevin Iungerman, Extension Associate
Cornell Northeastern NY Commercial Fruit Program
Serving NY's Upper Hudson and Champlain Region
(Albany, Saratoga, Washington, Essex and Clinton Counties)
Growing McIntosh, Honeycrisp, and other fine apples and fruit!
50 West High Street, Ballston Spa, NY 12020
Phone: (518) 885-8995
FAX: (518) 885-9078
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
