N.J. bee colonies buzzing back to life after last year's collapse
By MICHELLE J. LEE Staff Writer, 609-272-7256
Published: Monday, March 24, 2008
UPPER TOWNSHIP - The situation was grim last year on Bill Eisele's honey farm. He noticed fewer bees in the fall of 2006, and when he opened up the hives in the winter, he found plenty of food, but most of his adult worker bees had mysteriously disappeared."It was pretty devastating," said Eisele, 64, a retired state water monitor who has kept bees since 1976. Eisele lost nine of his 12 hives and most of his honey production. The mortality rate for the 90,000 bee colonies in New Jersey rose to 45 percent, said Tim Schuler, a state apiarist who lost 60 of the 200 hives on his Buena Vista Township farm.Eisele and Schuler were among the thousands of beekeepers affected by colony collapse disorder, a new problem that decimated a quarter of the country's bee population in 2007 and posed a large threat to honey supplies and the $15 billion agriculture industry that relies on the insects to pollinate fruits and vegetables. Scientists are still studying the disorder and have not determined what causes it, although a number of factors such as pesticides, diseases and parasites could play a role.The outlook for bees this spring seems to be better in the Garden State.Eisele, a small honey farmer, took precautions to avoid another colony collapse. Eisele restocked his hives with New Jersey bred-bees instead of Georgia bees in hopes that they might be more disease-resistant. He also put out plenty of artificial pollen and corn syrup to feed them. So far, nine out of 11 hives are going strong, buzzing with activity.
The test, Eisele said, would be to see how much pollen gathering and reproduction the bees do during the spring and summer. "It's not over yet," Eisele said. "That one hive is pretty weak. There's plenty of food. I don't know why she isn't laying (eggs)."Schuler said early reports show bee losses statewide went down to about 10 percent or 15 percent. Possible reasons for healthier bees could be better nectar supplies last fall coupled with a mild winter and fewer parasitic mites attacking bees, Schuler said. If the reports hold true, it would bode well for New Jersey, which produces $2.5 million in honey and nearly $200 million in fruits and vegetables annually, according to the state Department of Agriculture."Actually, we're in the most critical part of the year. The colony is raising brood, babies. They need a lot of food," said Schuler, who encouraged beekeepers to check their hives and feed them if they cannot gather enough pollen to last through to the warm weather.Dennis Wright, the owner of Fruitwood Apiary, one of the three largest beekeeping companies in the state, said he wasn't impacted by the colony collapse disorder at all this year, and he has extra bees to sell.Wright's company, based in Upper Pittsgrove Township, Salem County, owns 3,500 colonies that travel from Florida to Maine for pollination. In the autumns of 2005 and 2006, Wright lost 400 colonies to the disorder, which he attributed to pesticides. To avoid the problem, Wright said he didn't send his bees to farms with vine crops such as cucumbers, watermelons and cantaloupes, which tend to have pesticides.Eisele also thinks pesticides, along with insects that prey on honeybees, led to the disorder at his small honey farm. In the coming months, Eisele's hives, along with several others, will be tested for pesticides by the state Department of Agriculture and Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station.One slight benefit of colony collapse disorder is more local interest in beekeeping. Schuler said an beginner's beekeeping course offered by the Rutgers New Jersey Agriculture Experiment Station in April has 200 signups and a long waiting list. Last year, 98 people took the course, and 150 people took it in 2006. Most participants are still raising bees, Schuler said. Eisele, secretary and treasurer of the Jersey Cape chapter of the New Jersey Beekeepers Association, said his chapter drew four new people, and there has been talk about starting projects at Middle Township, Mainland Regional, Egg Harbor Township and Cape May Technical high schools.But the overall honeybee picture still remains bleak. While many small beekeepers are rebounding, most large pollinating bee colonies still are experiencing high losses, especially in the West, said Maryann Frazier, a researcher from Pennsylvania State University, who is studying the disorder with other federal, state and university scientists. Almond groves did not have as many bees to pollinate them, and beekeepers at cucumber and watermelon farms are having problems getting enough colonies for the summer, said Dewey Caron, a researcher from the University of Delaware.The impact of the disorder on crops is still unknown. Frazier said renting pollination bees is more expensive because of the die-offs and higher fuel costs, which could translate to higher food prices. Constant pressure year after year could put many beekeepers out of business, Caron said.There haven't been any breakthroughs in solving the mystery, but Frazier said researchers found a link to the disorder with another bee disease, Israeli acute paralysis virus, along with the usual suspects of pesticides, mites and the stress of transporting pollination bees. "It's turning out to be much more complex than we hoped it would be," Frazier said.To e-mail Michelle Lee at The Press:MLee@pressofac.comBEE-RELATED SITESTo learn more about bees and beekeeping, visit the New Jersey Agriculture Department's Bee Inspection Web site at:www.nj.gov/agriculture/divisions/pi/prog/beeinspection.html and the New Jersey Beekeepers Association Web site at:njbeekeepers.orgTo learn more about colony collapse disorder, visit the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium Web site at:maarec.cas.psu.edu/ColonyCollapseDisorder.html
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