# Whatâs happening to our bees?



## cornbread (Jul 4, 2005)

Whatâs happening to our bees?

http://www.landlinemag.com/Special_Reports/2008/Oct08/102208_Partone_bees.htm


SPECIAL SERIES: Bee crisis â OOIDA member credited with discovery
Editorâs note: Staff Writer Clarissa Kell-Holland searches for answers from OOIDA member David Hackenberg of Lewisburg, PA, who is credited with discovering colony collapse disorder or CCD, a mystery that is decimating bee hives worldwide. 

Part One: Whatâs happening to our bees? 

Honeybees are in serious danger worldwide, and few know more about it than an OOIDA member and beekeeper from Pennsylvania.

David Hackenberg said his lifelong fascination with bees began with one hive as part of a Future Farmers of America project during his freshman year in high school in 1962. By the time he graduated, he had a few hundred hives.

Now â 46 years later â Hackenberg of Lewisburg, PA, has a migratory operation that consists of more than 3,000 honeybee hives, which he trucks all over the country to pollinate the nationâs fruit and vegetable crops.

However, his name is most widely known in the United States and internationally as being the person credited with discovering the mysterious disappearance of millions of honeybees. Colony collapse disorder â or CCD âis decimating bee hives worldwide.

Hackenberg told Land Line Magazine in July that heâs dedicated the past year and a half of his life to trying to unravel the mystery of why the worldâs bees are âcrashing.â

âI was the one that stirred things up, so I guess I am the one thatâs âaccusedâ of, for better or for worse, of discovering this whole mess,â he said. âWe (beekeepers) knew we were having problems with our bees starting back in 2004, but nobody could get a handle on what was going on.â

In the fall of 2006, Hackenberg and his son, Davey, who helps run the family operation, headed down to Florida to check on 400 of their bee hives that they had trucked down there a few weeks earlier.

When he opened the first hive, Hackenberg said there was just silence, no buzzing sound. The queen and all of the adult bees were simply gone â having abandoned their newly hatched brood, which he said they typically donât do. He opened the next box and then the next one. The results were the same: The adult bees had simply disappeared.

In his 46 years in the business, Hackenberg said that was the first time he had experienced having bees just vanish. He even got down on his hands and knees and looked to see if there were any dead bees on the floor, but found nothing.

After getting over the initial shock, Hackenberg said he started going through all the possible scenarios of what he could have done wrong.

âBeekeeping is a lot like trucking,â Hackenberg said. âWhen something goes wrong with your truck, you immediately think, âWhat did I do wrong? Itâs the same with bees. When most of your bees die off for no good reason, you blame yourself first.â

Puzzled, Hackenberg picked up the phone and started making calls to other beekeepers and scientists at Pennsylvania State University to find out if they were experiencing similar problems.

Many beekeepers he talked to didnât speak up initially.

âWhen this first started happening and hives of bees were just disappearing, some were blaming themselves that maybe they didnât have their management under control or something like that,â he said.

Part Two: Toxic cocktail may be causing bee collapse 

The ongoing Colony Collapse Disorder crisis has baffled bee researchers. Mary Ann Frazier, a senior extension associate in the entomology department at Pennsylvania State University, has been on the front lines in researching CCD since receiving a phone call from Dave Hackenberg about his bees just vanishing.

Frazier, a beekeeper herself, has been studying the declining health of honeybees for a long time, but she and researchers still havenât been able to pinpoint one single factor that is causing CCD. Instead, a combination of factors seems to be contributing to the honeybeesâ collapse.

âDave was the one who kind of blew the whistle on this whole CCD thing, so when he started talking to us about it, we had hoped that we would be able to find the significant source very quickly, but that didnât happen,â Frazier told Land Line Magazine in August.

Frazier and other researchers immediately began interviewing beekeepers, sampling colonies from beekeepers that were experiencing CCD, and those that were not.

She said they also examined pathogens, pesticides and the genetic makeup in the colonies, as well as the presence or absence of varroa mites or other parasites that are problems for bees. She and other researchers even looked at what beekeepers were feeding their bees for possible clues into what was weakening the honeybeesâ immune systems.

The samples taken from pollen, wax and bees were then sent to a U.S. Department of Agriculture lab for analysis for pesticides. Many still havenât been sent to the USDA lab yet due to the cost, according to Frazier. She said itâs an expensive process, about $200 per sample.

Frazier said Penn State received a $250,000 grant from Haagen-Dazs ice cream to research the honey bee crisis. According to the Haagen-Dazs Web site, the company depends on honey bees to pollinate ingredients used in nearly 40 percent of the companyâs premium ice cream flavors.

âThis is a very significant contribution from an industry to do this work,â Frazier said.

Frazier said during the 2006-2007 season, more than 31 percent of colonies in the U.S. were lost to CCD, and that the statistics rose to more than 38 percent in the 2007-2008 season. The assessment of bee colonies is typically done in the early spring.

âBeekeepers like Dave and other beekeepers we are working with are pouring money into these bees and their operations. They will not survive if this keeps happening,â she said. âTrying to feed the bees, trying to build the bees up, trying to make splits from their remaining colonies â financially, emotionally and physically, they are really strapped.â

Hackenberg estimates he lost between 65 percent and 70 percent of his bees during the 2006-2007 season. This past season, his losses were down to about 45 percent. Knowing he canât take a significant financial hit again, heâs been doing extensive research to find ways to beef up his bees.

He said he has stopped using soybeans and corn syrup in his feed because both are treated with chemicals and insecticides that he worries may be weakening his beesâ immune systems. Instead, heâs switched to sugar and honey for carbohydrates and to dried eggs for protein for the bees.

He said beekeepers across the country are reporting their bees are suffering from weakened immune systems â possibly due to insecticides â despite their efforts to keep them healthy. Hackenberg compares the effects Colony Collapse Disorder has on beesâ immune systems to the aging process in humans.

âThe aging process â¦ breaks down the immune system, and then something else comes along and wipes it out,â he said. âWe set out to do (nutrition) with the bees.â

âThe good Lord made them to work on pollen and nectar, which are supposed to be about as pure a thing as you can get, but chemical people have played around with Mother Nature.â

After stumbling on some old research using eggs for protein in bee feed, Hackenberg set out to find a company that would sell him dried eggs for his feed. Hackenberg Apiaries now sells that feed to other beekeepers around the country.

âWe started playing around with it, and it actually worked so well that itâs become a sideline business for us,â he said. âItâs kind of like the trucking business; youâve got to have a couple of sideline businesses, too.â

Hackenberg is no stranger to the political process in Washington, DC. While serving as president of the American Beekeeping Federation from 1998 to 2000, he said he was one of three names that âsigned on the dotted lineâ in an anti-dumping suit filed against China and Argentina about their cheap import prices on honey. In late 2000, the International Trade Commission ruled in favor of U.S. beekeepers and imposed duties of as high as 184 percent on imports from those two countries.

He has been involved in the ABF for more than 25 years and served two past stints on the National Honey Board. He has been to four congressional hearings in the last year to discuss CCD and currently serves on the Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream Bee Board. The board is made up of honeybee experts dedicated to funding research to save the collapsing bees.

Whatâs next? Read Part Three of âBee crisisâ on this Web site on Friday, Oct. 24.

â By Clarissa Kell-Holland, staff writer


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## cornbread (Jul 4, 2005)

Part Two: Toxic cocktail may be causing bee collapse

http://www.landlinemag.com/Special_Reports/2008/Oct08/102308_Parttwo_bees.htm

OOIDA member David Hackenberg of Lewisburg, PA, is credited with discovering colony collapse disorder, which is decimating bee hives worldwide. 

The ongoing Colony Collapse Disorder crisis has baffled bee researchers. Mary Ann Frazier, a senior extension associate in the entomology department at Pennsylvania State University, has been on the front lines in researching CCD since receiving a phone call from Dave Hackenberg about his bees just vanishing.

Frazier, a beekeeper herself, has been studying the declining health of honeybees for a long time, but she and researchers still havenât been able to pinpoint one single factor that is causing CCD. Instead, a combination of factors seems to be contributing to the honeybeesâ collapse.

âDave was the one who kind of blew the whistle on this whole CCD thing, so when he started talking to us about it, we had hoped that we would be able to find the significant source very quickly, but that didnât happen,â Frazier told Land Line Magazine in August.

Frazier and other researchers immediately began interviewing beekeepers, sampling colonies from beekeepers that were experiencing CCD, and those that were not.

She said they also examined pathogens, pesticides and the genetic makeup in the colonies, as well as the presence or absence of varroa mites or other parasites that are problems for bees. She and other researchers even looked at what beekeepers were feeding their bees for possible clues into what was weakening the honeybeesâ immune systems.

The samples taken from pollen, wax and bees were then sent to a U.S. Department of Agriculture lab for analysis for pesticides. Many still havenât been sent to the USDA lab yet due to the cost, according to Frazier. She said itâs an expensive process, about $200 per sample.

Frazier said Penn State received a $250,000 grant from Haagen-Dazs ice cream to research the honey bee crisis. According to the Haagen-Dazs Web site, the company depends on honey bees to pollinate ingredients used in nearly 40 percent of the companyâs premium ice cream flavors.

âThis is a very significant contribution from an industry to do this work,â 

Frazier said.

Frazier said during the 2006-2007 season, more than 31 percent of colonies in the U.S. were lost to CCD, and that the statistics rose to more than 38 percent in the 2007-2008 season. The assessment of bee colonies is typically done in the early spring.

âBeekeepers like Dave and other beekeepers we are working with are pouring money into these bees and their operations. They will not survive if this keeps happening,â she said. âTrying to feed the bees, trying to build the bees up, trying to make splits from their remaining colonies â financially, emotionally and physically, they are really strapped.â

Hackenberg estimates he lost between 65 percent and 70 percent of his bees during the 2006-2007 season. This past season, his losses were down to about 45 percent. Knowing he canât take a significant financial hit again, heâs been doing extensive research to find ways to beef up his bees.

He said he has stopped using soybeans and corn syrup in his feed because both are treated with chemicals and insecticides that he worries may be weakening his beesâ immune systems. Instead, heâs switched to sugar and honey for carbohydrates and to dried eggs for protein for the bees.

He said beekeepers across the country are reporting their bees are suffering from weakened immune systems â possibly due to insecticides â despite their efforts to keep them healthy. Hackenberg compares the effects Colony Collapse Disorder has on beesâ immune systems to the aging process in humans.

âThe aging process â¦ breaks down the immune system, and then something else comes along and wipes it out,â he said. âWe set out to do (nutrition) with the bees.â

âThe good Lord made them to work on pollen and nectar, which are supposed to be about as pure a thing as you can get, but chemical people have played around with Mother Nature.â

After stumbling on some old research using eggs for protein in bee feed, Hackenberg set out to find a company that would sell him dried eggs for his feed. Hackenberg Apiaries now sells that feed to other beekeepers around the country.

âWe started playing around with it, and it actually worked so well that itâs become a sideline business for us,â he said. âItâs kind of like the trucking business; youâve got to have a couple of sideline businesses, too.â

Hackenberg is no stranger to the political process in Washington, DC. While serving as president of the American Beekeeping Federation from 1998 to 2000, he said he was one of three names that âsigned on the dotted lineâ in an anti-dumping suit filed against China and Argentina about their cheap import prices on honey. In late 2000, the International Trade Commission ruled in favor of U.S. beekeepers and imposed duties of as high as 184 percent on imports from those two countries.

He has been involved in the ABF for more than 25 years and served two past stints on the National Honey Board. He has been to four congressional hearings in the last year to discuss CCD and currently serves on the Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream Bee Board. The board is made up of honeybee experts dedicated to funding research to save the collapsing bees.

Whatâs next? Read Part Three of âBee crisisâ on this Web site on Friday, Oct. 24.

â By Clarissa Kell-Holland, staff writer


http://www.landlinemag.com/Special_Reports/2008/Oct08/102308_Parttwo_bees.htm


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