There is “NO Problem With Honey Bees”
Member Glen Davis
There has been a rash of articles recently about how there ‘is no honeybee die-off” or the favorite snarkie comments such as “Call Off The Honey Bee-pocalypse”. If you read these articles superficially, you would come away with the idea that there has been a lot of “the sky is falling” press and the Ag Chemical industry has been, once again, been unfairly blamed. If you read them carefully, however, and with a little knowledge and common sense, you will realize that the writers has gotten the story largely wrong, and have come to faulty conclusions. The fact that many of the articles cite publications of similar articles in a round-robin of self-affirmation is evident from even a cursory survey of the subject on Google. I will fault some of the sources, for they are after the latest NEWS and many of them have a particular viewpoint or philosophy that drives the articles they publish. Most of these types of articles are written by staff writers at politically-oriented general-news sources or writers associated with industry outlets and Agribusiness (read Agrichemical) companies.
I want to address in this commentary the favorite and over-used “evidence” that these writers used to come to their conclusions, and why their “evidence” actually makes the case AGAINST their contentions. Most of the confusion they are subject to is due to their habit of cherry-picking numbers to support a pre-selected conclusion. The main contention is that “there is no bee die-off because Honey Bee populations are at a 20-year high” or “Honey bee numbers are Stable or as high as they were in 1986, 1999, 1983”… you choose.
HERE ARE THE NUMBERS. In 2015 (according to the USDA), 42% of all honey bee colonies in the US died. If ANY other animal species suffered nearly half of their population dying off in a single year it would be recognized as a crisis and we would go looking for answers. Imagine for a moment if half the chickens, half the pigs, half the beef cattle keeled over and died for some largely non-understood reason… what would be the government’s, the business world’s, the general population’s response? UTTER PANIC and calls for a major research and corrective program, I am sure.
BUT, for beekeepers, this has been happening consistently since 2007 !
Yes, I agree with the articles in their pointing out that the honey bee colony populations have remained, on the whole the same or a little higher each year since this has been happening, but THAT DOESN’T MEAN WHAT THEY SAY IT DOES!
The reason that the numbers of colonies rebounds each year, and that there are MORE colonies now than there were since the 1980 is two-fold.
First, the reason that the honey bee colony numbers are relatively stable, or even increasing is because there is a MAJOR effort by beekeepers to make more colonies to replace those lost! Most people may not understand that ALL honey bee colonies are raised and cared for by humans. There are no significant populations of "wild" honeybee populations left in North America. Honey bees are not native to the Americas, and so those honey bees were escapees from the first honey bee colonies brought by Europeans beginning in the 1600's). Diseases and pests will wipe out “wild” colonies usually within the year, and there a few if any that survive to create new colonies.
European immigrants to North America brought honeybees primarily for a source of sweetener, but as agriculture grew and changed the face of the continent, honeybees became absolutely essential for successful production of a wide range of agricultural crops. The native pollinators would never have been sufficient for the pollination of modern agricultural practice, and in fact this can be seen today in the transportation of honey bees all over the country in order to pollinate crops. From oranges in Florida to almonds in California; peaches, apples, plums, cherries, cucumbers and pumpkins, tomatoes, squash, peas, soybeans, etc. all over the country- bees are hired and trucked in the millions to pollinate these crops, which would otherwise be difficult to produce in such numbers.
SO- ALL honey bee colony number stability/ increases in numbers are due to extra work by beekeepers raising many new colonies, with the reality of 25-45% losses being due to die-off and the Herculean effort to replace those losses are the new reality in their business model.
It MUST be emphasized again that these increases are NOT due to lessening (or absence) of the bee die-off crisis (which continues at its high rate), but to extra effort by beekeepers to increase their numbers! Commercial beekeepers now buy or raise almost 50% of their colonies every year! The authors of these recent articles try to pass off the idea that this is NORMAL in beekeeping… that beekeepers’ always “rebuilt’ large numbers of colonies as a matter of routine, rather than to replace the losses due to abnormal die-off. This is the source of their contention that there is no serious problem… that the “hype” is merely due to disgruntled environmentalists, anti-chemical activists and a few poor businessmen.
THIS is the misunderstanding at the core of these articles…whether it is a willful misunderstanding to promote a particular viewpoint or simply the result of a too-superficial examination of the problem I leave to you to decide. I think I have indicated herein what MY opinion is.
But there is also a secondary source of colonies that are increasing the numbers. We in the smaller-scale beekeeper community (anything from 1 to 100 hives) have spent the last 10 years encouraging and recruiting new beekeepers, in order to increase awareness and support for more research and laws/regulations to counter-act the huge hold Agribusiness has on this issue. Through the efforts of dedicated hobbyist and small-scale commercial beekeepers helping new beekeepers through our local bee keeper school and starting hives, I know of a significant number of colonies that were not there before- just in ONE county of North Carolina. I assure you there are many other counties across the country that are having a similar effect.
BUT, we STILL all suffer losses, and there is in fact a significant association of several of the Neo-nic pesticides with the death or disappearance of colonies. NO amount of cherry-picking numbers can actually hide the fact that this crisis continues unabated, and if beekeepers didn't put more effort in keeping their numbers up in the face of this crisis, the rest of the country would be shopping in a VERY DIFFERENT-LOOKING PRODUCE DEPARTMENT.
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