Honey Bees - Life Cycle

The life cycle of a honey bee is presented as an example of complete metamorphosis, the development of an insect from egg to larva, then pupa, then adult. Moths, butterflies and wasps also develop with complete metamorphosis. Some aspects of beekeeping are also discussed.

Weather May Account for Reduced Honey Crop

By Jane Black

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 10, 2007; Page A05

That the 2007 honey crop has been disappointing won't surprise anyone who has picked up the newspaper in recent months. Since early spring, colony collapse disorder (CCD), a disease that causeshoneybees to suddenly, mysteriously disappear from their hives, has made headlines around the world. Without honeybees to pollinate, experts warn that one-third of the food supply -- from apples and peaches to cucumbers and squash -- is at risk.

It's a frightening prospect. And though signs of CCD were first reported in the United States and most cases have been reported here, European beekeepers have recently observed a similar phenomenon, and possible cases have been reported in Taiwan.

Scientists and beekeepers have floated a variety of theories for the collapses -- from stress caused when commercial beekeepers move their hives long distances to disorientation caused by cellphone radiation. Last week, the journal Science published a report that found a new virus, Israeli acute paralysis virus, appeared to be associated with CCD.

But some experts say the more likely reason for this year's weak honey crop, which the NationalHoney Board says is on track to be smaller than last year's below-par 155 million pounds, is something much more obvious: the weather. In the South, drought and wildfires have prevented flowers from blooming. In the Midwest, a late freeze brought nectar flows in many areas almost to a halt. And in California, the country's No. 2 honey producer, coastal beekeepers reported that there were almost no flowering plants in July. The bees were fed sugar water to keep them from starving.

"It's more weather than CCD," said Ted Dennard, president of the Savannah Bee Company, which sells specialty honeys. "The reports I'm getting is that everywhere is under-producing. Tupelo was somewhere between 25 percent and 50 percent of normal production, and there's not a drop of star thistle in Idaho."

Extreme weather is becoming increasingly common across the globe, numerous studies suggest. That's why new research by Wayne Esaias, a Maryland biological oceanographer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center who keeps bees as a hobby, has piqued enormous interest among bee experts and honey lovers. By taking simple measurements on when his bees started and stopped collecting nectar near his home in Highland, Esaias has shown that flowers there are blooming three weeks earlier than they did in 1992 and a month before they did in 1970. (The research, which has not yet been published, is posted at http://honeybeenet.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sites/regional_map.htm.)

Even with a limited data set, it's a potentially significant climate shift. If backyard beekeepers collected similar data at sites across the country, the results could offer clues about how to manage bee colonies to maximize honey production and, potentially, help keep bees healthy enough to resist diseases, such as the mysterious CCD.

"What this has demonstrated is that with simple measurements, you can bring all the information together and get a sense of the bigger picture," said Dewey Caron, a professor of entomology and wildlife ecology at the University of Delaware. "I'm kind of ashamed I didn't think of it first."

Esaias, though, is the first to admit that it took him a long time -- 15 years -- to see that there might be a useful connection between his professional knowledge of weather and climate and his after-work beekeeping hobby.

It all started in 1991 when, without asking permission, his 12-year-old son offered to make a home for the hives of his Boy Scout troop leader, who was leaving the area. Along with the hives, the Esaias family inherited an old platform scale. At the troop leader's instruction, Esaias placed the hives on the scale in the back yard.

Each night in honey season, they would record the hives' weight. The heavier the hive, the more nectar had been collected. "I'd never kept bees before, so it was a good management tool," Esaias remembered. "It helped you figure out when to get ready for the honey and when to take the honey off."

His two children became avid beekeepers, keeping records for their 4-H club and selling honey out the back door. Over the years, Esaias, who today has 17 hives, noticed that the bees behaved differently during El Nino years, when the winter is milder and the summers are wetter.

In early 2006, Esaias decided to look for patterns. He dug up spotty records from 1922, 1923 and 1957 on when flowers first bloomed in the Washington area, and good, consistent ones from the Smithsonian beginning in 1970. His analysis showed that the plants were blooming a full month earlier now than they had been in 1970. There had been no apparent change between 1922 and 1970.

Esaias stresses that real climate analysis requires long, continuous records, so it's possible this is normal weather variability. But his hypothesis is that the change is the result of the area's rapid urbanization. As more buildings and roads are built, the temperature climbs and plants bloom earlier.

This spring, he enlisted the help of 15 other beekeepers in Washington and in the Maryland suburbs. Initial results show a 15-day gap between nectar production in Chevy Chase and 20 miles away in Highland.

"There's a lot of variability within the natural system. The scary part is the long-term trend and the implications of that change," Esaias said.

To find out what that might be, Esaias has applied for NASA funding that would allow him to overlay his data with information from NASA satellites that chart weather and vegetation patterns.

"Bees are such great environmental samplers. When they go out and forage, they go almost two miles away from the hive. That's a very large area, about 2,500 acres, and the same size as the grid elements of a lot of climate ecosystem models," Esaias said. "I'm wondering if there's a way we could look at when the plants produce nectar, and use the satellite data and ecosystem models so we're in a better position to understand how climate change will affect pollination."

So are other entomologists, such as Eric Mussen, an apiculturist at the University of California at Davis. Mussen believes the reason bees got "whacked" by CCD is malnutrition, which is directly connected to the weather. If honeybees cannot collect enough nectar to feed themselves, they won't have the strength to resist disease.

"If we're headed into rougher weather, as it appears we are, we'll have more difficulties with our bees," Mussen said. "It won't matter if you're a backyard beekeeper or someone with 10,000 colonies."

Both types of beekeepers will have the opportunity to contribute if Esaias's research moves forward.

"This is a perfect example of how citizen science can work," said the University of Delaware's Caron. "Lots of people can come in and contribute small amounts of data. You get immediate feedback on your bees and the satisfaction that you are contributing to a larger picture."

How to Install a Package of Honey Bees

Bee Deaths in U.S. May Be Caused by Imported Virus (Update1)

By Alan Bjerga

Sept. 6 (Bloomberg) -- A virus imported from Australia may be behind the malady that has killed billions of U.S. honeybees in the past year, according to an article released today by the journal Science.

Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus, named for the country in which it was discovered, appears to be a leading indicator of Colony Collapse Disorder, said the study's authors. Other factors may be involved, according to W. Ian Lipkin, one of the researchers, who said the virus has no effective antidote.

``It may be that it's not alone sufficient to cause the disease,'' said Lipkin, an infectious disease specialist at Columbia University in New York. After other viruses were tested, however, ``the only candidate left standing was, in fact, IAPV.''

Colony Collapse Disorder threatens $14.6 billion of U.S. crops, including almonds, apples and cherries. It may cause $75 billion of economic damage if left unchecked, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The malady was first identified late last year after thousands of U.S. beekeepers found unusually large hive losses. About a quarter of all U.S. beekeepers were affected, on average losing 45 percent of their bees, according to a study in American Bee Journal. CCD has been reported in 35 U.S. states, one Canadian province, and parts of Asia, Europe and South America.

Australian Imports

Colony Collapse Disorder may have started in the U.S. as early as 2004, about the same time a decades-old ban on honeybee imports from Australia was lifted, according to the study.

The restrictions were established to prevent imports of pests that could threaten domestic bees, said Jeff Pettis, an entomologist with the USDA's bee research lab in Beltsville, Maryland, and one of the study's authors.

While studying different bee viruses, the researchers isolated IAPV in a sample of apparently healthy bees from Australia. Every CCD-affected beekeeping operation that was examined either used Australian bees or had mingled with operations that had them, the researchers said. As a result, the USDA is talking with Australia about the status of its bee exports.

Findings Rejected

The Australian government did not respond to requests for comment on the study. A bee industry group rejected the findings.

``We unequivocally reject claims that Australia caused the introduction of Colony Collapse Disorder in the U.S.,'' said Stephen Ware, executive director of the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council in Sydney. Australia's industry is hosting a forum on CCD next week.

Researchers also found IAPV in royal jelly imported from China to feed young bees. Pettis played down links between China and CCD, noting that very little royal jelly is imported for bee feeding in the U.S.

The virus itself likely isn't the sole cause of CCD, said Pennsylvania State University entomologist Diana Cox-Foster, the study's lead researcher.

Australian bees, for example, haven't experienced widespread collapse. The virus in the U.S. may be interacting with additional stressors, especially the varroa mite, which devastates bee immune systems and isn't found in Australia, she said. Pesticides, bee nutrients and the way the insects are transported to fields may also weaken them, she said.

Bee Genes Studied

For the study, the researchers conducted a detailed analysis of bee genes, their hives and their food to determine which germs might likely play a role in colony collapse. They analyzed bees and their environments in four different parts of the country, all affected by CCD, to make a library of genetic material from organisms found in the hives.

The library from CCD-affected hives was compared with data from healthy colonies in Hawaii and Pennsylvania. Material from bees imported from Australia and royal jelly imported from China were also analyzed.

After determining which gene sequences were more likely to be found in affected hives, the researchers searched through a gene database to determine the organisms from which they originated, leading them to the Israeli virus.

More Losses Possible

Pettis said that until more about the malady is understood, researchers can't guarantee there won't be more catastrophic losses.

``Maintain healthy colonies,'' he advised beekeepers, noting that mite-free, well-fed bees will be better able to fight the virus. A five-year USDA ``action plan'' to coordinate research and beekeeper efforts against CCD was announced in July. It may take years to understand and contain the disorder, he said.

``I hope no one goes away with the idea that we've solved the problem,'' Pettis said.

Troy Fore, the head of the American Beekeeping Federation in Jesup, Georgia, said solutions to CCD need to be found soon. More years of catastrophic losses will drive beekeepers out of business, making crop production more difficult, he said.

``You can't be profitable when you lose 60, 70, 80 percent of your bees,'' Fore said. ``We can't sustain these losses.''

The study also included researchers from the University of Arizona, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and from 454 Life Sciences Corp., a unit of Roche Holding AG. It was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Honey Board and the Pennsylvania agriculture department.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alan Bjerga in Washington at abjerga@bloomberg.net .

Are cellphones killing bees?

CCD: Colony Collapse Disorder has been ravaging bee colonies around the world. If it continues, some people are worried that it will wipe out the honeybee, seriously affecting our eco-system.

The Independent recently reported that cellphones & celltowers might be the cause! Is this true? Or is this just inflammatory journalism?