A Call to Organic Beekeeping

Sometime in 2006 I heard about Collany Collapse Disorder - the bees in thousands of hives across the globe just seemed to disappear - and figured it was another fearmongering tactic by left wing eco-Nazis bent on destroying the economy (no, I'm not a fan of Al Gore, but that's an argument for another day). I was wrong. I started paying attention to my neighborhood butterfly bushes. I don't know if that's what they are actually called, but they do attract butterflies and bees love them, too. All I ever seemed to see was wasps and hornets. I didn't see any bumblebees either. At the time I didn't do much else but keep looking and watching.

When John asked me if I wanted to get into beekeeping, I jumped at the idea and really got into the research (see some of our earliest posts for this story). As far as CCD goes, there is no single smoking gun that seems to cause it. That doesn't mean researchers haven't given us some really good ideas as to it cause, though. For a detailed look into the most likely causes of CCD, I recommend reading Rowan Jacobsens's Fruitless Fall. He discovers, as well as further findings from the EPA and others, that it comes from a multitude of factors:

• increased losses due to the invasive varroa mite (a pest of honeybees);  
• new or emerging diseases such as Israeli Acute Paralysis virus and the gut parasite Nosema;
• pesticide poisoning through exposure to pesticides applied to crops or for in-hive insect or mite control;
• bee management stress;
• foraging habitat modification;
• inadequate forage/poor nutrition and
• potential immune-suppressing stress on bees caused by one or a combination of factors identified above.

(http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/about/intheworks/honeybee.htm, 03/11/2011)

 I want to focus on the bee management stressors, particularly "in-hive insect or mite control," "inadequate forage/poor nutrition" and "migratory stress brought about by the increased need to move bee colonies long distances to provide pollination services" (though it's not mentioned in the list above, the article cited adds this as another factor in CCD). To see how these factors work together to cause the bees stress, let's look at the honey industry for a moment.

Honey doesn't make the most money for a beekeeper. These days pollination services can actually make more money than the liquid gold. Most large scale beekeepers (keeping at least 500 hives but more likely a thousand or more) move their hives all through the year, following the blooms of various crops. They rent out their bees to farmers to pollinate the crop to maximize fruit or vegetable production. The almond crops in California are probably the largest of all the single crops that need the bees. Beekeepers this year will make between $120 and $180 per hive. Ironically, almond honey is bitter and not used for human consumption (http://www.beesource.com/point-of-view/joe-traynor/almond-pollination-2011-let-the-games-begin/).

After one crop is finished, the beekeepers pack all their bees onto flatbed trucks and haul them to the next crop that is throwing nectar or needing pollination, moving northward as the season gets warmer. At the end of the year, they usually move them back to the south to get them ready for the next year. (Read Robbing the Bees by Holley Bishop for an unabashed look on the migratory beekeeping industry.)

By doing this, migratory beekeepers have done a number of things to the bees. Bees are pretty much homebodies. They pick a spot and can stay there for years as long as nothing disturbs them too much. In other words, they naturally only move if they have to. Forced migration stresses a hive badly. Stress a body too much and it will get sick easier. One side effect comes from pests and diseases (such as the aforementioned mites and gut parasites Nosema from the EPA article, plus many more) spreading with the migrations. What would take decades for a disease or parasite to do via traveling from sick hive to healthy hives and beyond, migratory beekeeping has spread most of the them to nearly all points of the United States.

As beekeepers found their bees succumbing to the pests and diseases, they sought treatment. Antibiotics and miticides were applied liberally. It worked for a bit, then the diseases and pests developed resistance to the treatments. More and different treatments were applied and resistances continue to build.

Ready for another irony? In small doses, the pesticides used to treat the mites are harmless to the bees. But the pesticides build up in the honey comb that the bees build and eventually gets to levels that are harmful to the bees, whom don't seem to build any resistances to them. In the bullet point above that aims at pesticides for crops and in-hive use being a contributing factor to CCD, it doesn't mention something important. Jacobsen discovered that the wax comb from an average hive contained multiple types pesticides, most of the variety coming from those that are applied to crops. However, the ones by far in the highest concentrations were the ones beekeepers use for mite control. The evidence strongly suggests that beekeepers carry most of the responsibililty for poisoning their bees.

Inadequate forage and poor nutrition also play into this problem. Imagine eating nothing but hamburgers (with no condiments or cheese or bun, just the burger) and only one kind of beverage for several weeks. It wouldn't do a body very good: we need not only good food but a variety of it for diversity in nutrients and in flavor. When the bees are used strictly for pollination, this is what happens to them: the pollen they collect gives them protien and the nectar gives them the sugars they need, but the monoculture diet doesn't give them all the nutrients they need. A study from France shows some of the negative effects of such diets.

At least two studies in Europe found that the monoculture-style of agri-business has made an impact on bee health. In every industrialized nation food production focuses on large tracts of single types of plants. In America, corn stands as the plant of choice, taking up so much space in our greenbelt that the crops can be seen from space. This lack of diversity has its own impact on the health of the land, but also on the health of pollinators like bees. Matthew Oates, Nature Conservation Adviser at the National Trust, an charity that works to protect 350 historic houses, gardens and ancient monuments in England, cited the limited pollen sources available to bees in the country as one of the causes of the 50% decline in the population of bees over the last 20 years. But urban beekeepers are finding the exact opposite. Due to the wide variety of plants avaialbe to bees through gardening, honey bees thrive in the city. “These are interesting early findings, seemingly backing what we've suspected for a while - namely that bees today often fare better in urban environments than in contemporary farmland,” he said. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/beekeeping/7950014/Bees-fare-better-in-town-than-country.html#)

In France, the findings run the same course. Urban beekeeper and artist Olivier Darné spoke about a similar study. "We did an analysis of the honey we made here in Paris and discovered that it contained more than 250 different pollens. In the countryside there can be as few as 15 or 20 pollens." Much more anecdotedly, John and I have seen the same thing with our bees. We did four harvests through the season last year and each successive harvest contained darker and darker honey, suggesting a variety of flowers over their gathering season. Such a variety helps keeps the bees healthy and productive. As Darné puts it, "It is an unwelcome paradox that city bees do better than country bees." (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10942618)
As much as it seems that I am, migratory beekeeping practices cannot be held completely to blame for this interplay of stressors that wreak havoc on the bees. Because of our penchant for "better living through chemicals" and looking for easy fixes, humans love to get addicted to the "what works" method of dealing with life, even when it no longer does. Most migratory, non-migratory commmercial, small-scale and hobbyist beekeepers use miticides and antibiotics on their hives. And they often use them whether needed or not for preventive measures or because that's what they were told to do by the books, internet, etc.

So where does a second-year hobbyist get off telling everyone they need to change their ways? Looking at the research tells me that we need to move to new methods to save the bees, and thus a good portion of the agricultural business that depends on them. We need to change our beekeeping habits as much as we need to change the habits of agribusiness if we are to sustain our food industry. Just as the bees suffer from long term exposure to "harmless" pesticides, we will at some point, too. As an example tied to agriculture, manufacturers of high-fructose corn syrup tell us that ingesting it in moderation is fine, no different than sugar. But how does one take HFCS in moderation when it is in nearly all processed foods?

Pesticides and herbicides in our diet are even worse: they are in everything that we eat that is not organically grown.

John and I and a number of other beekeepers are looking to organic beekeeping as a way not only to save the bees, but to enhance their lives. Ross Conrad recently put out a book called Natural Beekeeping. I recommend doing the research and discovering what we did, it will change how you view the food you put in your mouth and change it for the better. Then look into getting into beekeeping...you'll be glad you did when you realize that you can contribute something to the world in such a fun and fascinating way.