# Bees and colony collapse again **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 7, 2007, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bees-and-colony-collapse-again/407084 "2007-06-07T03:21:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bees-and-colony-collapse-again/407084/1 "2007-06-07T03:21:58Z")
The epidemic of colony collapse has been discussed here before. Those discussions have focused on possible causes and are not linked to, partly because I’m being lazy, but also because this thread is less about the cause as the effect. So it may be caused by an infectious agent, a toxic agent, or a consequence of industrial monoculture farming and the transport of hives all over creation stressing out the buggers and making them subject to all sorts of pathogens (or even hypothetically cell phone use) … but what is likely to be the actual effect? It must be noted the honeybees in danger are an alien species brought over from Europe that subsequently became feral. The American honey industry has already been undercut by global competition. The business of these honeybees is more in commercial pollination. Hives are hyped up on sugar water and transported to fields (almond groves, etc) to do the business of pollination. Why are they needed? Because modern commercial monculture has made it tough going for native bee species which need a variety of native flowers scattered amidst the fields. These bees are unassuming and nonaggressive. You often hardly notice them. Sweat bees. Digger bees. So on. Often they live in small hives. They do not make much honey. They do not travel far. But a few small swaths of clover, coneflower, aster, and Monardia scattered in the groves and some undisturbed piles of sticks are enough to keep them happy and pollinating away. So other than those in the honeybee industry who should really care about colony collapse syndrome? Farmers just need to slightly modify practices to planting a few flower stands and steward the land with some native plantings that will support the native bees which seem unaffected by colony collapse syndrome and who will do the job just fine. Bzzzness as usual otherwise. Anything wrong this this analysis? ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bees-and-colony-collapse-again/407084/2 "2007-06-07T12:25:09Z")
[Staff Report: Why are the bees disappearing](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mvanishingbees.htm) suggests what you do: no impact except for those individual beekeepers whose hives are lost. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bees-and-colony-collapse-again/407084/3 "2007-06-07T12:25:49Z")
Wasn’t this a storyline on _The X-Files?_ ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bees-and-colony-collapse-again/407084/4 "2007-06-08T16:48:28Z")
Thanks for the link **CK**. I would love to hear **Doug** ’s take on the concept that minor changes in industrial agriculture practices could help facilitate native bees filling in any pollinating gap. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2007, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bees-and-colony-collapse-again/407084/5 "2007-06-10T16:05:13Z")
[Today’s (6/10/07) Chicago Tribune is running a reprint of an LA Times piece on CCD.](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-sci-bees10jun10,1,3049376.story?coll=chi-news-hed) They’re saying it’s a pathogen, and it’s NOT one that’s been seen before. > [@Chicago Tribune](#): > > The idea that a pathogen is involved is supported by recent experiments conducted by VanEngelsdorp and USDA entomologist Jeffrey S. Pettis. > > One of the unusual features of the disorder is that the predators of abandoned beehives, such as hive beetles and wax moths, refuse to venture into infected hives for weeks or longer. > > “It’s as if there is something repellent or toxic about the colony,” said Hayes, the Florida inspector. > > To test this idea, VanEngelsdorp and Pettis set up 200 beehive boxes with new, healthy bees from Australia and placed them in the care of Hackenberg. > > Fifty of the hives were irradiated to kill potential pathogens. Fifty were fumigated with concentrated acetic acid, a hive cleanser commonly used in Canada. Fifty were filled with honey frames that had been taken from Hackenberg’s colonies before the collapse, and the last 50 were hives that had been abandoned that winter. > > When VanEngelsdorp visited the colonies at the beginning of May, bees in the untouched hive were clearly struggling, filling only about a quarter of a frame. Bees living on the reused honeycomb were alive but not thriving. A hive that had been fumigated with acetic acid was better. > > When he popped open an irradiated hive, bees were crawling everywhere. “This does imply there is something biological,” he said. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2007, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bees-and-colony-collapse-again/407084/6 "2007-06-11T05:06:46Z")
I’m all in favor of reducing our reliance on one particular species as well as eliminating the dominant monoculture approach in today’s agriculture. But, what is a reasonable timeframe for doing this, and in that timeframe, are we going to be able to sustain production of affected crops?