Courtesy Photo/Image

In recent years, honey bees have begun to mysteriously vanish from their hives.

FREE Mobile Banking NOW AVAILABLE!

No one knows why.

The baffling phenomenon, called “colony collapse disorder,” or CCD, first drew collective attention in 2006. By 2007, U. S. beekeepers estimated more than one-quarter of some 2.4 billion colonies were affected.

In normal swarming, bees leave stressed hives for greener pastures, taking the queen with them. But in these disappearances, the queen and the brood are left behind to perish. Adult workers simply disappear. Few or no tiny winged bodies remain as evidence they were ever there.

Also perplexing, any honey left behind is avoided, which would usually be subject to raids from other bees and insects. It’s as if some invisible warning zone exists.

Nebraska has had no official documentation of the puzzling disorder yet, Dr. Gary Brewer, head of the Dept. of Entomology at UNL, said Monday. But based on evidence in surrounding states, CCD may very well exist here, too, Brewer said.

Rural North Platte beekeepers Dennis and Vonnie Engler would agree. They believe their hives probably suffered CCD in the fall of 2006. The Englers, under the guidance of long-time North Platte beekeeper Lawrence Dircksen, have kept hives since 2002.

“Our hives appeared very strong that fall,” Vonnie Engler said. “A month later, except for a few hives, the bees were all gone.”

They replaced the colonies, and the following year again suffered losses. But not as many, and this time, they suspected a virus, not uncommon in hives.

“We had dead bees in the bottom of the hives and they dwindled off slowly,” Engler said.

Because whatever happens to the bees during CCD happens outside the hive and leaves few clues, researchers are cautious about identifying collapsed hives as CCD.

But, nevertheless, some 24 states, as well as Canada and Europe, have reported cases.

A recent Columbia University study compared genetic screening of abandoned CCD-affected hives with hives with no trace of the problem. A pathogen called Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) was found in 96.1 of the CCD colonies.

But, nevertheless, the study does not credit IAPV, or other pathogens, as the sole cause of CCD, according to the American Beekeeping Federation. Environmental chemicals — pesticides, herbicides or fungicides – and/or nutritional deficiencies may stress the colonies, triggering CCD.

“This is an important finding,” ABF Vice President Zac Browning said in a quote on the July 13 ABF website, “but is it very preliminary.”

Browning, along with beekeepers in states such as Idaho, where two major crops, apples and onions, are pollinated entirely by bees, is unhappy with the lack of promised federal response.

“We have been trying for months now to secure adequate funding for CCD research, but we have yet to succeed,” Browning said. “So far, the research has been funded by the beekeeping industry itself, mainly the National Honey Board, and the research institutions themselves,” Browning said.

The list of possible problems for the tiny bee is large. Multiple stresses are suspected, such as infections, poor nutrition, nutritionally-lacking pollen crops, limited or contaminated water. All can compromise the immune system of bees.

Genetically modified crops have also been suspected, as well as droughts and severe weather, which apparently caused similar die-offs in the past. Global warming could disrupt blooming cycles for plants, and for bees.

And because bees, like birds, are sensitive to electromagnetic fields, even cell phones, with sales of over one billion globally in 2007, have come under scrutiny. However, colonies have disappeared in remote areas where there are no cell phone transmissions.

Another concern is the falling number of beekeepers and the rising demand for honeybees, which were originally imported from Europe. The resulting trucking and increased handling of hives may itself stress the bees.

Although there are some 4,000 species of native bees, European honeybees are larger and more active. They can be raised in large numbers and moved at will for commercial monoculture crops, where blooming takes place all at once.

According to a 2008 USDA report, honeybees were responsible for some $15 billion in specialty crops such as nuts, fruits, berries and vegetables.

About one-third of the nation’s crops are pollinated by the honeybee.