Bee business profitable, but colony collapse is worrisome

It's been labeled "Colony Collapse Disorder," and while bee experts can't pinpoint a cause, they definitely see the effect.

In 2005, Washington state had 51,000 registered bee colonies, which generally consist of up to 60,000 bees each. The number of colonies in the state had fallen to 49,000 by 2006 and took another hit in 2007, dropping to 46,000 colonies, marking a 20-year low.

Olson's Honey, a commercial beekeeper in the Selah area, reported losing 3,600 hives, or about 80 percent of the 4,500 hives they sent to Western Washington last year to pollinate cranberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.

Chester Ferguson, a small commercial beekeeper in Yakima, also reported losses of about 80 percent last year.

Normally, beekeepers can expect to lose about 10 percent of their "equipment" each year for various reasons.

Throughout the past century, the beekeeping industry has experienced peaks and valleys in annual hive numbers, but most declines could be explained. There was the onset of mites in the early and mid-1980s, then Penncap-M, a pesticide poisoning in the mid-1990s.

But no one's been able to explain the recent decline in bees.

"I see some problems if we don't figure out what the main contributing factor of colony collapse is," said Mike Bush, an extension agent with the Washington State University extension service in Yakima County.

"I think it is a combination of several factors that is contributing to it."

Some of those factors could be genetic evolution, disease, pesticides from neighboring fields, mites, pollen nutrition or global warming.

Beekeepers say they're trying to improve colony strength and turn around the decline. Splitting proven strong colonies to build weaker colonies, putting artificial sugar and protein supplements as well as medication treatments in the hives are now the norm.

"We're not romantic beekeeping of 'keep it in a box and collect honey in the fall,' " Ferguson said. "We're doing everything we can to try and figure out how to keep them alive."

Many who are familiar with the decline in bee colonies are hoping for more research. The state Department of Agriculture formed an advisory panel last summer to recommend research.

In January, Eric Olson, owner of Olson's Honey, donated 24 of his hives to the colony health research project being done at Washington State University. Although the state Legislature has not put any money into the project, Olson hopes to raise at least $70,000, including his own $10,000 donation and $20,000 from the state Agriculture Department's advisory panel, to establish a lab at WSU to further study why the bees are dying off.

"We've got to find out what's going on and fix it, and that's only going to be done through research," said Olson.

Even ice cream maker Häagen-Dazs has recognized the problem and has donated $250,000 for research of Colony Collapse Disorder. The ice cream maker, which uses all-natural ingredients, says bee pollination is essential to nearly 40 percent of its superpremium flavors.

The potential impact of colony decline could be that orchardists and other farmers would have to pay more to get bees into their fields. That's something that the extension office's Bush thinks will happen anyway because bees have to be transported and those costs -- which include fuel for the trucks driving across state lines -- are going up, too.

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