"The bee is very important, and I think we've take this for granted," Brown said.
Ask any beekeeper — or environmentalist — and they'll tell you about the necessary role bees play in the ecosystem. They'll also tell you about the mysterious malady that's been decimating bee colonies across North America.
While wheat, corn and other field crops rely on the wind to spread their pollen, many flowering and vine crops, such as alfalfa, apples, peaches, cucumbers, pumpkins and watermelons, depend on bees to do the job.
For the past 15 years, in February and March, Brown has taken hives to almond groves in California for pollination purposes. This year, he took 20 semi-loads of hives to California, as well as one semi-load to an apple orchard in Missouri.
"There are about six beekeepers that send their bees for me to run in California," he said. "However, the largest amount of the bees are Brown's Honey Farm's."
In all, the pollination service by the collective beekeepers brings in a gross income of about $900,000 — a larger cash flow than received from honey sales.
"Bees increase the crop by 90 percent," he said, explaining why they are in demand. "We need bees to survive. One of every three bites you eat is traceable back to bees."
That's why the dwindling number of bees has scientists, farmers and beekeepers worried.
The cause of the depopulation is colony collapse disorder, or CCD. No one knows what causes the disorder, although some researchers suspect it's tied to a virus, parasites, pesticides or genetically modified crops.
CCD targets adult worker bees, which die outside of the hive. The disorder started last fall in Florida and has spread to 24 states, according to a recent Christian Science Monitor report. Commercial beekeepers say they've lost from 50 percent to 80 percent of their colonies.
Brown, an officer with the American Honey Producers Association, said no treatment is available to control CCD.
But CCD isn't the only hazard facing beekeepers.
"Our current challenge is with mite treatments. The mites become resistant to the treatments that we kill them with. It is difficult to kill one bug (the mite) without killing the other bug (the honeybee)," he said.
The "mite problem," he said, started in the late 1980s with two types of mites: tracheal, which live in the breathing tubes of bees and spread rapidly throughout colonies, and Varroa, which live outside of the hive and feed on the blood of adults, larvae and pupae.
A chemical was developed to control the mites, but the parasites soon became resistant to it. Brown said the beekeeping industry is small so interest in developing a remedy is low.
"It costs millions to develop the treatment and it must be OK'd in all states (where it will be used)," he said, pointing out that every state has honey bees.
While some treatments are successful in a laboratory setting, they later prove to be ineffective in the field.
"The treatment must not contaminate the honey, which is not a simple task," Brown said.
In 1976, the United States was home to 4.3 million bees; last year that number had decreased to 2.3 million, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 1976, Kansas was home to 50,000 bee hives. Last year, there were 14,000 hives.
About 50,000 bees live in each hive.
Read more: http://cjonline.com/stories/070107/lif_181311368.shtml
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