04/25/08 WSU and bee industry fund colony research

Washington Ag April 25, 2008 Washington State University scientists and Pacific Northwest beekeepers are joining forces to find out what is causing the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder that has wiped out thousands of hives throughout the region over the past several years. Eric Olson of Yakima, is one of two large beekeepers in the region to donate seed money for the research. He lost 4,000 hives worth approximately $1.2 million this past winter. Olson: "We are pretty progressive and are doing all the things you do to keep bees alive and we still had this setback. So my believe was the only answer to this has got to be a colony health research project where we follow these hives through the year taking samples every 30 days and try and identify what is going on in these hives in a time that maybe we can do something to help them." Industry donations combined with dedicated money from WSU will provide researchers with nearly 200-thousand dollars over the next two years. Bees of course are critical in for pollinating many important Washington crops, including apples. I'm Bob Hoff