Surveying the Bees

Surveying the Bees. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. The question is being asked about how the honeybees are doing and we hope to soon have an answer as new survey results are expected. It will show whether or not this will be the 4th year in a row that bee numbers have declined according to Jeffrey Pettis of Agricultural Research Service. PETTIS: In the previous 3 winters we've lost 32 and then 36 and the most recent winter 29% of the honey bee colonies nationwide. This winter, particularly the one were just coming through, all signs point to it being very bad for bee survival but we won't know those numbers until we have them in about 3 weeks. Some time back we heard a lot about colony collapse disorder or CCD but as of late there has not been much news. Pettis says: PETTIS: Colony collapse is still out there, it's still affecting us and we still have all the problems we've always had with bees dying from parasitic mites or starvation, things like that so we have our on-going issues and colony collapse certainly hasn't disappeared. Pettis says they have been taking a hard look at pesticides recently and how they might impact the bees. PETTIS: We also just published a survey of colonies we've sampled around the country looking at bees, pollen and wax and a variety of pesticides that are found in those different matrices and the one that this is really of concern is where we find pesticide in pollen, the incoming food of honeybees, the protein food. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.