Tiny Parasite Wreaks Havoc on New York Bee Supply

A column from state Sen. Patty Ritchie:

Bees, both wild and managed, play a key role in our state’s agriculture industry, helping crops of all kinds thrive.  

However, these powerful pollinators are under attack by parasitic mites.

The varroa mite – a tiny parasite that attacks honeybees – has infected 90 percent of the bee colonies surveyed this year. As a result, agriculture could see up to $500 million in potential losses. The top crops that are dependent on healthy and abundant pollinators are apples, pumpkins and tomatoes. 

In addition, managed bee colonies in Upstate New York have lost up to 70 percent of their bees over the last few years because of disease, pesticides and loss of habitat, according to a recent state study. Once the mites take hold, potentially deadly viruses spread throughout the colony, which could wipe the colony out.   

Experts say that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep this mite from spreading. The varroa mite thrives off weakened bee colonies and when one colony dies, nearby hives will take honey from the weakened bees, which causes the mites to spread at a rapid rate.

The destruction of bee colonies is starting to reach alarming levels. In an effort to combat this problem, I’m pleased to have been able to secure $290,000 over the past two years in state funding for various programs at Cornell University, aimed at conducting vital research and disease testing to protect our state’s bee population.  

As chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, I will continue to work to support programs and spearhead initiatives designed to preserve our state’s pollinators and help keep this key sector of the state’s economy “buzzing” for years to come.

World Honeybee Day Was Aug. 20

So sorry I missed World Honeybee Day (Aug. 20).

Honey producers are oh, so important to New York state. The Empire State Honey Producers was originally founded in 1870 and today it has various regions of beekeepers such as Northeastern, Southern, West and Long Island.

Most members of the Empire State Honey Producers Association have fewer than 50 hives.

Pollinator Task Force Makes Recommendations to Save Honeybees and Butterflies

From Ag and Markets:

The New York State Pollinator Task Force has come up with recommendations on how to address the decline in bees and other pollinators that has occurred in recent years.

The commissioners of the Department of Agriculture and Markets and the Department of Environmental Conservation have met with farmers, research institutions and key industry leaders to develop a roadmap to conserve and grow pollinator populations across the state. 

Pollinators – which include various types of bees and butterflies – contribute significantly to the state’s agricultural economy by adding roughly $350 million in pollination services on an annual basis.

“Pollinators are critical to our ecosystem, as well as New York's agricultural industry, and the work of this Task Force will help in our efforts to reverse the troubling decline of the bee population in New York and help to preserve and further improve this state's environmental and economic health," said gov. Andrew Cuomo.

As a result of listening sessions and stakeholder input, the Task Force focused its recommendations on four priority areas: 

** Development of Voluntary Best Management Practices for all pollinator stakeholders, including beekeepers, growers, land owners, state agencies and the general public;  

** Habitat enhancement efforts to protect and revive populations of native and managed pollinators;  

** Research and monitoring of pollinators to better understand, prevent and recover from pollinator losses; and  

** Development of an outreach and public education program on the importance of pollinators, engaging the public to be active participants to seek solutions to pollinator declines.

“We are pleased to present the NYS Pollinator Protection Plan, which includes best practices for our farmers, land owners, bee keepers and state agencies, many of which we can get to work on immediately," said Ag and Markets Commissioner Richard Ball.

“While more research needs to be done, we know that the key to reversing the trend of a declining pollinator population in New York is a comprehensive approach that looks at a variety of issues that may be impacting bee health."

Pollinators contribute substantially to the state’s economy. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, pollinators provide about $344 million worth of pollination services to New York and add $29 billion in value to crop production nationally each year. New York’s ability to produce crops such as apples, grapes, cherries, onions, pumpkins and cauliflower relies heavily on the presence of pollinators.
 
Pollinator Protection Plan Recommendations

Central to the New York State Pollinator Protection Plan is the development and implementation of Best Management Practices to guide landowners/growers, contract beekeepers, hobbyist beekeepers, pesticide users and state agencies to safeguard existing managed and native pollinator populations. 

The plan also highlights efforts already underway at various state agencies to reverse the decline in pollinators and 
restore their habitat.
 
Despite a 9 percent increase in honey production last year, New York’s beekeepers continue to experience unsustainable population declines. Over the last four years, recent research indicates managed pollinator colonies have declined over 50 percent while some migratory pollinators have declines in excess of 70 percent. 

This is compounded by the losses in the native pollinator community and the habitat that sustains them.
 
In its report, the task force emphasized the need for comprehensive, state-focused research to better understand the status of native pollinators in the sState and the factors that impact both managed and wild pollinator health and performance.
 
Future Actions and Pollinator Projects

The 2016-17 enacted Budget provides $500,000 through the Environmental Protection Fund to implement key projects central to the success of the Pollinator Protection Plan. 

As detailed in the plan, this money will be used to conduct additional research on the impacts of pesticide and pathogens/parasite interactions on native and managed pollinator health, as well as the effects of bee-husbandry practices on the performance of managed hives. 

Pollinator research funding will also support a multi-year evaluation conducted by DEC on the status and distribution of New York State’s native pollinator species.

Environmental Protection Fund money also will support implementation of voluntary best management practices and outreach and education activities, including the creation of pollinator gardens and interpretative signage at select State Park locations, and the establishment of the New York’s Tech Team for Beekeepers, which will provide participating apiaries with site-specific technical support.

All priority recommendations of the New York State Pollinator Protection Plan can be found http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/279.html  at this link. As new research and monitoring data become available, the Task Force will reconvene with its advisors to evaluate the findings and update the Plan accordingly and to include additional and improved actions.

Cornell Study: Pesticides, Fungicides Used in Apple Orchards Threaten Wild Bees

News from Cornell University:

A new Cornell study of New York state apple orchards finds that pesticides harm wild bees, and fungicides labeled “safe for bees” also indirectly may threaten native pollinators.

The research, published June 3 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, finds the negative effects of pesticides on wild bees lessens in proportion to the amount of natural areas near orchards.

Thirty-five percent of global food production benefits from insect pollinators, and U.S. farmers have relied exclusively on European honeybees, whose populations have been in decline for decades due to colony collapse disorder. 

“Because production of our most nutritious foods, including many fruits, vegetables and even oils, rely on animal pollination, there is an intimate tie between pollinator and human well-being,” said Mia Park, an assistant professor at the University of North Dakota and the paper’s first author, who worked on the study as a Cornell entomology graduate student. Co-authors include professor Bryan Danforth and associate professor John Losey, both in entomology.

“With honeybee numbers in decline, relying on wild pollinators and encouraging the services they provide seem very important,” Park said.

The researchers studied 19 New York state apple orchards over two years, 2011 and 2012. They determined the health of bee populations by analyzing the numbers of wild bees and honeybees and the number of species for each orchard. They also created an index of pesticide use from low to high use, then quantified the amount of natural areas that surrounded each orchard.

“We found there is a negative response of the whole bee community to increasing pesticide use,” Park said, adding that fungicides also are contributing to the problem.

The effects of pesticides on wild bees were strongest in the generation that followed pesticide exposure, Park said, possibly suggesting pesticides affect reproduction or offspring. Park said her research only looked at one generation to the next, and more study is needed. 

The study found no effect of pesticides on honeybees, but European honeybee hives are brought in to an orchard for short periods during blossoming then removed. In addition, growers are careful not to spray while honeybees are in the area. “Honeybees may have shown a response if they were allowed to stay,” Park said.

“Our studies of wild bees in apple orchards are showing how important wild bees are for apple pollination in the eastern U.S.,” said Danforth. With more than 20,000 known bee species, native bees are abundant and diverse in many agricultural habitats, and likely pollinate watermelons, squashes, blueberries and other orchard crops, he said.

Pollinator Health Task Force Praised

News from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand:

U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) praised the Obama Administration for creating a Pollinator Health Task Force to develop a federal strategy to promote the health of honeybees and other pollinators. 

The new interagency task force will help address troubling pollinator declines in California, New York and elsewhere by improving federal coordination to protect the long-term viability of native and managed pollinators.

“New York’s agricultural industry is a key part of America’s economy and pollinators play such an important role in that success,” said Gillibrand, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. “With the alarming drop in pollinators, farmers across America have been suffering from a decrease in agricultural productivity. This new federal strategy to promote the health of honey bees and other pollinators is a step in the right direction. It will allow research to be advanced to better understand and rectify this drastic loss that is impacting America’s agricultural system.”

During negotiations for the 2014 Farm Bill, Boxer and Senator Gillibrand introduced a honeybee and pollinator amendment that among other provisions would have created an interagency task force dedicated to developing a federal strategy to address pollinator declines and sustain a healthy pollinator population. The amendment was included in the Farm Bill passed in the House, but was not included in the final bill.

Since 2006, winter hive losses for managed honeybee hives have averaged nearly 30 percent, compared to historical losses of 10 to 15 percent. The losses in part have been attributed to a phenomenon commonly referred to as Colony Collapse Disorder, which results in sudden and catastrophic hive depopulation. 

Honeybees and other pollinators are under threat by a multitude of stressors including habitat loss, disease, exposure to certain pesticides and management practices. The new task force has been directed with creating an action plan to focus federal efforts on understanding, preventing and recovering pollinator populations.

USDA Announces Money for Honeybee Populations

From the USDA:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Friday June 20 announced $8 million in Conservation Reserve Program incentives for Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin farmers and ranchers who establish new habitats for declining honeybee populations. 

More than half of the commercially managed honey bees are in these five states during the summer. This announcement comes in addition to $3 million USDA designated to the Midwest states to support bee populations earlier this year through the Natural Resources Conservation Service Environmental Quality Incentives Program.

"American agricultural production relies on having a healthy honeybee population," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "In recent years, factors such as diseases, parasites, pesticides or habitat loss have contributed to a significant decline in the honey bee population. This $8 million is part of the Administration's ongoing strategy to reverse these trends and establish more plant habitat on Conservation Reserve Program lands to restore the bee population."

The new Conservation Reserve Program pollinator initiative is designed to further enhance current Conservation Reserve Program land, allowing it to provide better access to nutritious pollinator forage. The program allows for managing or replacing existing vegetation, known as 'covers', with lower cost, high nutrition seed mixes that can support distinct blooming cycles of plants that benefit pollinators. 

Honeybees, the pollinator workhorse of U.S. fruit and vegetable agriculture, will have more blooms from which to collect nectar and pollen to sustain and promote colony growth and honey production throughout the growing season. 

By assisting honeybees, the pollinator initiative helps USDA continue to secure the food supply. More than $15 billion worth of agricultural production, including over 130 fruits and vegetables, depend on the health and well-being of honeybees.

Now is a critical time for efforts to support honeybee populations. The honey bee population in the United States has been declining for decades. The number of managed U.S. honeybee colonies dropped from 6 million in 1947, to just 2.5 million today.

Time Magazine Cover Story This Week on Disappearance of Honeybees

I can't give you the whole story or even a link to the Time Magazine cover story this week on bees because you have to be a subscriber.

But I've read it and it's good -- should be read by anyone who raises food or who eats. Well, hey, that's pretty much all of us, huh.

So get out there and get a copy. Here is a link http://science.time.com/2013/08/09/the-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene/ to a brief introduction to the story by the author.

Honeybees Dead in Canada

Go to http://now.msn.com/millions-of-honeybees-found-dead-in-canada to check out the story.

Ag Officials On Watch for Aggressive Bees

This story is frightening.

Read it http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/jun/17/agriculture-officials-on-watch-for-aggressive/ here.

EPA Accused of Killing Honeybees

Take a look http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/03/26/us-government-sued-for-pesticides-killing-millions-of-bees/ at this story. Let me know what you think?

Scientists Develop Flying Robots to Replace Bees

This is cool.

Go to http://thefutureofthings.com/news/11573/scientists-develop-flying-robots-to-replace-bees.html#.UU1TFbDkJss.facebook. Another way technology helps agriculture.