Beekeepers Find Challenges
Are Growing Tougher
By Bill Busha

hen South Royalton beekeeper Darrell Smith opened his hives this spring to check on the health of the colonies, he didn’t like what he found: More than a third of the bees had died during the winter.

Smith, who has been keeping bees for about 10 years and is Central Vermont’s largest commercial beekeeper, maintains 50 colonies in several "bee yards" located along Route 12 north of Randolph, on Route 14, and in Randolph Center.

In a typical year he’ll harvest up to 3600 pounds of honey, which he sells almost exclusively at the South Royalton Market. He makes and sells beeswax candles as well.

Smith was not alone in experiencing unprecedented losses this winter. Throughout the state, Vermont beekeepers were experiencing a similar problem.

According to Steve Parise, an apiculturist at the Vermont Department of Agriculture and the state’s "bee inspector," there are 1,637 registered beekeepers in the State of Vermont who have 9,861 hives in 2,054 bee yards.

On average, he says, commercial beekeepers reported winter losses this year of 25 to 30 percent. Hobbyists, who typically own from one to five colonies and who may have less expertise, lost up to 100% of their bees.

A loss of that magnitude would have been unimaginable to beekeepers just a few years ago. In the past, a winter loss of 10 to 15 percent was considered normal.

Parise did note, however, that beekeepers statewide have bounced back from winter losses as well, and are optimistic for a good season. "With the right combination of weather, plant bloom, and strong colonies, there should be a good supply of delicious Vermont honey this fall," he said.

While extremely cold winters have always been a challenge for beekeepers, several new challenges have arrived in the last couple of decades. Among them are three different insect pests that can wreak havoc in a hive.

Three Pests

• Varroa mites, which were first detected in Addison and Rutland counties in 1992, are thought to have infested Vermont colonies two or three years prior to that.

They have since spread to hives statewide, says Parise, the bee inspector, and of the 3,125 hives he examined last year, 93 percent suffered from varroa mite infestation. Darrell Smith blames the mites as a leading cause of his winter loss.

About the size of a pinhead, these parasites affix themselves to a honeybee and feed on its hemolymph fluid, or blood, weakening the bee so that it is more susceptible to illness and less able to carry on the work needed to sustain the colony.

The mites reproduce rapidly, laying eggs within the cells of the hive and feeding on the bee larvae. In a year or two, the cumulative impact of varroa mites can wipe out an entire colony that may once have held as many as 50,000 bees during the summer.

• A second parasite, the microscopic tracheal mite, appeared in the 1980s as well. Too small to be seen with the naked eye, this mite lives in the breathing tube of a honeybee where it punches a hole and sucks the blood. Because of its small size, visual evidence of an infestation is hard to document, but Steve Parise advises beekeepers to assume that their hives may be infested.

"There seems to be a general background infestation level in about 6 percent of hives," he said.

• A third insect pest, and the most recently discovered, is the small hive beetle, a voracious feeder that will devour wax, pollen, honey, larvae, and eggs. The beetles can leave the hive in such disarray that the colony may abandon it.

Discovered in the Southeastern United States in 1998, they have made their way north quickly, probably hitching a ride in the hives of large commercial beekeepers in the Champlain Valley who transport hives to the South in the fall to pollinate crops and bring them back to Vermont in the spring.

Although these pests showed up in 39 percent of colonies inspected in 2006, Darrell Smith says they have yet to show up in his hives. He believes that so far they are mostly contained in the Champlain Valley, and feels Vermont’s heavy clay soil may prove to be inhospitable to an insect that prefers the sandy soils of the South.

Helping the Bees

While a beekeeper 25 years ago might have been able to set up a hive and be assured it would prosper on its own, today’s keepers have to be much more involved. Smith employs a variety of techniques in an approach known as Integrated Pest Management to help his bees beat the odds of survival.

"You have to use IPM," he says, "bees today just can’t make it on their own."

That’s one reason wild bee populations have been virtually wiped, and underscores the importance of keeping managed hives healthy to ensure an adequate supply of bees for plant pollination.

With the IPM approach, Smith does such things as placing a specially-sized screen on the bottom of the hive that mites fall through and are unable to get back in, and introducing queens to hives that come from a strain of bee known to be more mite-resistant and winter-hardy.

New "soft" chemical treatments that kill mites are now approved for use in the off-season when honey is not harvested, he says, a safe and effective alternative to the "hard" options that were available in the past and which are still used extensively in some countries that export honey to the United States.

While it still is not possible to rid a hive completely of parasitic pests, the new practices help keep the pest populations at a level that the bees can tolerate.

And Now, Bears

And if all that isn’t enough of a challenge, Darrell Smith has learned to cope with yet another pest—bears, which are willing to go to considerable lengths, and endure considerable stings, to gorge on the developing bee larvae within the hives.

When a bear raided one of his Route 12 bee yards two years ago and tore hives apart, Smith knew that wouldn’t be the last time. Bears have a keen sense of smell and a strong "food memory," and are known to return to places where the food is plentiful and easily accessible. In fact, few things will keep a bear from a food source that it has discovered.

"I think bears are an increasing problem," says Steve Parise. "I advise beekeepers in bear areas to think about putting up an electric fence, or some other type of deterrent to avoid bear damage."

Darrell Smith opted for the electric fence, and has constructed electrified enclosures around the 10 or 12 hives that make up a bee yard. About 16 feet square and five feet high, it uses a solar-powered charger to supply the electricity.

He has built two of the enclosures so far, at a cost of $350 each, and will be building another soon. Although expensive, he has not had additional visits from the bear.

No Trace of CCD

Vermont beekeepers are so far keeping their fingers crossed and hoping that the latest scourge to hit bee yards in other parts of the country will not make it into the state. Discovered this spring in 24 states, a phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder is being blamed for large losses experienced by commercial beekeepers on the West Coast and in the South.

In the affected areas, those opening hives in preparation for the pollination season found that whole colonies had vanished, leaving just a handful of bees behind, or none at all. Unlike the winter-killed bees that are usually found dead in the hive, these colonies had just disappeared.

Losses in California were reported at 30 to 60 percent, while in Texas and some Southeastern states the losses were as high as 70 percent.

Fortunately, no cases of CCD have been documented in Vermont to date, according to Parise.

"The cause is still under investigation," he says, "and researchers are looking at a variety of factors including management practices, pesticides, nutrition, disease, parasites, and genetics."

While scientists are scrambling to identify a cause and fine a solution, laboratories that specialize in bee research are few and poorly funded.

"It would be great if the Farm Bill that is coming up for renewal this year could include more money for bee research," said Smith.

Despite the myriad problems facing beekeepers today and the high winter losses sustained during the past winter, many are optimistic about their ability to remain a viable agricultural entity.

Darrell Smith’s surviving colonies rebuilt their populations quickly during the spring, and by dividing the strongest colonies he has brought his operation back up to the 50 hives he had last year. He’s even hoping to increase his honey harvest in the future. "I’d like to see it increase to between 4,000 and 5,000 pounds," he said, a growth of about 50 percent.