Hunter Rion

4/18/2014

Independent Research Scholarly Essay

Honey Bees are critical contributors to agriculture and our ecosystem, All in all,
nearly one hundred cropsrely on bees for some or all of their pollination. In fact, 80
percent of the food we put in our mouths relies on pollination somewhere down the line
(Jacobsen, 2008, p. 18). Agriculture depends on pollinators, There are fruits and seeds all
kinds, most of them inedible and virtually unnoticeable to us. Yet, taken as a whole, they
form the basis of our health and prosperity. They need their pollinators, and the pollinators
need the plants just as much (Jacobsen, 2008, p. 203). A majority of farmers are not able to
successfully grow crops without the assistance of honeybees and other pollinators, Honey
bees are indispensible farmhands, pollinating some 95 kinds of fruits and vegetables grown
in the United States (Stokstad, 2007, p. 970).
Farmers have a variety of factors to consider when growing crops and pollination has
become a new concern, Farmers worried about land and water and sun, but they never had
to think about the bugs that would set their fruit (Jacobsen, 2008, p. 15). Farmers are being
forced to spend extra money to rent hives in an effort to pollinate their crops, Some
scientists now fear that the emergence of CCD will tip the balance, forcing many beekeepers
out of business and raising costs for farmers who already rent hives because of a lack of
natural pollinators (Stokstad, 2007, p. 970).
There is a decline in the bee population due to a modern day phenomenon called
colony collapse disorder that is affecting beekeepers, Colony collapse disorder, or CCD, is
their most recent scourge. Over the past four years, approximately 30% of U. S. honeybees
alive in the fall failed to survive to pollinate blossoms in the spring (Rucker & Thurman
2011). Beekeepers across the country are experiencing bee loss, Some 29% of 577
beekeepers across the country reported CCD and losses of up to 75% of their colonies in the
last 16 months, according to a survey run by Bee Alert Technology in Missoula, Montana
(Stokstad, 2007, p. 971). Beekeepers routinely experience abandoned hives and bee die-offs
but the loses attributed to CCD are abnormal, All told, Hackenberg has lost 85% of his
3,000 hivesand $450,000 of income. Although beekeepers are used to abandoned hives
and bee die-offs, the extent was far worse than Hackenberg had ever experiencedand he
has tended bees for more than 4 decades (Stokstad, 2007, p. 970). In CCD affected hives the
worker bees abandon the other bees, In affected hives, the worker bees simply disappear,
leaving behind perhaps a queen, a few attendants, and maybe a drone or two, sole survivors
in a hive that remains full of honey (Ilona & Readicker-Henderson, 2009, p. 122). Dead
bees are not present in the abandoned hives, which contributes to the challenges concerning
CCD research, The defining characteristic of CCD is the disappearance of most, if not all, of
the adult honey bees in a colony, leaving behind honey and brut but no dead bee bodies
(Kaplan, 2012, p. 4).
Researchers and scientists have not been able to determine the cause of CCD, While
many possible causes for CCD have been proposed, reported, and discussedboth in the
scientific literature and popular mediano cause has been proven (Kaplan, 2012, p. 5).
None of the CCD causes researched have been able to stand up to detailed scrutiny, While a
number of potential causes have been championed by a variety of researchers and interest
groups, none of the causes has stood up to detailed scrutiny. Every time someone has
proclaimed a potential smoking gun, further investigation has not been able to make the leap
from cause-and-effect for one reason or another (Kaplan, 2012, p. 5). Various CCD
contributing factors are being examined, The bee labs scientists have been looking for the
causes of CCD within four broad categories: pathogens; parasites, such as Varroa mites or
Nosema; environmental stressors, such as pesticides or lack of nectar diversity; and
management stressors (Kaplan, 2012, p. 5). It appears that CCD is not caused by one factor,
but a combination of contributing factors, ARSs research work, along with that of
university and other scientists, pretty well supports the idea that CDC is caused by multiple
factorspossibly working individually, but more likely in combination, Pettis adds
(Kaplan, 2012, p. 5).
Pesticides have consistently been proposed as a contributing cause of CCD, but
research does not provide the necessary scientific data, Pesticidesindividually and in
generalhave been repeatedly nominated as a cause of CCD, often without direct scientific
data to support the idea (Kaplan, 2012, p.6). Low doses of neonicotinoids affect he bees
ability to navigate back to the hive, The main focus of Cox-Fosters working group is on
nicotine-based compounds called neonicotinoids, which were first introduced as pesticides in
1992. One idea is that low doses interfere with a bees ability to navigate back to the hive
(Stokstad, 2007, p. 971). One compound, imidacloprid, can kill bees in high doses, And lab
studies have shown that at least one such compound, imidacloprid, can kill bees at high
doses (Stokstad, 2007, p. 971). France banned imidaloprid when beekeepers expressed
concerns about losing bees, In 1999, France banned impidaloprid after beekeepers
complained that it was causing up to 40% of their colonies to die (Stokstad, 2007, p. 971).
Modern beekeeping practices are putting honeybees at a higher risk, Modern
beekeeping itself, some suggest, puts the insects at risk. In the past 2 decades, as the United
States started importing cheap honey from abroad, large beekeeping operations began to
make more of their income from renting hives to farmers (Stokstad, 2007, p. 972).
Honeybees were not intended to travel around to pollinate multiple crops, in numerous states,
Ellis speculates that the physical movement of hives from state to state disturbs the colonies.
And placing vast numbers of colonies in one part of California raises the risk of spreading
diseases, he says (Stokstad, 2007, p. 972). Honeybees are stressed because they are being
forced to pollinate in abnormal circumstances, Hives are normally inactive during this time
of year. But the colonies need to be jam-packed with bees when placed into the flowering
almond groves in February, so beekeepers feed them high-fructose sugar syrup (Stokstad,
2007, p. 972). The syrup makes honeybees more susceptible to CCD, The syrup diet may
impair the bees health, putting them on the verge of a colony collapse (Stokstad, 2007, p.
972).
Researchers continue to organize research in an effort to prevent the loss of
honeybees, The international COLOSS network (Prevention of honey bee Colony LOSSes)
has therefore been created to coordinate efforts to explain and prevent large scale losses of
honey bee colonies at a global scale (Carreck & Neumann, 2010, p. 3). This will help CCD
research to be less duplicative, COLOSS comprises all three groups of stakeholders;
scientists, beekeepers and industry with the aim of complementing rather than duplicating
research approaches, and to create transnational synergies (Carreck & Neuman, 2010, p. 4).
Unfortunately some research efforts are not being granted despite the seriousness of this
issue, Researchers at the Beltsville meeting agreed that the immediate top priority is better
surveillance to establish the true incidence of colony collapse. They called for a $2 million
survey of bee health by USDAs Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which the
agency had proposed last year but was not funded (Stokstad, 2007, p. 972). The positive
news is that bee losses have remained consistent for the past four years, What we know
about bee losses since then is that they increased immediately after the discovery of CCD in
2006 and have remained at about 30% for the past four years (Rucker & Thurman 2011).
It is our responsibility as citizens, educators, and beekeepers to become aware of how
we can protect our bees, Our world is a dangerous place for them, and it will take a
Herculean effort on the part of all humanspeople who keep bees, people who study bees,
and even people who read about beesto see them through (Burns, 2010, p. 55). Educators
have the responsibility to teach students the importance of being responsible citizens and
being aware of issues like CCD, Through exposure and experimentation, youth develop
their own unique idioms of investigating and making: they craft the voices through which
they contribute to and shape public democratic dialogue (Gude, 2009, p. 3) Art students can
be taught to become life-long responsible citizens who do make a difference, Youth learn
that it is their democratic responsibility to be life-long makers of meaning through active
participation in receiving, deconstructing, and reconstructing shared meaning (Gude, 2009,
p. 5).
Burns, L. G. (2010). The hive detectives: chronicle of a honey bee catastrophe. Boston.
Gude, O. (2009). Art education for democratic life [NAEA Lowenfeld Lecture]. Retrieved
from http://www.arteducators.org/research/2009_LowenfeldLecture_OliviaGude.pdf
Ilona., & Readicker-Henderson, E. (2009). A short history of the honey bee: humans, flowers,
and bees in the eternal chase for honey. Portland.
Jacobsen, Rowan. Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming
Agricultural Crisis. New York: Bloomsbury, 2008.
Kaplan, J. (2012). Colony Collapse Disorder. Agricultural Research, 60(6), 4-8.
Neumann, P., & Carreck, N. L. (2010). Honey bee colony losses. Journal of Apicultural
Research, 49(1), 1-6.
Rucker, R. R., & Thurman, W. N. (2011, Jun 22). Blessed are the beekeepers; despite the
much-hyped 'colony collapse disorder,' there are plenty of bees and honey. Wall
Street Journal (Online). Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/873340681?accountid=14867
Stokstad, E. (2007). The Case of The Empty Hives. Science Magazine, 316(5827), 970-972.