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Buzzing with Activity Northern Colorado beekeepers relish challenge of missing bees By Matt Brady
And as it has in the past, the Northern Colorado Beekeepers Association is sponsoring an annual workshop in Windsor for those who may have been stung with curiosity for the hobby. New beekeepers can expect a fun and educational experience, despite the fact that as of late the craft has become something filled with foreboding intrigue that seems lifted from a futuristic novel. “There is a national bee crisis,” said Beth Conrey, NCBA president. “And the name is colony collapse disorder. CCD is characterized by the sudden inexplicable disappearance of working/field bees. You have a hive that looked fine for all practical purposes, several days later you look at that colony again and there are no bees in there.” Save for the remaining queen and a few nurse bees, all the rest just up and vanish, never to be found again. Northern Colorado beekeepers are honing their sleuthing and entrepreneurial skills as they try to combat CCD. Kris Holthaus a Fort Collins resident and hobby beekeeper, thinks maybe pesticides could be behind the decline, although theories about the phenomenon range widely from blaming parasites to cell phone towers. “I would say that the biggest red-flag I see in all of beekeeping is the amount of aerial pesticide spraying,” she said Sprays used to combat pesky insects have turned out to be equally as deadly to beneficial insects such as bees. Holthaus surmises that with all the revenue generated by chemical companies, few people are actually encouraged to produce products that won’t damage the bee population so severely. “If we put our mind to it, it’s not hard to imagine that we’d be able to develop better products in months, weeks, or even days,” Holthaus said. Besides the fun of taking on the challenge of solving a mysterious bee crisis, there are many reasons to become involved with beekeeping, whether one wants to learn about the intricate lives of bees or even to grow and sell honey. Bees are fascinating creatures and remain “the most studied beneficial insect on the planet,” Conrey said. Conrey promises that bees are so interesting that “you’ll end up spending more time than you anticipated.” That’s certainly true for Holthaus, who has been tending her own hives since 1978. Holthaus originally got into bees for their honey, but now specializes in queen rearing, which as it turns out, has also spawned a unique response to CCD. “My biggest interest is in raising resistant queens who are resistant against all mites and bacteria that affect bees,” said Holthaus. Unlike many beekeepers, Holthaus resists the urge to treat her bees with chemicals, allowing natural selection to demonstrate which bees are stronger than the others. “Out of 25 hives I might take the two or three hives producing the greatest amount of honey and continue to raise the queens from those,” Holthaus said. As a hobby beekeeper, Holthaus enjoys the freedom of not having her financial livelihood dependent on the hives, which allows her to experiment and rear the best queens in the long run. “I have to realize what losses I do accrue are for the betterment of the whole process,” explained Holthaus. “It’s hard to do it but you just have to believe in your idea.” Bee losses aside, Holthaus does manage to make some profit off her hives. Every year she participates in farmer’s markets, selling her honey along with lotion bars, soaps, and pottery. If you’re weighing the pros and cons of taking on beekeeping for a hobby, Holthaus urges you to get involved. “You can get as much out of it as you put into it,” she said. “There’s beekeeping for every lifestyle.” Bee crisis could squelch foods, businesses Farmers, beekeepers, and those in between are still scratching their heads as to the reason for colony collapse disorder. Theories as to its cause range from viruses and bacteria to mites and mold spores. Even cell phone signals have been suggested as a possible cause. Over the last couple of years the mass disappearance of bees has amounted to a national agricultural crisis, severely affecting the California almond crop, which imports the majority of the nation’s bees for pollination. The nation’s bee population has dropped enough that California has been forced to import bees from Australia and other parts of the world. As fifth generation beekeepers in Del Norte, Colo., the Haefeli family has experienced drastic fallout from the disorder. In just the last two years, the family business has reported a decline of roughly 75 to 80 percent of their bees. “It’s a huge loss,” Laura Haefeli said, who runs the company with her husband Tom. “It could very well put us out of business if we continue to have years like we have.” Haefeli reports that colony collapse disorder is not just a national epidemic, but a world-wide one as European countries have also experienced a sheer drop in bee population. The living that the Haefeli’s make off of beekeeping comes primarily from using their bees to pollinate crops. Many crops all over the world depend on bees for pollination. “People don’t realize how important bees are to the world,” Haefeli said. “If they weren’t there, we would have a third less food available than we have now.” A wide variety of products need bees for pollination, including fruit, vegetables, and nuts. Without bees, Haefeli says that many of those things would simply “cease to exist.” Beth Conrey, of the Northern Colorado Beekeeper’s Association, said that if last year’s losses continue, honey bees will be extinct by 2035. |
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