I'm in yur base, killin' yur beez
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3/16/2007 6:00:00 AM Email this article • Print this article
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Beekeepers focus on overall colony health
Advisory committee would be set up within state agency
Cookson Beecher
Capital Press Staff Writer
Eastern Washington beekeeper Eric Olson said he has had a good winter. He lost only 2,000 hives - the equivalent of 11.7 percent of his overall operation - and $280,000 in almond-pollination income in California alone.
He counts himself lucky. He knows of other beekeepers who have lost far more, one of them a beekeeper in the TriCities area who lost 50 percent of his hives.
In the Spokane area, huge losses are being reported this winter.
"Almost everyone had major losses of 50 to 60 percent, although some beekeepers did well," Olson said.
In Western Washington, things are looking a lot better than last year, when the region experienced what Olson describes as a "100 percent wipeout."
While some are attributing the losses to colony collapse disorder, a mysterious illness that's killing tens of thousands of honeybee colonies across the nation, Olson said it's not as easy as pointing a finger to what is still an unknown.
"The scientists are studying colony collapse, but no one knows for sure what's causing it because the bees are dead and gone," he said. "I've heard all of the theories. Everyone's puzzled by it."
He thinks the disorder may actually be a combination of many things that can afflict bees, among them mites, drought, faulty management systems and perhaps even the Northwest climate.
For beekeepers in Washington, the loss of so many colonies has injected added urgency into their goal of setting up an advisory committee within the state's Agriculture Department and working with Washington State University to guide research toward developing a "whole" picture of colony health.
In a recent letter to beekeepers, James Bach, retired Washington state apiarist, provided an update.
On March 8, Bach, along with beekeepers Olson and John Timmons, met with Valoria Loveland, director of the state's Agriculture Department, to talk about the formation of an Apiary Advisory Committee. In his letter to the beekeepers, Bach said Loveland endorsed the idea for the advisory committee, promising the help of the department in getting it formed.
"Beekeepers across the country have experienced disturbing losses of their hives," Loveland said in an e-mail. "A renewed advisory committee would help focus those efforts. I strongly support research efforts to shed some light on the mystery of dying hives."
In the past, an advisory committee operated within the department, but it was disbanded when the department's Apiary Program was terminated in December 2000.
Nevertheless, the department's beekeeper registration program was retained and the money collected in registration fees has funded research of interest to Washington beekeepers.
In 2005-06, 251 beekeepers registered 71,334 colonies. There is about $73,000 in the registration account. It costs the department about $2,000 annually to conduct the registration process.
On the research front, Bach, Olson and Idaho commercial beekeeper Tom Hamilton met with Dan Bernardo, dean of Washington State University's College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences, to discuss the needs of the commercial and noncommercial beekeepers in the state.
In February, the beekeepers met with two of the honeybee researchers at WSU and gave them what Olson refers to as a "vision" for what they want to see at WSU.
"We want a world-class bee program," Olson said, pointing out that the P.F. Thurber Endowed Chair at WSU is the only endowed chair for honeybee research in the nation. "We want WSU to be out in the front of this."
The beekeepers would like research to be done on a wide array of bee-related health factors, among them environmental, chemical and other effects on colonies. The focus would be on knowing what's actually happening in the hives.
Key to this approach are monthly assessments of the hives for several years.
One of the short-term goals Olson has in mind is for WSU to offer beekeepers diagnostic services, which the beekeepers would pay for.
Olson said he's excited about the getting the ball rolling. "We're pushing hard," he said. "We've got to get things going."
Cookson Beecher is based in Sedro-Woolley, Wash. Her e-mail address is
[email protected].