Fears that bee colony disease is here

Don Farmer | 6th October 2008

Fears that the devastating bee disease Colony Collapse Disorder has arrived in Wairarapa has prompted a leading beekeeper to make an appeal to farmers using sprays.

Hobby beekeepers have reported bees absconding to the stage hives have become barren but there is thankfully little sign of widespread problems in the commercial sector.

President of the Beekeepers Association of New Zealand in the lower North Island Peter Ferris said that a constant watch is being kept on the situation and the problem was worsening throughout much of the world.

Although the causes of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) remain unclear one of the prime suspects is pesticides being used wrongly.

Mr Ferris said farmers, particularly cropping farmers, must be very vigilant when applying sprays to make sure spraying is done to instructions and at the right time, to avoid spraying when plants are flowering.

"They need to remember bees fly in a radius of 2km so just because you don't have hives on your property it doesn't mean your actions are not infecting or poisoning someone's colony."

Mr Ferris said whereas clumsy use of sprays is heavily suspected as the cause, cellphone radiation and genetically-modified crops had been wearing some of the blame even though experts have "no guaranteed evidence".

Varroa mite has wiped out feral bees so farmers and horticulturists are dependent on controlled hives for pollination.

Mr Ferris said farmers were making more and more demands for hives but many were slow in realising it was a two-way street.

Not only did they need to take care with spraying to protect the bees pollen supplies they also needed to look after the safety of hives.

"Farmers must learn that to a beekeeper a hive is a farming unit, just as cattle or dairy cows are to them."

One of the mysteries surrounding CCD is although adult bees abscond from the hive there is little or no build-up of dead bees in or around the colonies, indicating they die away.

Hives then become weak and cold and continue to reduce in numbers until they are barren.

Masterton hobby beekeeper Gavin Banks has lost four hives.

Mr Banks said one hive remains and is struggling, even though he is keeping a close watch on it. Problems with bee populations had started before the onset of winter and the hives had "fizzled out" with the arrival of spring, the time of year they would normally kick away.