‘It’s unprecedented’ - Central Valley beekeepers devastated by honeybee die-offs

‘It’s unprecedented’ - Central Valley beekeepers devastated by honeybee die-offs

A honeybee research organization estimates as many as 1.6 million hives - more than half the country’s cultivated honeybee population - died off this past winter.


FRESNO, Calif. – Tens of thousands of bees are swarming over David Bradshaw’s head. That’s a good thing – he’s a commercial beekeeper and broker, and the insects whizzing through the air are looking for a new place to build their hive.

There’s “30,000, maybe,” he said, nonchalantly. “They're trying to follow a queen to find out exactly where she went.”

Samantha Rangel
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KVPR

Bradshaw has been a commercial beekeeper for 50 years. His bees, which he keeps at his shady estate on the outskirts of Visalia, pollinate almonds, avocadoes, kiwis and olives. He also sells honey.

But, this past winter, something strange started happening at his bee boxes.

“You're expecting a lot of bee activity, bees flying in and out, collecting pollen, nectar–and there's no activity, and as you open the box, there's no bees,” he said.

He found that some of his bees had deformed wings. Others were dead – or just gone.



“Pretty soon, it was just overwhelming,” he said. “We just couldn't keep up with the amount of dead hives coming in.”

Of the 1,800 hives he counted last fall, just 320 survived the winter.



“It's like, what did I do wrong? I'm a very bad steward of my bees. You know, it really hurts,” he said.



But this didn’t just happen to Bradshaw. This was the most deadly winter on record for commercial honeybees in the U.S.

These busy insects not only make honey, they also pollinate more than 100 fruits, vegetables and grains grown in the U.S., contributing to roughly $18 billion dollars in agricultural revenue each year.

It’s too early to tell what these losses will mean for ag, but beekeepers and others in the bee industry are poised to lose hundreds of millions of dollars.

“I haven't had anything like this happen to me in 20 years,” Bradshaw said. “It’s unprecedented.”

Kerry Klein
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KVPRBeekeeper David Bradshaw examines a bee colony he's trying to rebuild.


What happened?



Starting in January, beekeepers all over the country were calling bee scientists in a panic to report their sudden, massive colony losses, according to Danielle Downey, who runs a non-profit research organization called Project Apis m.

“It was like the bees were slipping through their fingers in days,” said Downey, whose organization is named after Apis mellifera, a species of honeybee.

The group quickly pulled together a survey of beekeepers and received enough responses to account for the majority of the country’s cultivated colonies. The results of the survey, published in February then confirmed earlier this month, showed that commercial beekeepers lost a “staggering” number of bees: 1.6 million hives – an average loss of 62% – in just one season.



“These are the highest losses ever recorded,” she said.



These mass die-offs come nearly 20 years after the peak of another mysterious affliction that devastated bees: colony collapse disorder. Even today, scientists haven’t been able to identify a single cause of those losses. Research suggests pesticide exposure and a parasite known as Varroa mites could play a role.

The highest losses from that disorder occurred in 2006, but annual deaths of around 30% of commercial bees are still considered normal.

As for why that number was so much higher this year, Downey says researchers just don’t know yet.

“Is there potentially a new virus?” she said. Plus, “there's resistance to the compounds that kill the mites, there's always a concern about pesticide exposures.”

Scientists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture are analyzing samples of bees, larvae and honey, to try to figure out what happened. But Downey said the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal workforce have slowed this work down.

In February, the Trump White House ordered thousands of probationary employees to be fired from the USDA – orders that were echoed across many other federal agencies. In March, a federal board determined the firings at the USDA specifically were illegal and ordered those employees to be reinstated for at least 45 days.

Then, just this week, an appeals court ruled that the federal government can, legally, fire probationary workers. It’s unclear whether that ruling will supersede the previous one that purported to keep the USDA’s probationary workers employed until at least April 18.

“The USDA scientists that we work with on these things who have been heroically showing up to help us in this crisis – they're in their own crisis, watching their friends get fired and worried for their own jobs,” Downey said.

Although a March news article from Cornell University suggested that bee experts in academia were stepping up to fill in gaps left behind by staffing cuts at the federal agricultural department, the USDA itself didn’t answer questions about whether employees at its five Bee Labs were fired but did send KVPR a statement via email.

“USDA is aware of the unusual losses to our nation’s honey bee colonies and is concerned about its potential impact on food production and supply. USDA Agricultural Research Service scientists are working closely with federal partners, stakeholders, and impacted parties to identify the source of this agricultural challenge,” the statement reads.



Kerry Klein
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KVPRTerra Bella Beekeeper Dustin Reeder demonstrates how he raises new honeybee queens in so-called queen cells.


Long-term outlook remains unclear





“Even though most years are difficult, this year was exceptionally difficult,” said Dustin Reeder, a commercial beekeeper in the Tulare County community of Terra Bella.

Like David Bradshaw, Reeder is also a bee broker, coordinating the shipping of bee boxes from all over the country to pollinate California almonds and stone fruit before moving on to Washington apples and canola flowers in North Dakota.

Even with so many honeybee losses, Reeder says he has scrounged together all the bees his clients have needed so far. But the experience has been grueling.

Kerry Klein
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KVPRDustin Reeder keeps bees at his Terra Bella ranch with two of his beekeepers in training - Asa, left, and Abel.

“This year I was working at least 20 hours a day,” he said. “I was not able to come home at night. I stayed in my truck and I'd get a few hours of sleep and I'd keep going.”

Because most crops won’t be harvested for many more months, farmers and trade organizations say it’s too early to tell how these honeybee losses will affect agriculture.

But Project Apis m. estimates beekeepers alone could lose more than $600 million.

“Collectively, these economic and biological hurdles will likely make it impossible for beekeepers to rebuild, pollinate, and produce a honey crop this year, which could have continued impacts on beekeeping operations and our nation’s produce supply,” reads a recent press release from the organization.