Science: Honeybees and Climate

Washington Post staff writer Jane Black was online Monday, Sept. 10 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss this year's disappointing honey crop and how extreme weather is affecting honeybees. She was joined by Wayne Esaias, a Maryland oceanographer at NASA's Goddard Space Center.

Read more in the story: Weather May Account for Reduced Honey Crop (Post, Sept. 10).

The transcript follows.

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Jacksonville, Fla.: If Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus is causing honeybee colony collapse, is anyone working on a solution? Our bees are extremely important to human existence.

Wayne Esaias: A highly talented team of scientists are working on the problem. Making the identification is a huge sign of progress. More information can be found at the website at Penn State. Google MAAREC PSU. The Post also had an article last week.

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Washington, D.C.: Do we know if there have been periods (previous droughts/hot periods) that have had impact on honey bees, or is this unprecedented? What is this telling us about what is going on with the environment?

Wayne Esaias: In the 1950's George Abrams, then MD Apiculturist, wrote that a rainy May spelled disaster for the MD honey crop. It prevents honey bees from gathering nectar. Major losses have also been observed. The present CCD issue is unprecendented in terms of the extent and magnitude of the losses, and we are much more dependent upon honey bees for pollination now.

Jane Black: In my interviews, I talked to apiculurist Eric Mullen who talked about severe weather patterns in California in the '70s that cut the honey production significantly. So it's not unprecedented. The concern now, as Wayne points out, is that with CCD ravaging the bee population, bad weather and bad hive management could make things much worse.

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Pasadena, Md.: I haven't seen a honeybee in years, I suppose due to the virus/parasites, etc. I am wondering what that has done for the population of our native bees, since honeybees were imported by our early colonists. I imagine that the imported bees occupy niches formerly held by native bees. Even though the plight of the honeybee does effect our food production, I would think that it would encourage biodiversity.

Jane Black: Wild honeybees have all but disappeared, killed off as you say, by mites, parasites and pesticides sprayed on industrial crops. The only honeybees we have now are "commercial" or imported bees.

Wayne Esaias: I keep 'nests' for native solitary bees right in my apiary. They do wonderfully. I do not think the competition is severe in MD. Nesting sites and pesticides may the the limiting factors. Nectar and pollen go wasted during the nectar flow.

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Boston, Mass.: Jane: we miss you up here -- I think of you as a food expert. Any comments on what makes for the best honey (and what IS the best honey in the world today?)

Jane Black: Hello, Boston!

In answer to what is the best honey in the world, I can give you a bold and decisive answer: It depends.

There are so many varieties--orange blossom, chestnut, star thistle, lavender, to name just a few. And wildflower honeys also vary in taste depending on where they come from and what was blooming nearby. (Wayne's wildflower honey from Chevy Chase and Highland, just a few miles apart, taste very different indeed.)

So the best I can recommend is try many and see what you like. And play around to see which honeys go well with which foods. Right now, I'm eating my way through a jar of Vermont creamed honey and a summer honey I picked up in Southern Sweden. One combination that can't be beat: chestnut honey and pecorino.

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Herndon, Va.: When were honeybees introduced into the U.S.? Before then, were all "crops" which require pollinations "serviced" by bumblebees?

Wayne Esaias: The earliest I have heard is 1622 by settlers in Jamestown VA. Remember, most of our crops are imports as well. Honey bees are most critical for large mono-culture crops. Bumble bees and other native pollinators can handle most backyard gardens usually, if we are careful with pesticides.

Wayne

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The Plains, Va.: At one time, while teaching high school as my day job, my father-in-law and I easily kept close to 100 hives. That was before mites, beetles and CDD when beekeeping was a lot less stressful. Now, while I grow vegetables as my day job, I struggle to maintain two dozen hives on our farm.

What I am worried about isn't low honey production, actually for us 2007 was a pretty good year, at least better than it has been for much of the last decade, I am instead worried about the difficulty of overwintering hives now that we don't seem to have a consistent winter weather.

It wasn't very long ago where I didn't worry about feeding hives over the winter months. Now, though, because the outside temperatures often rise into the 50's throughout the winter the bees are more active and need more food to survive. The concern we should have is if this is happening to honeybees, with humans looking at the hives attempting to intervene to keep them alive, what is happening to other insects that are necessary participants in our ecosystem?

Leigh

Wayne Esaias: Good comments, Leigh. I had a pretty

good year also, for honey. I don't know the answer to your question, but others share your concern. The US National Academy of Sciences study last fall discusses both honey bees and native pollinators.

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Rockville, Md.: What do you think about the idea that cell phones or related technology is impacting the honeybees? A friend in VT, who lives remotely and does not use a cell phone, says his honeybees are doing just fine....

Jane Black: No one is really sure exactly what's causing the collapse so it's hard to say definitively. But all I've read and heard from the experts is that the cell phone interference is not the problem. It sure makes a good story though...

Wayne Esaias: Some of the most severe cases of CCD have occured in very rural areas with no cell phone towers within hundreds of miles. Its an urban legend.

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Columbia, Md.: Reading your story about weather accounting for reduced honey yields I was puzzled. Of course, weather effects all living things to one degree or another. I guess the story is kind of interesting, but it seems like another not so thinly veiled attempt to insinuate more adverse consequences of global warming.

My question, why do the Democrats and the media, including the Washington Post insist on politicizing global warming science?

Jane Black: Thanks for your question. I can assure you that it is not a veiled attempt to prove or support claims of global warming. Instead, it was merely pointing out that while all the talk is about CCD, this mysterious disease (some have called it the AIDS of the bee community), it's weather that is really hurting many producers big and small.

In a way, I see your point. It is obvious that weather affects a crop, even honey. But sometimes in a world where we buy any food, any time of the year, we forget how important weather and climate are.

Wayne's research is notable because it is one of the first times they've used bees to look at how weather and climate are changing.

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Columbia, Mo.: Jane, Can bees be selected through breeding for better adaptation to climate changes?

Wayne Esaias: Different 'races' of honey bees have distinctly different behavior patterns. The "Africanized" bee, also Apis mellifera, is adapted to tropical climates. The European honey bee which we keep is geared for temperate climates with much more severe winters. So to some extent the selection has occurred naturally. Now, if we just had some good predictions...

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Dunkirk, Md.: Why is the earlier bloom time such a concern? Is it shortening the total length of the nectar flow? Or are the hives not up to full strength by the time the plants start blooming?

Wayne Esaias: It is much harder for us MD beekeepers to get our colony populations built up when the flows come so early, and to have colonies ready to pollinate the apple orchards, for example. Colony strength is very important.

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Dickerson, Md.: I am a beekeeper in Dickerson, Md. I have kept some casual records of bloom times (early spring flowers, tulip poplar) over the past four years mainly out of curiosity. Is there any way I could participate in any ongoing evaluations of this subject? James

Wayne Esaias: We would be glad to have you join in. Go to the web site http://honeybeenet.gsfc.nasa.gov. There is information there on how to start, and protocols for making the measurements.

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Washington, D.C. : Thank you for your attention to this important issue.

Back in March, Congressman Alcee Hastings of Florida introduced legislation to authorize funding for a combination of USDA programs to research Colony Collapse Disorder and the trend of pollinator decline (H.R. 1709 of the 110th Congress). He recently included this legislation as an amendment to the House version of the Farm Bill Extension Act of 2007, which secured significant funding for this research. With the success of this community initiative to collect data, how might community members and backyard bee-keepers translate a similar model of engagement to other CCD research efforts and the USDA initiatives soon to be authorized? Alex, Policy Advisor

Wayne Esaias: The public interest and media attention to CCD has been very welcomed by the beekeeping community, and the funds are sorely needed. My group works closely with the USDA and universities and USGS (colleagues on proposals) and will make sure there is good coordination. Beekeepers throughout the country (and Canada) are interested in helping, but someone needs to provide them the infrastructure, and get them up to speed on how best to couple into the environmental data sets that are becoming available.

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Arlington, Va.: What exactly does Israeli acute paralysis do?

Wayne Esaias: I just learned of this a few days ago, so I can't give a good answer. The short one is that it kills bees.

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Washington, D.C.: In coverage of the new bee virus research last week, one of the USDA scientists said that rising temperatures are not thought to be a cause of colony collapse disorder, because bees can adapt to a range of temperatures. He said severe drought is a problem, though. How do you think climate change factors into all of this, if at all?

Wayne Esaias: Neither drought or rain or climate kills the bees directly. He is correct in that. However all of those add stress, which is thought to contribute to colony health. Bees have good years and bad years, reflecting the impact of weather and climate on their forage, and on their pests and diseases. But hopefully the virus that has now been identified as the agent that actually did the killing can be controlled.

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East Lansing, Mich.: Is the reduction in population seen in honeybees also occurring in related insects, e.g. wasps and yellowjackets? (I would think it is not, given the problem we have been having in our yard with yellowjackets!)

Wayne Esaias: Wasps and yellow jackets are carnivores (or omnivores) in contrast to the bees which are strict vegetarians. The former do only very minimal pollination. They have not been affected by the mites, viruses, and bacteria that plague the honey bees. The past few weeks have seen an increase in yellow jackets trying to get into my hives to steal honey and larvae, but the bees are fighting them off.

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Peshawar, Pakistan: why do we see the unity among the bees?

Wayne Esaias: One answer to that is, like ants, bees have evolved their social structure over the past 100 Million years or so, and have gotten a lot of the kinks ironed out. We see the insect societies that have been successful in doing that. And their plant partners have helped them, and receive benefit in return.

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Jane Black: Wayne, in an ideal world how many beekeepers would you need to participate in your study and over what period of time to get enough data to support strong conclusions?

Wayne Esaias: More is better. Certainly several per county, in order to cover the different geographical and climate regions, would come close to the ideal. There are only a handful of sites in the US that have published records, and most are not longer in operation. Most climatologists like to work with 10-50 year time series. It takes many years to be able to distingish a climate trend from shorter term weather pattern effects and more to make inferences about the future. We have to start somewhere, and I think we have made a good start. How much data is needed to make a strong conclusion depends on the magnitude and severity of the impact, as well. Trying to understand subtle changes can be very frustrating, but currently we need a better baseline to tell us where we are starting from.

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Dickerson, Md.: I was happy to see your mention of the factor of stress. Obviously yellow jackets, wasps, etc., are not trucked around the country in tractor trailers, shipped in the mail, subjected to chemical medication, etc. Honeybees are subjected to an array of stress-causing factors that must inevitably relate to their ability to resist parasites and disease. Do you believe that the commercial beekeeping industry will be receptive to recommendations that might advise modification of some of these practices?

Wayne Esaias: I think the beekeeping "industry" will adapt to practices that will work. Currently they use climate variations to their benefit - lots of beekeepers truck their colonies south so that they build up sooner, then take them west and north as needed to pollinate orchards, cranberry bogs, blueberries, etc. But this can also aid in spreading disease and parasites. The 'industry' has shown a responsiveness to change, and tends to keep up with USDA and university research into best practices, better disease control, etc. They will have to pass on costs to the producer, however. New opportunities may open up, as well for locally based pollinators, tending of native bees, and the like. I have heard several comments that perhaps we have been pushing our bees too hard.

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Jane Black: Well, we're signing off.

Thanks to everyone for reading and for joining us! And, Wayne, congratulations on your terrific work.

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Wayne Esaias: I am signing off. Thanks for all the great questions.

Wayne

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Cambridge, Md.: GREAT discussion. Thanks Jane and Wayne

Jane Black: Glad you enjoyed it!

Wayne Esaias: Likewise.

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