RICHMOND—Congress has not given the U.S. Department of Agriculture the money it needs to track the full impact of Colony Collapse Disorder, a problem that’s killing thousands of honey bee colonies each winter.

But beekeepers and local bee organizations are doing their best to fill in the gaps. And more beekeepers are being trained all the time.

“The interest in beekeeping remains strong,” said Keith Tignor, state apiarist with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. “We’re seeing more and more local beekeeper associations; in fact, I helped start another one in Fluvanna County” earlier this year. “At some of the classes we have had to turn away participants. And the number of hives seem to be stable right now.”

Honeybees are essential to American agriculture, because they pollinate a wide variety of crops. CCD has been a problem for the nation’s beekeepers for more than five years. It’s characterized by worker bees abandoning hives en masse, leaving the queen bee and the unborn bees to die. Possible causes include parasites, environmental contamination or disease, or a mix of both. Scientists have been unable to pin down the exact causes in part because they’ve never been able to locate the missing bees.

A USDA internal audit found that while large amounts of research funding has gone into addressing the problem, $2.75 million a year authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill for a national survey of beekeepers has not been funded. Since only one in five beekeepers voluntarily report to regulators, any figures on hive losses are anecdotal, the audit said.

“Virginia is one of 34 states that have been participating in informal surveys of beekeepers for all bee pathogen, disease and loss problems,” Tignor said. “So while we’re doing our best, these are unofficial numbers.”

Virginia hive losses to CCD averaged about 
30 percent over the winter of 2010-2011. Tignor said he has not heard of any severe losses in Virginia this winter. The national rate of hive losses to CCD was estimated to be 34 percent last year, he said.

VDACS and Virginia Cooperative Extension have been offering beekeeping classes at the local level. Tignor said interest in those classes remains strong, but the number of hives in Virginia is still 25,000 to 30,000—only one-third of what was accounted for 30 years ago.

Harsh winters used to be one of the major stressors on bee hives, and Tignor said this winter’s warmer weather has been a blessing. But he warned that winter isn’t over yet.

“The downside of it is that the workers were out flying around on warmer days, which tends to wear them down faster. Also they had a lot of pollen coming in in January and February, which normally doesn’t happen. That tends to increase the number of larvae in the hive, leaving them vulnerable to a late-winter cold snap.”

Contact Tignor at 804-786-3515 or Norm Hyde, VFBF communications, at 804-290-1146.