By RICK A. RICHARDS
Indiana Correspondent

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Every summer that Jeff Mitzner needs honeybees to pollinate his green beans, cucumbers and other specialty crops, he gets them. But he is lucky.

The southern LaPorte County, Ind., farmer has been using honeybees supplied by Dennis Dixon, a field manager for Hartung Bros. of Wisconsin, which contracts with beekeepers around the Midwest to move hives around the country. “I haven’t had any trouble getting the bees I need,” said Mitzner, who grows beans and cucumbers on contract to Walmart.

Dixon said he hasn’t had any trouble getting bees to meet the demand of clients. It can be tight at times, because there has been a dramatic decline in the number of honeybees in the United States over the past 25 years – from more than 7 million hives down to about 2.5 million.

Farmers such as Mitzner get bees in late spring and early fall to pollinate their vegetable crops, while this time of the year, some 2 million hives – nearly all available in the U.S. – are headed to California to pollinate the almond crop.
According to a recently published report by the National Academy of Sciences, four species of honeybee have declined by 96 percent over the last 15 years and the range of honeybees has shrunk by as much as 87 percent. Further, bees pollinate 15 percent of all crops in the nation, representing $3 billion.
No specific cause for the decline was given, although a combination of factors ranging from loss of habitat to pesticides from pollution to disease were blamed.
Greg Hunt, a biologist and bee specialist at Purdue University, said no major declines in Indiana’s bee population has been reported since 1990, but before then, there were big die-offs.

“The die-offs are kind of cyclical,” said Hunt, who’s also an advisor to the Indiana Beekeepers’ Assoc.

Hunt blames the varroa mite for most of the decline in Indiana. The mite, about the size of a pinhead, has been responsible for honeybee die-offs in Canada and Europe as well. The varroa mite, which originated in southeastern Asia, was described by Hunt as “tick-like” by affixing itself to bees and sucking its hemolymph fluid, which acts as blood in bees.

Varroa mites are carried inside a hive by host bees and once inside, the mites attack bee larvae, either killing them or causing birth abnormalities. If left unchecked, varroa mites can kill a hive.

“We have 160 hives here at Purdue and there are varroa mites in every one,” said Hunt, adding that close monitoring of the hive helps control the mite population. “I blame varroa mites for much of what is happening right now.
“But the good news is that bees are starting to fight back. The bees that are fighting back are being bred by beekeepers.”

Bees that pay attention to their hygiene and the hygiene of the hive are able to control the mite, said Hunt, adding that some appear to have the ability to smell the mite and when they do, they attack and remove it (along with any infected larvae) from the hive.

In addition, some bees are starting to bite the varroa mite, killing it. “We’ve examined some dead mites and it’s obvious they’ve been chewed,” said Hunt.
For beekeepers who move their hives around the country, Hunt said they should expect a loss.

“Moving hives puts a lot of stress on bees,” he said. “You can expect to lose 5 percent of your bees just moving them from Indiana to California, like a lot of the guys are doing now.”

Troy Fore, executive director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Honey Bees, an arm of the American Beekeeping Federation in Atlanta, Ga., said beekeepers need to keep a close eye on the hives they move around the country. While a 5 percent loss can happen during the move, he said some hives can experience a 50 percent loss because of other factors such as pesticides and lack of food.

“Historically, a loss of around 10 percent would be cause for concern, but today with the chemical interactions that are taking place, it can be higher,” said Fore. “Without a doubt this causes stress on a colony. It’s important to keep your bees healthy before using them like this.”