Colony collaspse disorder may not be in local hives yet, but beekeepers are worried about it

Oregon farmers and beekeepers will meet next Tuesday with officials from Oregon State University's College of Agricultural Sciences to discuss honey bee hive die-offs - which reportedly were higher than usual in the Northwest this winter - and how the university could hire an expert to work on solving the problem.

State Sen. Frank Morse, R-Albany, and representatives of the Oregon Farm Bureau, the state's largest agricultural advocacy group, also are expected to attend.

OSU has not had a honey bee expert as a full-time faculty member for several years.

Many farmers rely on bees to pollinate crops, and they worry a mysterious illness that has killed billions of bees across the United States is now affecting Oregon.

The problem is commonly called colony collapse disorder, and it's linked to a virus that can be transmitted by mites. The die-off could result in far less production of key Oregon crops, including cherries near Hood River, apples and pears near Medford, blueberries in the Willamette Valley and carrot seed in Madras.

"Without the pollinating services, we'd basically be broke," said Robert Whannell, who farms 25 acres of cranberries between Astoria and Seaside, and brings 30 hives there every year.

He added that an industry study estimated that without honeybees, cranberry yield would drop by 75 to 90 percent.

Whannell helped coordinate the meeting after talking to his Yakima-based beekeeper, who lost 4,000 of 13,000 hives this year.

"There were some pretty big losses over the winter," said Chuck Sowers of Canby, president of the Oregon Beekeepers' Association. Sowers said he lost about 40 percent of his 1,300 hives.

But he wasn't sure if colony collapse disorder was the issue or if the loss was caused by other problems.

OSU is surveying beekeepers in an effort to determine whether Oregon hives are declining and why, as well as offering diagnostic services for two common fungal diseases and two bacterial diseases.

"This is very recent. Up until this spring, many of the beekeepers in Oregon didn't report unusual losses," said Stella Coakley, associate dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences.

She wondered if the bad weather this winter contributed to hive losses in the state.

According to the Associated Press, colony collapse disorder has struck more than 50 percent of commercial honeybee hives in the United States.

Oregon State University's last full-time honey bee expert, Michael Burgett, retired about five years ago.

"A similar position wasn't created, but that's not unusual," Coakley said. "We have far fewer faculty than we had 10 years ago. … There have been substantial budget cuts."

Industry funding or lobbying for grants would help create a new job, which would cost about $100,000 in salary and benefits, she said.

Sowers said beekeepers have started a professorship endowment with $25,000, but need more than $1 million for it to be effective. He hopes other agricultural groups will contribute.

Tad Buford and Karen Finley of Queen Bee Honey Company, who shuttle about 1,800 hives around Western states, weren't having problems this year.

But the couple, who live off Bellfountain Road, said they would like to see OSU hire a new bee expert. Beekeepers already have been doing all they know to ensure hive health, but there isn't new local research on the matter. Diseases and pests may overtake the best local practices, they said, and a bee professor would be able to offer quicker professional diagnosis of problems.

"We don't know what the future looks like," Finley said. "We hear a lot of stories, people who are having unpredictable losses."

Kyle Odegard covers Oregon State University. He can be contacted at kyle.odegard@lee.net or 758-9523.