Remember all that hubbub about Colony Collapse Disorder? Well, bee losses have slowed (and the issue’s largely vanished from the radar), but “slowed” does not equal “stopped” or “reversed.” Writing in the Daily Beast, Katie Workman notes:
“In 2009, because of the scarcity of bees, the price of a single hive has climbed to about $180 from $60 in 2004. And in 2006, American beekeepers had to import bees for the first time in almost a century. The cost of pollination for farmers now can exceed the cost of fertilizer, water, or labor, and that cost is naturally being passed on to the consumer.”
It’s bad, bad news. On the upside … well, after scanning the story, there doesn’t appear to be an upside. Like most of the stories out there about global warming or the war in Afghanistan, this is a blog post to be read only by the courageous of mind and perky of spirit.
Image source: Flickr member BotheredByBees under Creative Commons
We are seeing higher food costs as an aftereffect of colony collapse, which has subsided and may not return soon. However, the bee production hives in the south will make a rapid comeback, as soon as next year, and the cost of buying bees will slip back to a more normal range. This may show up in more reasonable costs next spring.
Additional good news comes from the honey harvest in the midwest and east this year: frequent rainfall resulted in better clover flowering than in any recent year, and the bees were able to make a lot of high grade honey, just now coming to market.
In my area, southwestern Ontario, pesticides and herbicides are on the way out, and the bees had more flowers to forage safely.