What You Should Know About Collapsible Colony Disorder

Beekeepers are faced with a new threat to their hives. The mysterious ailment first appeared in 2006 and has been dubbed collapsible colony disorder. The phrase collapsible colony disorder is a long phrase for an idea that is relatively simple. It is a disease that is killing off the bees of beekeepers. CCD is characterized by honey and bee bread being present, and in some cases a queen and a few other survivors may be present. Delayed robbing of supplies in the bee hive and slower than normal invasion by common pests that plague bee colonies such as the wax moth or hive beetles.

What causes this mysterious disease that tends to affect entire bee colonies is not yet known. Several factors for the cause of collapsible colony disorder have been able to ruled out, while scientists have found others that will likely need further investigation. The disease seems to strike migratory commercial beekeepers who will often rent out their colonies to farmers and orchards for pollination of their plants. Collapsible colony disorder has been reported in the Pacific Northwest, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma and several recent cases have been reported in the Mid-Atlantic.

The first reported case of collapsible colony disorder occurred in 2006 when hives kept by a Pennsylvania beekeeper who spent the winter in Florida. Since then, heavy losses that were likely caused by the disease have been reported by many beekeepers living in the Northern states. For the consumer, it does not seem that collapsible colony disorder makes the honey produced by the bees unsafe or inedible, but because of decreased supply while the demand remains roughly the same, honey prices will go up.

For beekeepers or other individuals concerned about the problem (perhaps those who drink or are fond of making mead, a fund has been set up at Pennsylvania State University to do research into the potential causes and solutions to collapsible colony disorder. Similar symptoms have been reported in beekeepers in the past - spring dwindle, May disease, disappearing disease, autumn collapse and fall dwindle disease. Likely these all point to what has now become known as collapsible colony disease and Pennsylvania State University's website

Sources:

http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/FAQ/FAQCCD.pdf

http://www.ento.psu.edu/MAAREC/pressReleases/FallDwindleUpdate0107.pdf