Bees not doing too badly in Oregon

From the Eugene Oregon Register-Guard comes an encourging story about bees.

Buzz on bees: not so bad
Beekeepers' profits stand out among a swarm of dire reports

You might have heard: Something spooky is happening to the honeybees.

Whole hives are dying of the mysterious "colony collapse disorder," according to a succession of recent news reports.

It's a "Silent Spring" and - without the buzz of honeybees pollinating crops - there'll soon be nothing to eat except maybe the Soylent Green of B-grade science fiction fame. Right?

But wait: Oregon honeybees, it turns out, are more robust this year than they have been in years or even decades, local beekeepers say.

Generous spring rains in California brought brimming almond blossoms, and Oregon honeybees that were trucked there in February to pollinate the nut trees grew stout and plentiful.

Honeybees brought to California from across the nation to service the Golden State's 580,000 acres of almond crops also commanded record fees for their services.

Oregon's 35 to 40 migrant commercial beekeepers brought home about $5.6 million for almond pollination alone - and that doesn't count the Northwest pear, cherry, apple and blueberry pollination still to come.

"To tell you the truth, our bees look absolutely fabulous right now. This has been a really good year for us," said Chuck Sowers, president of the Oregon State Beekeepers Association.

So what happened to the "Silent Spring," the colony collapse and the tragedy of the disappearing honeybees?

The U.S. House Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture conducted hearings last month on the subject. Alarmed bee tenders have appeared in national news stories warning of doom.

The stakes are high. As expert pollinators, honeybees increase the value of U.S. crops by $15 billion a year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

About one-third of commercial food crops rely on honeybees for pollination.

So it was disconcerting when beekeepers in Florida in November began discovering eerily empty hives. Adult bees simply vanished, sometimes leaving the queen and often leaving the honey. Unlike other causes of hive death, there were no bee bodies in or near the hive.

"It was like the bees absconded, like they had all gone out," Eugene beekeeper Judy Scher said.

Farmers in 21 states reported similar instances - catching the attention of university researchers and the concern of Congress.

Many beekeepers are skeptical of the reports or at least how they're adding up. For 100 years, beekeepers have logged periodic reports of sudden and inexplicable bee die-offs.

People refer the latest die-off by its initials "CCD," but one Georgia beekeeper instead calls it the "SSDD" crisis for "Same Stuff, Different Day."

"People have lost bees from the beginning of time," Sowers said.

We tend not to take an historical long-view of events and see each crisis as something that is unique to our times. And yes, Bees are that important to our food crops. Crucial.