COKE WHITWORTH PHOTOGRAPHY

Projects: Honeybees

Jeff Lee rents out his honeybees each spring to pollinate crops of almonds, blueberries, cucumbers, watermelons and cantaloupes.

A few months ago, Lee, owner of the second largest commercial honeybee operation in North Carolina, “Lee’s Bees, noticed a troubling trend. Whole hives were disappearing -- apparent victims of a mysterious disorder killing tens of thousands of honeybee colonies across the country.

Beekeepers and scientists around the country are working frantically to isolate and neutralize this threat to the honeybee. At stake is the work the honeybees do, pollinating more than USD 15 billion worth of US crops, including North Carolina’s blueberry harvest, the fourth-largest in the nation, worth USD 45 million annually.While a few crops, such as corn and wheat, are pollinated by the wind, bees help pollinate more than 90 commercially grown field crops, citrus and other fruit crops, vegetables and nut crops. Without these insects, crop yields would fall dramatically and some tangerines and pecans would simply cease to exist. Agronomists estimate Americans owe one in three bites of food to bees.There are many theories on what could be behind the latest honeybee die-off: from parasitic mites, to increased use of pesticides, to unmet nutritional needs because of overdevelopment and loss of farmland. But the prevailing thought among beekeepers seems to be that this extreme die-off is probably a cumulative effect of many factors.
   
"You just hate to see your employees run away like this," says Jeff Lee, owner of Lee's Bees, the second largest commercial honeybee operation in North Carolina.Lee rents out his honeybees each spring to pollinate crops of almonds, blueberries, cucumbers, watermelons and cantaloupes.A few months ago, Lee noticed a troubling trend. Whole hives were disappearing -- apparent victims of a mysterious disorder killing tens of thousands of honeybee colonies across the country.
   
While a few crops, such as corn and wheat, are pollinated by the wind, bees help pollinate more than 90 commercially grown field crops, citrus and other fruit crops, vegetables and nut crops. Without honeybees crop yields would fall dramatically and some tangerines and pecans would simply cease to exist. Agronomists estimate Americans owe one in three bites of food to bees.
     
  
   
"I'm not sure what I'm going to do now," says 82-year-old J.R. Davis, who says he hasn't seen anything like this current die-off of honeybees in his entire 27 years of raising bees for his company Pure Mountain Honey in Butler, TN. Davis lost nearly 70% of his colonies in the past three weeks.
   
There are many theories on what could be behind the latest honeybee die-off: from parasitic mites, to increased use of pesticides, to unmet nutritional needs because of overdevelopment and loss of farmland. But the prevailing thought among beekeepers seems to be that this extreme die-off is probably a cumulative effect of many factors.
     
  
The Varroa mite has been the parasite with the most pronounced economic impact on the beekeeping industry. It may be a contributing factor to Colony Collapse Disorder which is threatening hives throughout North America.It attaches at the body of the bee and weakens the bee by sucking hemolymph. In this process the mite spreads RNA viruses like Deformed Wing Virus to the bee. A significant mite infestation will lead to the death of an entire honey bee colony.
   
Beekeepers and scientists around the country are working frantically to isolate and neutralize this threat to the honeybee. At stake is the work the honeybees do, pollinating more than USD 15 billion worth of US crops, including North Carolina’s blueberry harvest, the fourth-largest in the nation, worth USD 45 million annually.
  
An average worker bee's life expectancy is 500km of fly time. With the loss of farmland and overdevelopment in many areas bees often have to fly much further to get the same amount of nutrition.
     
  
   
  
The Varroa mite has been the parasite with the most pronounced economic impact on the beekeeping industry. It may be a contributing factor to Colony Collapse Disorder which is threatening hives throughout North America.It attaches at the body of the bee and weakens the bee by sucking hemolymph. In this process the mite spreads RNA viruses like Deformed Wing Virus to the bee. A significant mite infestation will lead to the death of an entire honey bee colony.