news-record.com

Could the key to unlocking the mystery ailment that has wiped out countless bee colonies emerge from a suburban North Carolina backyard?

We think of scientific advances taking place in gleaming white laboratories with researchers in lab coats running around.

But in the case of colony collapse disorder, the affliction that has devastated some bee colonies, the answers could be found in more casual settings.

Countless beekeepers are thinking about it, chewing on it over  cups of coffee, making notes, tinkering around, crossbreeding.
Bill Mullins , a longtime Greensboro beekeeper, said plenty of ideas and theories are floating around.

“Virtually every master beekeeper is coming up with some kind of idea and trying it,” he said. “I think we’ll defeat it in time.”

The bees play a role in pollinating crops.

Mullins hasn’t been doing any breeding with the disorder in mind, but he’s thinking about trying some in the spring, when the conditions encourage it.

He’s always on the lookout for information that might provide a piece of the puzzle. That’s the nature of beekeepers, he said.

All sorts of theories are out there: “It’s the result of migratory beekeepers. It’s the result of a pesticide. It’s the result of an Asian virus,” he said. “It has been a tough one to lick.”

Mullins counts himself lucky.

“It hasn’t affected me as bad as other people, and I don’t know why,” he said. “I’ve had friends who have lost 100 percent. I’ve had friends who have lost 80 percent. People have just given up. They’re so sick and  tired of losing all their bees.”

Jerry Isley , a Randolph County beekeeper who also has bees in Guilford County,  has been crossbreeding, combining different strains of Italian honeybees in the hopes of growing hardier bees.

Genetic diversity is important, he said. Purebreds can be more susceptible to various problems, including colony collapse disorder .

“When we get into crossbreeding ... the bees that come out of that can tolerate more,” he said.

He agrees that answers could come from everyday beekeepers, many of whom have a knack for experimentation and observation.

But it’s not always easy. Experimentation can come with a cost.

Isley said he’s trying to get away from using chemicals such as miticides. If left alone, bees will develop protections, but that’s not without pain.

“You’re going to lose bees,” he said. “The hobbyist beekeeper probably can’t afford to lose that many bees.”

Ultimately, solving the mystery likely will involve plenty of false starts and dead ends.

What’s becoming increasingly clear is that the disorder is not the result of any single factor, said David Tarpy , a bee specialist at N.C. State.

“Unfortunately, we’re still kind of stuck in a holding pattern, having gone through all the kind of possibilities, and not one of them being the smoking gun,” he said.

That makes for a tricky problem.

“In the past, bees would die off, and we took a look. 'Oh, it’s this new mite,’” he said. “It’s very difficult to come to a more definitive conclusion if it’s more than one thing.”

There is strong evidence that a virus is associated, but it’s clear that it can’t be the only thing either, Tarpy said. Another parasite might be involved — maybe something nutritional or environmental, perhaps a pesticide.

In the end, the answers might be complicated.

“I don’t know if we’ll come up with this a-ha moment, where this is clearly it,” he said. “I remain optimistic that we’re going to have some sort of increased understanding of it.”

In the meantime, beekeepers are staying vigilant.

On a recent afternoon, dead bees lay in front of one of Mullins’ hives.

In this case, it isn’t colony collapse disorder  but possibly mites, he said.

It’s frustrating, but it happens.

Mullins’ bees are mostly in the mountains, but he keeps a few hives in town, where they gather pollen from the tulip poplars at Guilford College.

Mullins, who sells honey at the Greensboro Farmers’ Curb Market on Yanceyville Street, had never kept bees until  he got married. While  on his honeymoon in Florida, he mentioned to his wife that he’d always wanted to keep bees.

“She said, 'Why aren’t you?’”

And so he did.

That was decades ago. In a way, beekeeping has become “an old man’s hobby,” he said.

But there also is a new interest in bees, with gardeners interested in their pollination abilities and  honey benefiting from a growing interest in locally produced foods.

And with that comes the possibility of more bees and more beekeepers, all thinking and tinkering, looking for answers and honey.
For the most part, all it takes is the interest.

“It’s a very democratic hobby,” he said.

Contact Jason Hardin at 373-7021 or jason.hardin@news-record.com