The Strange Disapearance of the Russian Bees

June 25, 2012

Russian Bees Inspection

I had left the Russian hive full of bees, from nurse bees to foragers, lots of eggs, and different larval stages. The colony as a whole seemed healthy, smelled like flowers. They had lots of honey, and had collected plenty of nectar and pollen. The hive had grown from a package of 3,000-4,000 bees to a healthy 40,000 to 50,000 bees. they were vigorous and busy. The queen was laying well, and the brood pattern was even and beautiful.

Then horror and despair hit me. I was on my routine hive inspection mid morning, warm and sunny...a perfect day....until I approached the Russian hive. Not a bee could be seen, not a bee could be heard. Right away in my mind, like a slow movie, scenarios were unfolding. But my brains could not process it all. I opened the cover, removed the inner cover...no sounds, no bees. I then removed the 2 supers that I had placed on the colony the week before because the nectar flow had started and I did not want to miss this opportunity to get honey. Both completely depleted of bees, no one was working! I was starting to panic, where are my bees? I looked through each frame of the top hive box, which was full of busy bees, and brood the week before. Nothing, only this unfamiliar silence. I removed the top box as I could hear a faint almost imperceptible and soft buzzing. At last MY bees crawling on 3 rather empty frames, where the brood was reduce to the size of a fist. No adult bees or foragers could be seen, they were gone! As if to acknowledge my horrified presence... the Russian Queen (painted, so my original queen) walked across the top bar, looking rather mystified, seemingly not knowing what she was suppose to do. Beside looking a bit lost, she looked terrific, plump, and healthy. It was comforting for a brief instant...because where were my bees? They could not have starved to death, the hive is full of pollen, nectar and honey. In addition there were only a handful of dead bodies, 5-8 dead bees on the bottom board. So they did not die either. Where were they then? I ruled out swarming almost right away, because usually a swarm of bees leave with the old queen( in my case my painted Russian but she is home!), leaving the newly emerged queen and a good population in the hive. I did not see one mite, so Varroa was dismissed as a culprit. I looked in trees to see if they had decided to swarm anyway...nothing. I looked all around the hive looking for dead bees...still nothing. I was dumbfounded. Of course, I knew about the disappearance or vanishing of the bees in Europe and in America but still. I read a lot on the subject, scientific papers, new studies, even work with researchers who are trying to explain the phenomenon. But this happens to others, certainly not MY bees. Somehow, I did not want to believe it, to acknowledge what was happening. I was in complete denial. For goodness sake! I read about it, I am not suppose to experience it. This is what I wanted to believe, they left but they will be back...soon, very soon and everything would be all right and perfect again. My perfect little world of bees. However I knew at about 98% what had happened, but who likes bad news?

After a couple of email exchanges with one of the best experts in the world, the sober truth was unraveled. I was just experiencing all the symptoms of Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD. A deep sadness came over me, and strangely enough not totally because of my own colony succumbing to this mysterious disappearance, but because I was at that instance remembering a now "famous" commercial beekeeper who experienced this phenomenon few years ago. In 2006, David Hackenberg from Pennsylvania, lifted his wooden lids and did not found a single walking, buzzing honeybee anywhere. In my head I could see him opening his hives, one by one, and being frantic. That year he had lost 2,000 colonies or 80% of his apiary.

CCD is reported around the world. It can only be called CCD when the colony is devoid of adult bees but no evidence of dead bees are around, and that's a blunt reality.

It is always easy to read about something, but to experience it...that's another story.

So to help my colony, I have decided to feed the honeybees again sugar syrup and pollen. I am also giving them a frame of healthy brood with no bees from my other healthy colonies for the next three weeks. That's all  I can think of doing to help them hopefully rebound...since I still had a queen and  a few home.