Honeybee Center to the rescue

Since the infestation of native American honeybees by a parasitic bee mite in 1987, bee populations, so vital to agriculture, have been seriously threatened.

The deadly Varroa mite is thought to have been introduced to the United States along with flowers imported from southeast Asia.

Now, to the rescue comes a new center for the study of honeybees at Cornell University funded by a $1.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The new center will focus on developing solutions to the two major threats to honeybees: the mite infestation and Africanized honeybees, an extremely defensive bee that makes commercial beekeeping hazardous and therefore sometimes unprofitable.

Most of the pollination for more than 90 commercial crops grown in New York and other states is provided by the native, common honeybee, Apis mellifera. The value from the pollination to agricultural crops is estimated at $14.6 billion annually. Farmers rent about 1.5 million colonies each year to pollinate crops.

In Hamlin, James Doan owns and manages 2,100 bee hives which he rents to area farmers to pollinate local crops such as butternut squash at Martin Farms, and cucumbers grown for pickles at Bruce Kenning's farm in Albion. His bees are also used in local apple, pear and peach orchards and strawberry fields.

Each hive houses between 75,000-100,000 bees, but only 20 to 25 percent of the population is flying at any one time. Other bees play different roles inside the colony, caring for baby bees, cleaning the hive, making honeycombs, and other work.

Doan has been a beekeeper for 32 years, following in his parent's footsteps. But, unlike his parents who keep bees primarily for packing honey which can be purchased in local markets, Jim Doan's business focuses on renting bees for pollination of crops.

His bees are shipped to Florida in the winter for use in strawberry fields and citrus orchards. They will return to Hamlin by the end of April to be ready for pollination of upstate peach, pear and apple trees in May. Doan's honey is sold in bulk to other packers, including his parents.

The director of the new honeybee center is Nicholas W. Calderone, assistant professor of entomology. He says, "Parasitic mites are currently managed with pesticides, but as with other agricultural pests, the mite population has developed resistance to these pesticides and beekeepers will soon be without effective treatments."

The new center will emphasize the development of mite-resistant stocks of honeybees through an innovative genetic breeding program. The new breed of honeybees will be kept isolated from Africanized honeybees providing protection from mite infestation the Africanized bees will not have.

The honeybee center grant also provides funds to develop a regional extension program in agriculture. Cornell established a Master Beekeeping Program in 1998 under the direction of Dr. Calderone. Information about beekeeping is available from local county cooperative extension offices.