Importance Score: 75 / 100 🔴
Honeybee Colonies Under Threat: A Beekeeping Family’s Struggle
In Adams, North Dakota, amidst rolling hills near the Canadian border, migratory beekeepers Nancy and Keith Budke face the pervasive scent of honey, wax, smoke, and bee residue as they tend to their honeybee colonies. The Budkes, who operate Budke Bees, a small commercial beekeeping enterprise, are part of a critical industry grappling with significant challenges. This season, honeybee colonies across North America are facing severe threats from parasites, dwindling habitats, climate change, and pesticide exposure, potentially leading to devastating losses for the nation’s honeybee population and the beekeeping industry.
The Migratory Beekeeping Lifestyle
Married for 43 years, the Budkes are seasoned migratory beekeepers. Their honey production relies on the diverse nectar sources their bees forage from as they move across the country. The bees begin by pollinating canola, sweet clover, and various wildflowers in North Dakota. Subsequently, they are transported by truck to Texas, and ideally, onwards to California for almond pollination – a journey increasingly fraught with peril.
“There is a global shortage of bees,” Nancy Budke stated, highlighting the widespread nature of the crisis. “It’s a constant battle on multiple fronts.”
At the outset of their migratory cycle last August, the Budkes managed 2,900 hives. While larger operations can oversee ten times that number, the difficulties encountered by the Budkes in transporting their bees to Texas and then to California’s almond orchards are emblematic of the challenges confronting the entire beekeeping industry.
Vital Role of Honeybees and Growing Threats
Nancy Budke, also a registered nurse, approaches beekeeping with meticulous care, treating millions of bees with attention akin to pet ownership. This includes preventative measures against viruses and pests, and ensuring adequate food supplies.
Healthy honeybees are essential for both ecological balance and human food security. Despite public apprehension towards these stinging insects, honeybees are indispensable for the production of approximately 100 crops consumed in America. They are crucial pollinators for vegetables, fruits, and nuts.
Economic Importance of Commercial Beekeeping and Almond Pollination
Commercial beekeepers derive the majority of their income from pollination services, particularly in California, which is responsible for 80% of global almond production. From October to March, flatbed trucks from across the nation converge on California’s almond groves, transporting bees for the pollination season. For beekeepers like the Budkes, this period represents a significant revenue opportunity, earning around $200 per hive – a lucrative part of the $721 million beekeeping industry.
Scott McArt, an associate professor of pollinator health at Cornell University, described this period as “the Super Bowl of beekeeping,” underscoring its economic importance.
However, reaching this “Super Bowl” is becoming progressively challenging due to both long-standing issues and new complications arising from shifts in governmental policies.
Perfect Storm of Factors Threatening Bees
Public awareness of honeybee decline surged in the mid-2000s, with headlines questioning whether it was a temporary crisis or a long-term problem. Since then, governments and researchers have been attempting to unravel and address the perplexing phenomenon of dwindling bee populations that has devastated the industry. While losses fluctuate annually, a consistent downward trend has persisted.
Scientists have termed this phenomenon colony collapse disorder, characterized by bees abandoning their hives after venturing out to forage. A disorientation, possibly due to illness, prevents their return home, leaving the queen and remaining brood vulnerable. The exact causes are still under investigation.
Extreme weather events have exacerbated the vulnerability of bee colonies. Droughts, heatwaves, hurricanes, wildfires, and floods damage or destroy both bees and their food sources. Furthermore, ecosystem damage fosters the proliferation of parasites and other “biotic” threats that prey on bees.
These combined challenges have led to a contraction in the U.S. beekeeping industry by approximately 2.9% in the past five years, according to IBISWorld data.
Annual bee colony loss rates have increased across the board in the last decade, with commercial operations experiencing the most severe collapses in recent years.
Adding to the industry’s woes are proposed federal budget cuts, particularly to the Department of Agriculture’s bee research programs. These cuts coincide with broader policy shifts, including potential impacts from trade disputes that could elevate food import costs and hinder crop exports. Combined with reduced bee populations, farming could become more expensive, potentially driving up food prices.
Labor shortages also pose a concern. Beekeepers frequently rely on immigrant labor to manage hives and produce honey. Current immigration policies and deportations are reportedly discouraging foreign workers from seeking temporary work visas in the beekeeping industry.
Elina L. Niño, an apiculture expert at the University of California, Davis, summarized the situation as “a perfect storm.”
The Rhythms of Migratory Beekeeping
Keith Budke, with decades of experience spanning back to his teenage years, initially worked for another beekeeper. However, Nancy Budke’s ultimatum spurred him to establish his own business, recognizing the limitations of his employment regarding personal hive ownership.
“You want to marry me?” Nancy Budke recalls asking, emphasizing her resolve. “We’re going, we’re leaving.”
Mr. Budke resigned and took up truck driving at a chemical plant while Ms. Budke continued her nursing career. They diligently saved their earnings.
“About a year later, I wrote him a check for $30,000 as a Christmas gift,” Ms. Budke recounted. “We saved that much money, and I handed it to him and said, ‘There you go. Now you can be your own beekeeper.’” Their initial investment of 40 hives in the late 1970s has since expanded to approximately 3,000. Since the major colony collapse events nearly 20 years ago, massive bee losses have become a recurring challenge every few years.
In August, before their annual migration from North Dakota to Texas, the Budkes were cautiously optimistic about the potential for profits in California. However, they recognized the risks in California, where hive theft is a concern requiring beekeepers to register their colonies.
Challenges and Labor in the Beekeeping Profession
Beekeeping is physically demanding and far from glamorous, involving work in protective suits under the sun, accompanied by a pungent odor. These aspects contribute to a lack of appeal for domestic workers, leading the Budkes and many other beekeepers to employ migrant workers, in their case, from Nicaragua.
The Budkes strategically position their hives in and around Adams, North Dakota, close to the Minnesota border where they reside. North Dakota’s prominence as a leading honey producer is due in part to the prevalence of canola fields, a favored nectar source for bees. The bees are housed in stacked wooden crates, each about 20 inches long and slightly over a foot wide.
Mr. Budke and one of their sons primarily manage the bees, while Ms. Budke oversees the business operations, self-proclaimed as the “queen of Budke Bees,” reflecting the queen bee’s central role in a hive.
A robust worker bee population signifies a healthy hive, but constant threats persist.
Robbing Bees: An Immediate Danger
One immediate threat is “robbing” by other bees. After larger beekeeping operations harvest honey for commercial sale, their bees may seek food from other colonies. While beekeepers provide sugar or corn syrup supplements, bees prefer natural nectar.
“The big battle is to get the honey off before these big guys,” Mr. Budke explained, while inspecting hive yields. “You get this robbing going on. The other bees will come and take unprotected resources.”
As the Budkes used smoke to pacify the bees prior to opening the crates, thousands of bees emerged, buzzing audibly.
In mid-August, honey production appeared promising. However, the major financial opportunity lay ahead in California, necessitating an initial 18-hour truck journey to Texas, where the bees would overwinter before heading west.
The Perils of Transport and Bee Survival
A tractor-trailer arrived in Mount Pleasant, Texas, in mid-October. Mr. Budke selected Mount Pleasant for its mild climate and affordable conditions during North Dakota’s winter, as well as its proximity before the final leg to California. He found goldenrod fields on former coal mining sites with minimal competition from other commercial hives.
Chris Wittrock, a driver for Thompson Trucking, transported the initial shipment of hives from North Dakota for the Budkes. (The couple travels separately in their car.)
Transporting bees involves substantial risk. Accidents can occur where hives tip over, and excessive heat during delays can be lethal to bees.
“You have to keep moving or they’ll die,” Mr. Wittrock stressed.
This particular journey to Texas was uneventful in terms of major accidents. Yet, upon unloading, numerous bees were found dead due to travel stress, and a stowaway mouse was discovered inside a hive.
Rodents are a minor concern compared to skunks, raccoons, and bears, which prey on bees or steal honey, depriving hives of essential food. Mr. Budke employs traps to manage these animal threats.
Pesticides and Pests: Persistent Threats
Beyond predators, pesticides in plants like canola and pests like the varroa mite remain significant threats. The varroa mite, a parasitic pest, weakens bee immune systems and transmits viruses, and is considered a major factor in colony collapse events.
“If colonies enter winter with high varroa mite levels, they typically do not survive,” stated Professor Niño. “Maintaining colony health and strength is challenging.”
Conditions appeared favorable for the Budkes’ bees in Texas before they returned to Minnesota for the Christmas holiday.
However, weeks later, widespread beehive collapses were reported nationwide. Over half of the approximately 2.8 million colonies collapsed, resulting in an estimated $600 million in economic losses for the industry.
Upon returning to Texas and inspecting their hives before California transport, the Budkes faced a devastating reality. Crate after crate was empty. Two-thirds of their hives had collapsed, leaving only 880 for the California pollination season.
“That’s what happens” with colony collapse disorder, Ms. Budke explained. “They appear perfectly healthy. Then, within two weeks, only the queen remains, as worker bees vanish.”
Queen Bee Scarcity and Industry Impact
The full impact of these widespread losses on California’s almond crop and other vegetation will unfold over the coming months post-pollination. The scale of colony devastation surprised the industry, leaving growers scrambling to secure sufficient pollination services.
“This year, it was far worse than anticipated,” said Danielle Downey of Project Apis m, a bee health research nonprofit. “In January, researchers began receiving calls about severe colony losses.”
Growers likely faced not only fewer bees but also weakened colonies, according to Downey.
A U.S.D.A. spokesperson acknowledged awareness of “unusual losses” and concern regarding the potential impact on food production, noting ongoing research efforts.
However, these efforts are now constrained by reduced research capacity. John Ternest, a former U.S.D.A. pollinator health scientist, noted that approximately 15 bee researchers lost their jobs due to recent cuts.
Industry stakeholders worry about the impact of these cuts on investigations into bee losses. U.S.D.A. scientists collected bee samples in California in January to analyze them for pathogens, parasites, and viruses.
The timing of the collapses was particularly unfortunate. “Numerous crops requiring pollination were blooming precisely when these events occurred,” Dr. Ternest pointed out, raising concerns about potential trickle-down effects on farmers and food prices.
In early February, Andrew Beld of Circle B Honey Farms Inc. received the Budkes’ surviving bees in Firebaugh, California. Beld, a honeybee broker, connects hives from over 40 beekeepers with almond growers. His operation, which peaked at 40,000 hives in 2022, was reduced to around 18,500 this year.
Beld, a 30-year veteran of the industry, termed this season “one of the toughest,” noting widespread “major crash” events among beekeepers.
After the month-long almond pollination, Beld returned the surviving bees to the Budkes.
The Budkes are now focused on colony recovery. They are transferring brood and adult bees from remaining hives to new ones and attempting to purchase replacement queen bees. However, the widespread colony collapse and disruptions to queen breeders in Florida due to Hurricane Milton have created a queen bee scarcity.
Queen bee prices have doubled, and while the Budkes sought 2,000 queens, they have only secured 200, raising concerns about their ability to rebuild their operation.
Facing an uncertain future, Nancy Budke expressed frustration regarding pesticide use, echoing the U.S.D.A.’s acknowledgement of “sublethal exposure” as a major threat. “We hope someone will start listening,” she urged. “Stop spraying dandelions. Is lawn aesthetics more important than food security?”