OSU seeks state grant to study, boost bees.

Byline: Ilene Aleshire The Register-Guard

Oregon State University has asked the state for $250,000 in emergency funding to find out why honey bees are dying at an unprecedented rate and to find a solution.

OSU said it is a crisis that threatens many Oregon food producers and agricultural companies. More than $457 million worth of Oregon crops are dependent on pollination, OSU said, citing federal figures. If there aren't enough bees to pollinate crops such as blueberries, cherries, pears and speciality seeds, yields of major Northwest crops are expected to diminish by 25 to 100 percent in a single season, OSU said.

Oregon beekeepers say there's no question that there are fewer bees throughout the state and nationwide. They also say it's hard to pin down facts and figures, cause and effect.

Many, including agricultural experts at OSU, say the increased honey bee losses lumped under the heading of Colony Collapse Disorder began in 2006.

But Mark Johnson, vice president of the Oregon State Bee-keepers Association, said, "It's been a constant struggle for eight or nine years. ... Eight years ago, I lost 90 percent of my hives in a six-week period. Since then, I might lose 40 percent one year, 20 percent another.

"Winter is the worst time, every beekeeper holds his breath," the Portland area beekeeper said. "Is it going to be a 10- to 20-percent die-off or a 70- to 80-percent die-off?"

And there's no way of telling who will be hit, he said. "It rotates around, a lot like the flu."

The result is that farmers who need bees for pollination are having a tougher time finding them, he said, and costs are going up for everyone - starting with the beekeeper, who must pay $17.50 for a queen bee that used to cost $5.

Johnson said many researchers think sublethal dosages of pesticides are weakening bees' immune systems, leaving them prey to other ailments.

Morris Ostrofsky, past president of the Lane County Beekeepers Association, said the situation isn't as bad locally as it is at the national level, but it's getting worse nationwide. "The scariest thing," he said, "is not not knowing where it's going to hit next, but what it is."

While the number of bees has decreased, demand has gone up, Fall Creek beekeeper LeRoy Culley said.

Culley said large-scale bee-keepers who transport hives around the country have suffered the worst losses. The stresses involved with such moves may be a factor in bee losses, he said. And increased imports of cheaper honey also result in fewer U.S. bees, he said, as U.S. beekeepers are driven out of business.

Culley added that he has seen bees that disappear from their hives and less honey production - meaning a decline in vigor or what's available for bees to use.

OSU Lane County Extension Agent Ross Penhallegon offers a low-tech proposal for increasing bees in Oregon. People who have planted "little wild areas" on their property that offer food for bees during the winter, until the spring blossoms start, report seeing increases in bees, he said.

"If 75 people a year plant a little area of lavender, or borage, something that provides the food (bees) need, the population will explode."