Honey bees

Honeybees are flying insects, and close relatives of wasps and ants. They are found on every continent on earth, except for Antarctica.

Bees of all varieties live on nectar and pollen. Without bees, pollination would be difficult and time consuming - it is estimated that one-third of the human food supply depends on insect pollination. Bees have a long, straw-like tongue called a probiscus that allows them to drink the nectar from deep within blossoms. Bees are also equipped with two wings, two antennae, and three segmented body parts (the head, the thorax, and the abdomen). Honeybees are social insects that live in colonies. The hive population consists of a single queen, a few hundred drones, and thousands of worker bees.

The honeybees we know and love forage for nectar and pollen from flowering plants. They use the nectar collected to create our favourite sweet treat - honey! When carrying the nectar back to the hive, their bodies break down the complex sucrose of the nectar into two simple sugars, fructose and glucose. Tucking it neatly into a honeycomb cell, the bees will then beat their wings furiously over top of this syrupy sweet liquid to fan out the moisture and thicken the substance. When it is complete, the bees will cap that cell with beeswax, sealing the perfected honey for consumption later on.

Source: Honeybee Centre

LThere are nearly 20,000 known bee species in the world, and 4,000 of them are native to the United States (an estimated 400 additional native bee species remain to be identified in the U.S.). From the tiny and solitary Perdita minima, known as the world’s smallest bee, to the large carpenter bee, to the brilliant blue of the mason bee; native bees come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors.

Native bees pollinate native plants like cherries, blueberries, and cranberries, and were here long before European honeybees were brought to the country by settlers (honeybees are not native to North America). Honeybees, of course, are well known for pollinating almond and lemon trees, okra, papaya and watermelon plants. But native bees like the blue orchard bees are better and more efficient pollinators of native crops. Native bees are estimated to pollinate 80 percent of flowering plants around the world.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), bees of all sorts pollinate approximately 75 percent of the fruits, nuts and vegetables grown in the United States, and one out of every four bites of food people take is courtesy of bee pollination. In sum, bee pollination is responsible for more than $15 billion in increased crop value each year.

Source: USGS

Over the past 15 years, bee colonies have been disappearing in what is known as the "colony collapse disorder," according to National Geographic. Some regions have seen losses of up to 90%, the publication reported.

Data shows bee populations dwindling more and more each year

Between Oct. 1, 2018, and April 1, 2019, 37.7% of the managed honey bee population -- colonies kept by commercial beekeepers -- declined, which is 7 percentage points more than the same time frame during the 2017-2018 winter, according to preliminary data from the Bee Informed Partnership, a nonprofit associated with the University of Maryland.

This past winter season represents the highest level of winter losses reported since the survey began in 2006, according to the report.

For the entire year -- April 1, 2018, to April 1, 2019 -- the managed bee population decreased by 40.7%, according to the report. The overall loss rate is around the average of what researchers and beekeepers have seen since 2006, McArt said.

"The main take-home from this is these are unsustainably high losses," McArt said, adding that researchers are not necessarily alarmed at the numbers because they've become "a little bit accustomed to these large loss rates."

The number of hives that survive the winter months is an overall indicator of bee health, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Worker bees tend to live longest during the winter -- up to six months -- and just four weeks in the spring and summer, according to the American Bee Journal.

Managed colonies are shipped around the country to pollinate our food

Much of the produce seen in grocery stores -- watermelon, apples, peppers, cucumbers -- and nuts are pollinated by millions of European honey bees, or Apis mellifera, that travel across the country and are managed by commercial beekeepers, Mulica said.

These U.S. crops are produced with the help of 2.6 million colonies transported by 18-wheelers from place to place during peak flowering, McArt said. Of the $20 billion worth of U.S. crop production supported by pollinators, commercial honey bees are responsible for about half. Wild bees and other pollinators take care of the rest.

In February, about 60% of managed colonies head to California to begin almond production, McArt said.

The bees then travel to Florida to pollinate citrus crops before making their way up through the Southeast for the production of blueberries, cherries and other specialty fruits and vegetables, McArt said.

Apple pollination begins on the Northeast in June, and the last pollination event typically occurs in Maine in late June and early July for lowbush blueberries, McArt said.

The bees then go to a set location for several months, where they gather nectar and produce honey, McArt said.

Why the honey bee populations are declining

The largest contributor to the decline of bee health is the varroa mite, a parasite that invades hives and and spreads diseases, McArt said.

"This is really a big knockout blow to a lot of these hives," Mulica said.

Other reasons for the loss in population are loss of habitat and poor management practices, such as moving bees through the frigid Rocky Mountains during their winter journey to California, McArt said.

Incidental exposure to pesticides, pest and other diseases within the hive are also affecting the decrease of the population, Mulica said.

The populations of wild bees and other pollinators are suffering too, McArt said.

Food prices could rise if populations continue to decrease

While Williams does not believe honey bees are under threat of extinction, if their numbers continue to dwindle they could become a much more costly commodity for farmers, he said.

High bee losses year after year could lead to fewer beekeepers, and rental prices per bee colony could increase dramatically, Williams said.

This could also lead to steeper food prices, Mulica said.

"Really, what's at stake here is rising food costs and the ability of beekeepers to deliver healthy bees to the crops," Mulica said.

The first crop that may see a price increase with the decline of honey bees could be California almonds.

"We would not have almonds if it weren't for honey bees," McArt said.

The Golden State produces about 85% of the world's almonds, Mulica said. But the cost for renting bees for almond production has increased to nearly $300 per colony in some cases, Williams said, when contracts for other crops in other states run about $80 to $150 per colony, McArt said.

The cost of colony rentals has not yet affected consumer prices for almonds, Williams said, but those costs could "eventually trickle down."

Source: ABC News