Holistic Approach to Colony Colapse Disorder

7/25/16-Internship-Today we did a USDA sample for Honey bee health in the apiary on all the UMass hives. This process calls for taking a sample of worker bees, a sample of varroa mite, and a sample of pollen.  Every state has the chance to participate in this study. It requires finding 24 beekeepers that own eight or more hives and do the test on these hives. The USDA requires us to take a sample of pollen, larvae, live bees, dead bees. This survey is sent out to Department of Agricultures all over the country and the result shows the health of the bees in North America. I think this type of sample is very important to graphing the health of the bees however, I think that we need to be very cautious with the results. This is because if for example the bees keep getting weaker there will be a new standard of overall health and instead of trying to fix it we will just keep lowering the bar. We must make sure that we will continuously increase the health of the bees because not only the bee population will be in trouble but our livelihoods as well.

7/26/16-Internship-Today we went out with the pesticide team to sample amount of chemicals that are within the hives and the bees. This sampling contains taking pollen, honey, and live bees for examination of pollutants within the hive. I am starting to really see what neonicotinoids are doing not only to bees but also our food. These chemicals can destroy healthy hives in couple of hour would that not means that it is also doing harm to us? How can we sit idly and just see the continuous destruction of our land. In reality 40 years ago we didn’t need to do these pesticide tests very often but now…MDAR receives a few calls every year regarding whole hive deaths. These tests are only testing honey bee colonies; we must not forget the other pollinators that these chemicals will affect.

7/27/16-Project-Today I was able to take a sample of European Foul Brood and look at it underneath a microscope. It was so interesting to see this somewhat developed pupae get infected. It was recognizable what part of the bee I was looking at it was almost as though this thing was experiencing the black plague but in bee form. Their insides became gooey and turned a mustard yellow color. The pupae started smelling like sour milk and become black from the virus. Getting to see this disease that I see so often in hives close up was truly an experience. I really appreciate the fact that modern technology is able to take a closer look into the small existence of a virus.

7/28/16-Internship-Today Kim and I went on a bee kill investigation. The bee kill is when there is an occurrence of massive amounts of bees dying; from pesticides. What we saw was very interesting there were thousands of bees in front of the hive in a large mound. It was something from a horror movie. Both Kim and I worked in silence as we started taking live bee, nectar, dead bee, and fresh pollen samples to send to the lab. We also had a chance to look at the brood and see that there may also be European Foul Brood within the hive. This was a really upsetting occurrence because society knows that the pesticides we are using are killing the bees yet it is still occurring and even after seeing it in person how can I truly grasp the fact that this is happening?  We must do something to prevent these occurrences from happening.