Colony Collapse Disease

Introduction

Bees all over the world are going missing and no one is yet to devise a sound theory as to why. In 2006 this phenomenon was labelled as colony collapse disorder or CCD (Engelsdorp et al. 2014). Colony collapse disorder is the occurrence within a bee hive where the worker bees are miraculously disappearing and leaving behind the queen bee. Colony collapse disorder can be clearly observed by a lack of dead bees in and around the hive. This gives evidence showing that the bees are not spontaneously dying, rather something is forcing them to leave their hive and queen.

There is no lack of theories as to the cause of colony collapse disorder and it is extremely difficult to establish whether or not humans are entirely at fault (Entomology

This is a result of frequent use of medications. By doing this the bee colonies that, in nature, would die off, are instead being preserved. Survival of the fittest has been tampered with and the strong are no longer given an opportunity to survive as they are outbred by the weaker bees. Due to the lack of diversity between bee colonies, diseases are spread a lot easier and colonies collapse.

The stress that is caused to bees due to transportation in modern day beekeeping practises play a major part in colony decline. The colonies are transported on trucks across the country to regions they wouldn’t usually travel to. Gifford (2010) suggests that transportation stress coupled with a weak immune system could be a possible reason for colony collapse disorder.

Although bee colonies are dying at an alarming rate, there has to be something new thrown into the mix. Beekeeping practises have been going on for decades and colony collapse disorder is only relatively new. What has been added now that is having such a dramatic effect on the livelihood of bee colonies questions Schacker