CAMERON, Texas - In the woods and rolling farmland of Central Texas, Clint Walker is breeding queen bees.
Stashed in nondescript boxes underneath a stand of trees, the bees could be easily missed.
But the queens are a lifeline for Walker and other commercial beekeepers, who are furiously trying to replenish their depleted hives.
Nationwide, commercial beekeepers have been hit hard over the last two years by a mysterious malady known as colony collapse disorder, which can seemingly wipe out hives overnight.
Honeybees are critical components of U.S. agriculture. Commercial beekeepers move their hives all over the country so a wide array of crops can be pollinated.
The bees add an estimated $15 billion in value to staples such as nuts, fruit and vegetables.
The California almond crop alone requires 1.3 million colonies of bees, roughly half of all honeybees in the U.S. By 2010, the almond crop is projected to need 1.5 million colonies.
If colony collapse disorder continues, beekeepers may not be able to meet demand.
That's why Walker has switched his emphasis to breeding queen bees.
"I can't raise enough queens; I turn down orders every day," said Walker, a third-generation beekeeper whose own hives were hit by colony collapse disorder in 2006.
One of his customers, James Lockhart of Las Animas, Colo., lost two-thirds of his hives last winter and is spending this year trying to rebuild
his business. A year ago, he had 3,000 hives. By winter, he was down to 1,100
Lockhart traveled to Texas over the winter to start rebuilding his colonies with the help of Walker's queen bees.
He has now built his Colorado operation up to an estimated 2,400 hives.
"This summer will kind of hurt, but at least we're on our way back," Lockhart said. "If we don't get hit again we should be OK."
But the problem is growing worse nationally.
Beekeepers surveyed by the USDA Agricultural Research Service last winter reported a total loss of about 36.1 percent of their bee colonies, a jump of 13.5 percent from a year ago. In an average year, beekeepers would incur losses of between 5 and 10 percent.
Jeff Pettis, lead researcher at the service's Bee Research Lab in Beltsville, Md., who conducted the survey, said there are no clear-cut answers.
"We don't have one thing we can point to; we're looking at a lot of combinations," Pettis said. "It's a combination of some primary stress on the colony that could include low-level pesticide exposure, poor nutrition, Varroa mites - or something else - that allow visitors to take advantage of a weakened host. Then we're seeing a secondary invader actually kill the colony."
Despite plenty of attention for several years, the problem is still growing.
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