By Catherine Thompson - AgriNews Staff Writer

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GUELPH �-" A research apiculturalist with the Ontario Beekeepers Association technology transfer team says high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is not a cause of colony collapse disorder in the United States.

Some commercial beekeepers have been feeding it to bees to increase honey production and increase reproduction. But according to a study by Blaise Leblanc and Gillian Eggleston, when heated, HFCS can form a toxin called hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) that can kill honeybees.

�-�It�-�s something researchers have talked about, and we�-�ve known it for a long time. But not all bees with colony collapse disorder were fed that,�-� Janet Tam, with the technology transfer team for the OBA told The AgriNews in October.

�-�There are many factors involved and they�-�re still looking at different factors in the U.S. Stress affects bees like you and I. Different factors cause stress. If there are enough of them, it works to run down the bees.�-�

One stress factor is moving hives from one location to another, Tam added. �-�It also depends where the bees are moved to. In agriculture today, there are large areas of mono cropping. For example, bees are put on certain crops like canola or almonds in California for a period of four weeks. If we ate nothing but steak for three or four weeks, we�-�d feel sick too.�-�

As a result of monoculture, bees are not obtaining all the nutrients they would receive from a more varied diet. In addition, bees have pests like Varroa mites, Tracheal mites or Nosema disease. �-�If they have one stress factor like bad nutrition, it�-�s easier to succumb to one of these,�-� Tam stated.

Environmental factors are another cause to be considered. �-�It depends what kinds of chemicals they come in contact with, like pollution, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer and fungicides. Beekeepers control pests inside hives and there could be a build up of these chemicals too.�-�

Also, environmental chemicals added to plants to prevent pests from eating the plants may possibly go into the nectar and be absorbed by the bees.

Another problem that weakens hives is the inbreeding of queens. In California, some commercial beekeepers who specialize in breeding queens use only a few mother queens to produce all the queens that are sold to beekeepers around the continent.

As a result, all the offspring are related, and this inbreeding leads to a lack of genetic diversity, lowering the bees�-� chances of survival.

�-�Colony collapse in 2009 was not as bad as in the previous two years in the United States. People are taking better care of their bees. If they�-�re on monoculture, the beekeepers are supplying them with supplemental feed,�-� Tam stated.

According to Tam, colony collapse disorder is not found in Canada, as it is in the United States. �-�They looked around the world and didn�-�t find CCD as they do there. We have winter mortality, but we don�-�t have the same symptoms of CCD as in the U.S. High over wintering mortality is not the same.�-�

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