Stressed, Young Bees May be the Driver of Colony Collapse Disorder

Colony collapse is impacting bees across the globe, and could have major implications for honey production and crop yield. Now, scientists have taken a closer look at Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and have found that it may just be due to stressed, younger bees.

Bees usually begin foraging when they are two to three weeks old. But when bee colonies are stressed by disease, a lack of food, or other factors that kill off older bees, the younger bees start foraging at a younger age.

"Young bees leaving the hive early is likely to be an adaptive behavior to a reduction in the number of older foraging bees," said Clint Perry, one of the researchers, in a news release. "But if the increased death rate continues for too long or the hive isn't big enough to withstand it in the short term, this natural response could upset the societal balance of the colony and have catastrophic consequences."

The researchers found that any stress leading to chronic foraging death of older bees led to an increasingly young foraging force. This younger population then led to poorer performance and quicker deaths of foragers. This, in turn, accelerated the decline of the colony-much like observations of CCD seen around the world.

"Our results suggest that tracking when bees begin to forage may be a good indicator of the overall health of a hive," said Perry. "Our work sheds light on the reasons behind colony collapse and could help in the search for ways of preventing colony collapse."

The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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