What Is Colony Collapse Disorder?

In 2013, the Texas-based Honey Holding I, Ltd., doing business as Honey Solutions, developed Beckert Bees as a local beekeeping partnership meant to promote the development of jobs in the Vidor, Texas, region, and to assist in reducing the volume of foreign-sourced honey entering the United States. As a concerned corporate citizen, Honey Holding hopes to promote the profession of beekeeping, which has seen heavy losses over the last decade, partly due to the problem of keeping bees safe from colony collapse disorder.

Colony collapse disorder occurs when most or all of a hive’s worker bees die off or disappear, leaving behind only a queen, a small number of immature bees, and a few nurse bees to care for them. The deserting bees also typically leave behind large reserves of food. Researchers state that the number of reported instances of CCD has fallen over the last half-decade, but the phenomenon remains a matter of serious concern to beekeepers.

In the winter of 2006 - 2007, many keepers reported losses of as much as nine-tenths of their hives, bringing the problem of CCD to widespread public attention. Experts have developed a number of theories as to why CCD occurs. These include the presence of varroa mites, the spread of new disease-causing organisms, poor nutrition, and inappropriate use of pesticides. In 2014 President Obama created a federal task force to address the problem of CCD.