(Maine) Beekeepers spared sting of die-offs

[jpak]

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/070502bees.html

Honeybees buzzed and hovered around Erin Forbes as she slowly pulled apart their winter hive and moved it, section by section, into a bigger box.

"They're pretty mellow," Forbes said, holding up a board to show the queen and some newly laid eggs.

Forbes, on the other hand, was excited. Spring had finally arrived, the sun was warm and her bees were busy once again, collecting pollen and nectar.

Around the country, beekeepers have lost hundreds of thousands of colonies since November to a mysterious die-off called colony collapse disorder. In Maine, however, beekeepers and their industrious insects appear to have been spared -- so far. Forbes, for example, lost just one of her 14 hives during the past winter.

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[Algorem]

1. Ohio- "A rebuilding year for the bee team "

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/lorain/1178095319130450.xml&coll=2

Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Michael Sangiacomo
Plain Dealer Reporter

...Grafton said Ohio beekeepers lost 72 percent of their hives. Most died out because the bees did not store enough food to get them through a very long and harsh winter. Some lost whole colonies because of a national problem called the colony collapse disorder, in which bees abandon their hives. It has baffled scientists across the country...

Overall, Ohio was not as hard hit by the mysterious colony collapse disorder, but some beekeepers in southern Ohio reported massive disappearances.

The worst of the problem seems over and beekeepers are repopulating their hives.

James Tew, a specialist at Ohio State University's Honeybee Laboratory in Wooster, said he has not heard of any massive die-offs for several weeks...