Bill Wade, Post-Gazette Beth and Barry Ford on their farm in Somerset Township look at one of their dead bee hives. Click photo for larger image. More information For more information about Colony Collapse Disorder, go to www.maarec.org

Beekeepers Barry and Beth Ford first realized something was wrong in November when their bees left their hives and did not return. Earlier in the fall, they didn't eat sugar water they put out for them either.

"They'd fly off and not come back, but we never saw any dead bees. So we're not sure if they were flying off and apparently not capable of coming back or if they flew off and died. That's still a very big unknown," Mrs. Ford said.

Before that, in June, the bees had exhibited strange behavior. While it's normal for bees to swarm, there was an excess amount of swarming activity, she said. Bees will swarm and look for another hive when it gets too congested or something is wrong with the hive, she said.

A fellow beekeeper told her he'd seen his bees flying in cold weather, something they normally don't do.

Today, only three of the Fords' 75 hives still have bees.

The couple's home and 78-acre property sprawl across Nottingham and Somerset townships on opposite sides of Brownlee Road. About 30 of the hives sit atop a hill in the Somerset section of their farm where they also raise beef cattle and graze horses and sheep. The remaining colonies are near their house in Nottingham.

Puzzled at the time about what caused their bees to disappear, they now have a name, if not a reason -- Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious condition affecting beekeepers in 24 states to date.

"I have concerns that we might be the tip of the iceberg," said Mrs. Ford, a beekeeper for six years. The Fords sell honey and honeycombs to local outlets and provide bees to pollinate an orchard.

It is their main farm business and this year she expects no income from it. The Fords will spend the next several months trying to increase their number of hives from the bees that remain. Mr. Ford also owns Barry Ford Contracting, a construction company and the couple's primary business.

Dave Hackenberg, a Lewisburg, Union County, beekeeper, was the first to report the problem. Other reports soon followed.

Colony Collapse Disorder is so named because adult honeybees suddenly disappear from hives or die, leaving beekeepers puzzled as to why. What is clear is the disorder could have a devastating effect on the pollination of fruits and vegetables in which bees play a crucial role.

The disorder has researchers nationwide putting on their thinking caps

	Bill Wade, Post-Gazette Above: Only three of the 75 hives Barry and Beth Ford keep on their farm in Somerset Township have survived the Colony Collapse Disorder that is affecting bees all across the country. Here Mr. Ford holds a frame with dead bees from one of their hives. Below: Ford Family Farm honey from Beth and Barry Ford. Click photos for larger image.

Among them is Dennis vanEngelsdorp, acting apiarist for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. He is in charge of apiary inspection and conducts research. Based on a survey, it's estimated about 27 percent of Pennsylvania's 2,000 beekeepers are affected.

In 2005, honeybee pollination accounted for $59 million worth of crops in Pennsylvania, including $4 million attributed to honey alone, according to Mr. vanEngelsdorp

Among other things, researchers have collected samples from 100 colonies in California and Florida, where bees from 12 states had migrated. Some beekeepers take their bees outside their home states for pollination purposes. The samples were divided among a working group of researchers in North Carolina, the agriculture departments in Florida and Pennsylvania, Penn State University, the University of Illinois and the University of Montana.

Researchers are looking for known and unknown diseases, chemicals in the wax and food reserves or pollen and bee bread, which is how bees store pollen. The bees themselves are being probed for gross evidence of disease to make sure they are digesting their food properly, Mr. vanEngelsdorp said. The protein bees store in their bodies also is being investigated.

There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle. It's a matter of trying to figure out which pieces are important, which constitute secondary infections and which pieces are the real cause of the problem, he said.

Another puzzle to the equation is why some beekeepers are affected while others are not. It's one of the things researchers are trying to figure out, Mr. vanEngelsdorp said.

Some beekeepers are attributing high mortality rates among bees to, simply, bad weather. They point to the hot, dry summer that reduced the amount of plant nectar available for food-making, and the March cold snap that sent temperatures back into the teens.

One unaffected beekeeper is West Middletown resident Wayne Berg, who describes himself as a hobbyist with 14 hives. While his hives did not experience Colony Collapse Disorder, he agreed last year was a bad nectar year. Bees were not collecting nectar as they should have, said Mr. Berg, a cabinetmaker who has raised bees for at least 10 years.

Nectar does not come up in the flower unless the sun is shining, and the weather was lousy last year, he said. There were too many overcast or cloudy days contributing to bad nectar flow.

He pollinates a couple of orchards for a friend and gives honey to friends and relatives. He, like the Fords, belongs to the Beaver Valley Beekeepers Association, which in February held a seminar drawing 200 people. Speakers came from all over the country to discuss the disorder, Mr. Berg said.

A preliminary research report, which Mr. vanEngelsdorp co-authored with other researchers, stated "this has become a highly significant yet poorly understood problem for beekeepers.

States like Pennsylvania can ill afford these heavy losses; the number of managed colonies is less than one-half of what it was 25 years ago."

Problems with mites, which feed on the bees, also have reduced the numbers over the years.

Asked about any suspicions he has about the problem, Mr. vanEngelsdorp said it's too early to tell. It's clear, however, bees are getting a lot of diseases, and their immune systems are being compromised.

He declined to say when researchers may have an answer. It depends on what one calls an answer, he said, and will require a lot of testing. Researchers will have to pin down what they find in common in the disorder.

But "I think we will have good clues before the fall," he said.