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Honeybees aren't native to the US

Both wild and domesticated Honey bees were present in the Americas when European colonists arrived. However, the common honey bee was not among them, and the other (I hesitate to say 'native') species are indeed no longer extant.

If CCD is causing problems for professional beekeepers, those problems don't seem to be reflected in the economy. The price of queen bees hasn't changed.

Queen pricing might not be as strongly correlated to CCD as you might expect. Raising queens is indeed done commercially by specialized beekeepers, but if you're already a beekeeper, it is not hard to do or learn. You can raise dozens at the same time, in a single hive, and this does not stop that hive from producing honey later in the season. It's therefore quite possible that the increased demand in queens after overwintering has simply been met by an increase in the supply.

It's therefore quite possible that the increased demand in queens after overwintering has simply been met by an increase in the supply.

I think that this is the earlier point--

(ie, with no huge price ∆)

> Honeybees aren't native to the US; I'm not sure if I heard this right, but it may be that none of the social bees are.

Sort of - native American bees are generally less social than true honeybees and generally produce some but less honey than true honeybees.

This study takes Varroa mites into account. The hives in all groups were infested and responded to treatment identically.

On the other hand, hives treated with neonicotinoids were deserted during the winter.

It's good to know that the CCD hasn't had any impact on the economy.

Just to be clear: the issue is not that the economy is more important than ecology. I don't think it is. The issue is that the economy is a proxy for how serious the ecological issue is.

To wit: if pesticides are wiping out the honeybees, and honeybees are in very high demand to pollinate crops (they are: honeybees are trucked from Virginia to California to work the pollination circuit), the economy should clearly indicate that ecological problem happening.

The point about the Varroa mites is tangential. Or rather, two tangents:

1. Compared to even double-digit overwintering losses, pesticides are nothing close to the problem that mites were; mites eradicated the wild honeybee population! According to the EconTalk interview (this blew my mind and I wouldn't be surprised if it's a drastic oversimplification), if you see a bee in your backyard, and it's actually a honeybee, it's domesticated; its home is some apiarist's colony nearby.

2. The honeybees we're concerned about are themselves not native to the US. Honeybees are a species people introduced to North America.

> Just to be clear: the issue is not that the economy is more important than ecology. I don't think it is. The issue is that the economy is a proxy for how serious the ecological issue is.

That's how I interpreted it.

This is useful perspective. Like anything that has deteriorated in the last 100 years...

"Bees and the crops they pollinate are at risk from climate change, IPCC report to warn" (7:00AM GMT 29 Mar 2014)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/10730667/Bees-and...

There is alot of multi-colinearity in these data-sets, and the attribution issues are non-trivial.

Looking at prices for queens would give an indication in an unregulated market. The honeybee industry is widely subsidised by government though, so the price may be being kept stable artificially.

The queen pricing and pollination services pricing are the most interesting observations here. I don't understand how both this could be a serious problem and the prices also remain the same (over a long-ish period of time)

You can fudge a lot of news and spin things various ways, but if you're paying the same amount now as you were 10 years ago for pollination? I'm not sure where the problem is.

EconTalk: http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2013/12/wally_thurman_o.htm...

If queens are only used to split colonies, but in CCD the entire colony is deserted, should the price of queens change?