“THE BEES ARE A LITTLE DEFENSIVE TODAY, I think you might need some protective gear,” Dennis vanEngelsdorp tells an apprehensive writer making his first visit to a honey bee apiary. vanEngelsdorp, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s acting state apiarist, was inspecting commercial hives along the Susquehanna River as part of an effort to assess the spread of a new, potentially disastrous ailment, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). This was the latest stop in what promises to be a long journey—with Penn State researchers in the lead—through a complicated scientific puzzle.

vanEngelsdorp and his team were counting bees and developing brood (larvae) and looking for signs of brood disease. Samples were taken to be examined for mite infestations and nosema, a known disease of bees. Frozen samples would be analyzed for viruses and other organisms, and comb and pollen checked for nutritional quality and pesticide levels.

“USDA will do the varroa mite analysis, and David Tarpy at North Carolina State is getting bees for genetic and protein analysis,” vanEngelsdorp says. “Diana Cox-Foster at Penn State will get frozen bees to check for pathogens, and Penn State’s Maryann Frazier will analyze wax and pollen for pesticides. It’s a collaboration of experts.”

This apiary belongs to beekeeper David Hackenberg, who runs a large, migratory operation. In late fall 2006, Hackenberg transported a tractor-trailer load of 400 hives to a pepper grower in Florida. Just another pollination job—or so he thought—for some of his nearly 3,000 hives. Hackenberg’s honey bees travel year-round, producing honey in New York and pollinating apples and pumpkins in Pennsylvania, blueberries in Maine, and vegetables and fruit in Florida.