Costa Rican honeybees are having really tough year   
By José Pablo Ramírez Vindas of the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Honeybees are taking a beating in Costa Rica, although the exact nature of the problem is uncertain. Some beekeepers blame El Niño, the Pacific weather phenomenon
 
 Others say that the local bees are victim of the worldwide colony collapse disorder.
 
 Beekeepers maintain some 26,700 honeybee colonies in Costa Rica. These colonies of bees have produced some 625 metric tons of honey during 2005 and 2006. That's 24 kilos or about 53 pounds per colony.
 
 This year the bees are just getting by. Some beekeepers report a decrease of 80 percent in the honey crop. Exact figures are not available yet, but a 50 percent decrease seems certain.
 
 One theory is that the dry spell engendered by El Niño resulted in fewer plant blossoms and a smaller nectar flow. But colony collapse disorder, a mysterious condition ravaging honeybee colonies elsewhere, also is a concern.
 
 Johan van Veen is president of the  Cámara Nacional de Fomento de la Apicultura, Centro de Investigaciones Apícolas Tropicales, Universidad Nacional in Heredia. He said that there has been no determination of what is causing the problem.
 
 Van Veen, who holds a doctorate, noted that researchers elsewhere have advanced several theories about colony collapse disorder. These include climate change and perhaps global   warming, an unknown bee virus or a reaction to insecticides sprayed  on food plants. There even is a theory that cell phone waves inhibit worker  bees from finding their home colony.
 
 In Costa Rica bees pollinate melons, tomatoes, watermelons and chiles. However, despite the drop in apparent bee numbers, there are enough wild or feral colonies to do the job, said van Veen.
 
  The current data suggest something is happening. In Santa Cruz beekeepers are getting an average of 10 kilos or 22 pounds a colony, far below expectations. In Acosta one commercial beekeeper has had a 50 percent reduction in his honey crop, from about 9,0000 kilos (nearly 20,000 pounds) to half that. In Guanacaste a beekeeper's association says its 22 members have collected only half the normal crop of honey. A Puriscal beekeeper reports an 80 percent decrease in honey production.
 
 Colony collapse disorder is a condition in which there are few adult bees in a hive. Where the bees went still is a mystery. There are not a lot of dead bees around the colony. There still may be live brood but there are insufficient worker bees to care for the young or to maintain a constant temperature. Affected hives generally have sufficient stores of honey, so what happened is a question researchers have yet to answer. Some blame genetically modified crops that contain genes that produce natural insecticides. In the United States, bees collect and eat pollen from fields of corn, and corn is a plant that has been modified to ward off harmful insects.
 
 Genetically modified crops are a controversial topic in Costa Rica.