Honey, where have all the bees gone?

At Boise State University’s Boise River Cafe, students can add fresh, campus-grown honey to their oatmeal and yogurt before dashing off to class, courtesy of the campus’ apiary, located on the student union’s rooftop.

During the summer harvest season, the apiary sells about 20 pounds of fresh honey to Aramark, which oversees the campus’ dining services, as a supplement to the dining department’s supply, and bottles the rest to sell in Boise State’s bookstore. Yet the operation still is vulnerable to a looming issue: colony collapse disorder.

The mysterious phenomenon can be fatal to a hive’s worker bees and is causing agricultural concern because bees pollinate 35 percent of global food crops, according to the USDA. Commercial beekeepers reportedly lost about 40 percent of their colonies in 2014 due to a variety of factors, and in May, President Obama announced a new plan to promote pollinator health.

“Colony collapse disorder isn’t a singly defined thing, it’s a mixture that all adds up to one giant problem,” says Melinda Stafford, program coordinator for Boise State’s student union, which oversees the beekeeping program’s student interns. “It’s concerning because there is no single solution.”

When CCD hit the apiary in Fall 2013, Stafford’s team was fortunate enough to pinpoint the culprit: American foulbrood, a bacteria that kills off young bees. Despite the collapse of two hives, Stafford was able to repopulate the following spring. The maneuver doubled the amount of honey production to 200 pounds in 2014.

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The apiary at Rhode Island College in Providence also provides honey to its on-campus dining-services department. Though the school’s beekeeping program started in 2012, honey was only harvested for the first time in summer 2014 says Jim Murphy, a sustainability coordinator who oversees the program.

Last year, five pounds of honey were earmarked for dining services. “I’ll take everything they have,” says Arthur Patrie, interim director of college dining services.