Try to guess the year

Despite an early spring freeze that killed many of the apple blossoms, the bees spent 10 days to two weeks from dawn to dusk in the Hudson Valley's apple orchards. Flitting among the remaining blossoms, the bees gathered nectar and, in the process, carried pollen from flower to flower.

An essential component of the fruit industry, honeybees are raised in New York by about 8,000 beekeepers, most of them hobbyists interested in producing and selling honey. But there are only about 40 commercial beekeepers, who rent their bees to growers of apples, pears, peaches and cherries in the spring and use them for honey production in the summer.

Together, the beekeepers in New York State manage about 125,000 colonies. Each colony contains as many as 40,000 bees - for a total of about five billion. There are perhaps twice that number of wild honeybees.

Last year was a poor one for the honeybees, mostly because of bad weather, according to the state's Crop Reporting Service in Albany. 

A report issued last week by Dr. Roger A. Morse of the State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University gave an additional reason for the decline. He said that pesticides had killed a large number of bees. 

Losses From Pesticides

Dr. Morse, one of the country's leading experts on bees, reported substantial losses in at least 4,454 bee colonies in 164 upstate apiaries - mostly in western New York State in the lee of Lake Ontario - from pesticides sprayed to control crop-damaging insects on sweet corn.

He based his estimates on reports from beekeepers, which he said were incomplete. ''We believe we have erred on the conservative side and that the number of colonies affected by pesticides this year in New York is greater than indicated,'' he said.

Dr. Morse identified two of the pesticides as Penncap-M, a relatively new chemical used to control insects on sweet corn, and Sevin, which is used to control gypsy moths and other insects.

Dr. Morse said Penncap-M was especially devastating to honeybees because its granuals are the same size as grains of pollen and cling to the bees. The bees carry the granuals and contaminate the hive. 

Operation Moves Upstate

The problem of pesticide contamination of bees and their hives in the Hudson Valley is not as serious as in the Genessee Valley, according to Roy I. Myer, who operates the largest commerical beekeeping operation in the state with his three sons. Mr. Myer, who has been a beekeeper for 55 years, reported some damage last year, mostly from sprays used to control gypsy moths, but not much damage so far this year.

''We keep the bees away from cornfields,'' he said. He added that his sons, Roy R., Edward and Robert, had moved their base of operation from the Hudson Valley to Granville, a small town near the Vermont border where very little sweet corn is grown.

AFTER BAD YEAR, NEW YORK BEES ARE ON THE JOB
By HAROLD FABER, Special to the New York Times
Published: May 17, 1981

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