WAXAHACHIE -- Mark Brady has 320 million reasons to be concerned about colony collapse disorder.

With 8,000 beehives and 40,000 bees in each hive, the sudden disappearance of almost half of America's honeybees has him concerned.

A lifelong resident of Waxahachie, Brady's one of Texas' top commercial beekeepers and president of the American Honey Producers Association.

"A few years ago, beekeepers all over the U.S. started losing more bees than they would normally lose. Every year, a 10 to 15 percent loss -- that's pretty normal," he said.

"Some of these guys all of a sudden started losing 40 percent or 50 percent -- some even higher than that. As it got more widespread all over the U.S., we realized we had some new problem we hadn't had in the past."

His theory is that the disorder is a combination of things -- a sort of Bermuda Triangle of conditions. Part of the problem is diseases bees have had for years, such as virus strains, and the Veroa mite, which attaches itself like a tick and is said to be building up resistance to treatments that once worked like a charm. Add stress from being shuttled cross-country for work and pesticides that keep the plants pest-free, and maybe something's got to give.

"I believe it has just become too much for the bees. You hear the bees just disappear -- I don't believe they're disappearing. I believe the adult bees aren't living as long as they used to. Their lifespan is being shortened, and they die off when they're in flight. They're not getting back," Brady said.

Average U.S. honey production has been about 200 million pounds in recent years. It dropped to 155 million in 2006 and to 143 million in 2007, he said.

The drop cannot be attributed entirely to colony collapse disorder, Brady said. Drought is a factor as well.

Last year, Brady was joined by others in the industry in Washington, where they testified before a congressional subcommittee.

"They asked us questions about what we thought was going on and what they could do to help," he said.

The House Appropriations Committee approved $780,000 for research on colony collapse disorder and $10 million for bee research.

"I don't want anybody to panic. We've got an awful lot of really good people working on this. I've got faith we're going to work this thing out; between the scientists and the good beekeepers, we're going to figure out what's going on," he said.

The apis mellifera is a social insect. About 95 percent of all bees are female -- and the females do all the work.

"They're the go-getters in the group," Brady said. "Their goal every day, daylight to dark seven days a week, is to make the hive better, to produce honey and feed the young. And at the time I'm taking the honey away from them, their only goal is to make some more."

About 50 percent of Brady's company's income comes from renting the bees out for pollination service -- and the other half from selling about a million pounds of honey to companies such as Burleson Honey.

"There are 90 different crops in U.S. that have to be pollinated by bees or we don't have that food," Brady said.

Right now, some of his hives are in Nebraska and the rest are in the Houston area, gathering honey. In the winter, he will ship all his bees to California for almond pollination.

"We've got a loop we run," he said.

His hometown, Waxahachie, is played out as far as bees are concerned.

Suburban homes now bloom where clover once adorned country roadsides and where the vertical wood boxes filled with honeycomb were once much more commonplace.

"There's so much cultivation and concrete, there's not much there for them to make honey off of any more," Brady said.

Brady has been in the bee business for 35 of his 55 years.

"When I was in high school, I had a summer job with a beekeeper. I was only out in the bee yard a short period of time, and I pretty much knew what I wanted to do right then," he said.

"There was something about being out there with Mother Nature. Those bees are just incredible -- it's just amazing, watching them work and seeing what they're able to do."

Beekeeping is not for the faint of heart. Brady estimates that he spends three months of the year at home in Waxahachie, where his wife, Peggy, is his true partner and manages all the company's paperwork for their nine employees. His son, Tyler, an Ennis firefighter, has worked with him for years, extracting honey and transporting bees and helping with other aspects of the business.

"He's still a big part of this business," the elder Brady said.

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