Almost half of honey bee colonies died in 2023 after three tumultuous years

From April of final yr to April of this yr, 48% of honey bee colonies prematurely died off.

College of Maryland and Auburn College have collaborated with nonprofit Bee Knowledgeable to trace and report on managed bee colonies yearly since 2007. Final yr noticed losses of 48%, the earlier yr’s loss was 39%, and the yr earlier than that, it was 50.8%. The common loss during the last 12 years is 39.6%.

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Jeremy Weber/AP

The reason for these losses is a mixture of the parasitic mite, varroa destructor, which helps unfold viruses between bees, elevated use of pesticides, which inhibit the bee's capacity to stave off illnesses, and dramatic modifications within the surroundings. When it turns into hotter than typical in the course of the winter, bees will depart their colonies to start pollinating most of the crops we eat, in addition to different vegetation, however when the climate chills once more, the bees die off.

Nonetheless, probably the most generally reported explanation for demise in the course of the winter was the varroa. Throughout the remainder of the yr, the most typical report revolved round points with the queen bee.

"Excessive ranges of losses don't essentially lead to a lower within the whole variety of colonies managed in the USA as a result of beekeepers can change misplaced colonies all year long," the report learn.

This report comes from a self-reported survey of three,006 beekeepers from throughout the USA who collectively handle 314,360 colonies, nearly all of that are commercially operated. That is solely 12% of the estimated 2.70 million managed honey-producing colonies within the nation in 2022, per the report.

The collaboration, often known as "the Bee Knowledgeable Partnership," is a non-profit group devoted to bettering honey bee colony well being particularly.