Commercial beekeepers reported that, on average, they lost 62% of their colonies from June 2024 to February, according to a survey of 702 U.S. beekeepers. Preliminary sampling of live and dead bees has failed to show a cause, and a team of at least 16 scientists from universities and the USDA are looking for answers.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n By Rebecca Raney<\/strong><\/p>\n Honey bees may be dying at an unprecedented rate this winter, with more than 1 million colonies lost, according to a survey of U.S. beekeepers by the nonprofit organization\u00a0Project Apis m<\/a>. More than a dozen government and academic scientists have mobilized to search for the cause.<\/p>\n Commercial beekeepers reported that, on average, they lost 62% of their colonies from June 2024 to February, according to the survey.<\/p>\n The organization gathered data from 702 beekeepers nationwide in January and February. Their operations account for more than half of\u00a0honey bee colonies<\/a>\u00a0managed in the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cWe moved quickly to gather information,\u201d said Danielle Downey, executive director of Project Apis m. \u201cWe don\u2019t really know what\u2019s going on, and a catastrophic loss could happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n Respondents have lost 1.1 million colonies from late summer through winter, according to the data. Those losses account for 41% of total colonies in the U.S., Downey said during a\u00a0YouTube livestream<\/a>\u00a0on Feb. 28 that covered survey results.<\/p>\n Those figures do not substantially differ from data reported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which has reported\u00a0colony losses<\/a>\u00a0that range from 933,000 colonies to nearly 1.3 million colonies from July through March in the last decade.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe this to be an underestimate of these losses,\u201d Downey said.<\/p>\n As of January 2024, beekeepers maintained 2.7 million honey bee colonies nationwide, according to survey data of operations with five or more colonies from the USDA.<\/p>\n Preliminary sampling of live and dead bees has failed to show a cause, and a team of at least 16 scientists from universities and the USDA are looking for answers.<\/p>\n The survey from Project Apis m. covered whether the bees were stored indoors or outdoors over winter, whether queens had been replaced in lost colonies, whether beekeepers had supplemented their nutrition and how many colonies were afflicted by Varroa mites.<\/p>\n For each of these variables, Downey said, no clear pattern emerged.<\/p>\n In the next few months, government and university researchers will analyze samples for pathogens,\u00a0pesticide<\/a>\u00a0residues, microbiome and host-pathogen interactions as well as metagenomic analysis.<\/p>\n In some cases, Downey said, the labs will place priorities on the 500 samples that were collected in February from colonies from around the country that were transported to the almond pollination in California.<\/p>\n Beekeepers who send colonies to the California almond crop were the first to sound the alarm. That crop is the first to require pollination services in the nation.<\/p>\n Downey said that beekeepers first noticed higher-than-expected mortality rates when they checked the colonies before transporting them, then were surprised with sudden die-offs of the bees after they were transported, seven to 10 days later.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had huge losses in the sheds, and they continued to have losses on the way to California,\u201d Downey said.<\/p>\n Chris Hiatt, a past president of the American Honey Producers Association who runs beekeeping operations in California, North Dakota and Washington state, has never stopped sounding the alarm.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the last 20 years, it gets worse and worse,\u201d he said. \u201cIt seems like it doesn\u2019t matter what you do\u201d to try to keep the bees alive.<\/p>\n If beekeepers are reporting average losses of 62%, he said, \u201cthat\u2019s record high.\u201d<\/p>\n According to annual surveys by the USDA, losses from late summer through spring have ranged from 933,000 from July 2023 through March 2024 to 1.3 million in 2015 through 2016.<\/p>\n In 2023, the most recent full year for which data were available, the leading cause was infestation of Varroa mites, followed by other\u00a0pests and parasites, pesticides<\/a>, diseases and factors such as weather, starvation, queen failure and insufficient forage.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Hiatt said the days are long gone when he and his father would find 5%-10% of the colonies dead at the end of winter. He considers his own operation fortunate with colony loss at 31% this year.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not sustainable overall,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n During the livestream, Downey pointed out that colonies cost about $200 each to replace, and that high losses could drive more beekeepers out of business.<\/p>\n \u201cIf these businesses can\u2019t stay solvent, there is no backup plan,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She also said that one in three bites of food depends on pollinators to produce.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you like food, you need bees,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Originally published by\u00a0U.S. Right to Know<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Rebecca Raney is an investigative journalist at U.S. Right to Know.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/naturalblaze.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/bee-colonies-collapsed-winter-feature-1024x534-1.jpg\")
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