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Puzzling Bee Die-off Results 05-20-15 | News

Puzzling Bee Die-off Results

A higher bee colony loss rate in the summer than in the winter, and signs of a quick bounce back of bee populations were reported in an annual federal survey.

Honeybee colony collapse continues to be a major concern with the latest annual survey headed up by the U.S. Department of Education indicating that in the last 12 months beginning April 2014, beekeepers lost 42.1 percent of their colonies, reportedly the second highest percentage in nine years.

However, in spite of the high percentage, the total number of colonies in 2015, 2.74 million hives, was higher than 2014's 2.64 million. According to study co-authors Keith Delaplane at the University of Georgia, and Dennis vanEngelsdorp of the University of Maryland, after a colony dies, beekeepers then split their surviving colonies and start new ones, which causes the numbers to go back up again.

Surprisingly, more colonies met their demise in the summer, which experts claim they have never seen before. Last summer's loss rate was 27.4 percent. The summer before was 19.8 percent. Also, last summer's losses included higher than usual queen bee deaths according to USDA bee scientist Jeff Pettis.

The largest die-offs of hives, over 60 percent, occurred in Oklahoma, Illinois, Iowa, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Maine and Wisconsin.