Honeybee colonies kept losing bees over winter

A survey from Apiary Inspectors of America and the Agricultural Research Service reveals honeybee colony losses remained above 30 percent between October 2009 to April 2010. Respondents reported losses of 33.8 percent of colonies nationwide from all causes, up from 29 percent in winter 2008-2009, ScienceDaily reports. The rate remained below winter 2007-2008, which saw 35.8 percent losses.

Jeffrey Pettis, research leader of ARS' Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., told ScienceDaily the high losses are particularly worrying because they don't include colonies lost during the summer. ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's principal intramural scientific research agency. Twenty-eight percent of beekeeping operations that reported some of their colonies perished without dead bees present, a sign of Colony Collapse Disorder. Those operations reported 44 percent loss of their colonies, up from 32 percent last winter. Beekeepers who didn't report signs of CCD lost 25 percent of their colonies. (Read more)