Bees had bad year, but good winter, which is more important

Bee Informed Partnership chart; hat tip to Al Tompkins of The Poynter Institute

Bee colonies fared much better last winter than recently, suffering the second lowest losses in 14 years of records, but last summer was the worst ever, so the year ended April 1 was one of the worst overall. That's the upshot of the latest report from Bee Informed Partership, a nonprofit created by commercial beekeepers, beekeeping scientists and epidemiologists and leaders of other honeybee organizations.

"From April 1st, 2019 to April 1st, 2020, nearly 44 percent of colonies were lost," the report says. However, "Beekeepers only lost 22.2 percent of their colonies this past winter, from Oct. 1 to March 31, which is lower than the average of 28.6%," Seth Borenstein of The Associated Press reports. Winter is “really the test of colony health,” so the results overall are good news, said the partnership's scientific coordinator, Nathalie Steinhauer. “It turned out to be a very good year.” 

"Last winter’s loss was considerably less than the previous winter of 2018-2019 when a record 37.7 percent of colonies died off," Borenstein reports. "After that bad winter, the losses continued through the summer of 2019, when beekeepers reported a 32% loss rate. That’s much higher than the average of 21.6 percent for summer losses. Those summer losses were driven more by hives of commercial beekeepers than backyard hobby-ists."

Borenstein adds, "Beekeepers in the U.S. also may be taking more of their colonies indoors in the winter, helping them survive, said University of Georgia entomologist Keith Delaplane. New U.S. Department of Agriculture research suggests putting bees in 'cold storage' helps them survive the winter. For decades, scientists have been watching the population of pollinators — crucial to the world’s food supply — shrink. Honeybees, the most easily tracked, are threatened by mites, diseases, pesticides and loss of food. Loss rates now being seen 'are part of the new normal,' Steinhauer said."