Colony Collapse

“January 1st we had 2.63 million honeybee colonies here in the U.S.," said Lane Honig with NASS. "That was down 1% from a year earlier. But by April 1st of this year, that number was up to 2.99 million colonies."

New research from the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service sheds light on the causes behind the catastrophic honeybee colony losses reported by commercial beekeepers this year.  The findings point to an alarmingly high level of viral infections caused by Varroa mites that have resistant genes to a common treatment.    “Our ...

A nationwide survey of beekeepers has revealed catastrophic honey bee colony losses across the United States between June 2024 and February 2025.  These alarming losses, which surpass historical trends, could significantly impact U.S. agricu...

Honey bees and their keepers have been having quite a bit of trouble keeping the colonies strong and alive. You may remember the news headlines started about 15-16 years ago. Headlines about millions of bee colonies dying off, or in some cases, the bees were just disappearing, with the nation's beekeepers losing 30 to 50% of their colonies every year...

With increased concern over pollinator die-offs, the Honeybee Health Coalition has released a new guide to help beekeepers and farmers manage Varroa Mites.  Dewey Caron is with Oregon State University’s Horticulture Department and is a Coalition member, said this edition of the Varroa Management Guide updates the number of mites deemed an actual threat to bee colonies.   “They ...

According to the USDA, during the first three months of the year, bee keepers nationwide lost about 12% of the colonies, and another 10% during the 2nd quarter.  Those losses aren't as bad as the drop we saw during the first half of 2021. ...

We recently reported that honey production across the Pacific Northwest dropped year-over-year. It doesn’t look like the PNW was the only area that saw a decrease. Honey production nationwide dropped as well. Travis Averill with NASS said this is part of an ongoing decline over the past two decades. " ...

The USDA released its report on honeybee colonies earlier this week, and the number were encouraging when it comes to the total number of colonies as well as colony losses. "The January one honeybee colonies is up 2%." That's compared to January 1st of 2020 at just over 2 ...

In an effort to better understand colony health, Washington State University scientists have partnered with beekeepers this spring to inspect honey bees and hives. Postdoctoral researche​r, Rae Olsson, said all of the bees tracked for the project are part of a large or small commercial operations and all of them are migratory in some way, meaning the beekeepers move the bees all around the countr

According to the USDA, elevated winter colony losses have not resulted in enduring declines in colony numbers.  Instead, the number of U.S. honey bee colonies is either stable or growing depending on the dataset being considered.   USDA said at the state level, loss rates are uncorrelated with year-to-year changes in the number of colonies, suggesting that beekeepers are able to replace lost colon