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Page added on May 13, 2016
28% of US bees wiped out this winter, suggesting bigger environmental issues
More than a quarter of American honeybee colonies were wiped out over the winter, with deadly infestations of mites and harmful land management practices heaping mounting pressure upon the crucial pollinators and the businesses that keep them.
Preliminary figures commissioned by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) show that 28% of bee colonies in the United States were lost over the 2015-16 winter. More than half of surveyed beekeepers said they suffered unsustainable losses during the winter.
Over the year, from April 2015 to March 2016, beekeepers lost 44% of their colonies – the highest annual loss on record. Until six years ago annual figures were not kept as it was assumed colony losses were only suffered during winter, but similar declines are now occurring year-round.
“It’s very troubling and what really concerns me that we are losing colonies in summer too, when bees should be doing so well,” said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, a University of Maryland bee scientist and survey leader. “This suggests there is something more going on – bees may be the canary in the coalmine of bigger environmental problems.
“One in three bites of food we eat is directly or indirectly pollinated by bees. If we want to produce apples, cucumbers, almonds, blueberries and lots of other types of food, we need a functioning pollination system. Bees, and the beekeeping industry, will suffer dramatically if we don’t have that.”
Bees’ woes have been pinned to a number of factors, including the mass conversion of pollen-rich meadows into heavily farmed land for staples such as corn and soy beans. Pesticide use and the spread of the varroa mite, parasites that suck blood from bees, which weakens and even kills off colonies, are also driving the decline.
There were an estimated 5m bee colonies in the US in 1940, but only half of them now remain. Numbers have rebounded slightly over the past decade but vanEngelsdorp said “this is not a reassuring sign” as it suggests beekeepers are deliberately creating more colonies in the expectation they will die off.
As colony losses mount, both backyard beekeepers and the much larger commercial industry face escalating costs to remain viable. Queen bees are having to be artificially replaced more regularly, with follow-up treatment required to keep the colony sustainable.
There are specialist queen bee producers across the US that supply queens to beekeepers looking to save a colony or create a new one. The queens, which are created when a female bee is fed royal jelly during the first three days of her life, are placed in tiny cages and sent in the mail to beekeepers.
“There is more and more effort being put into keeping colonies alive,” said vanEngelsdorp. “We are seeing greater cost pressures to pollinate crops. It costs around $200 a year to keep a colony alive and replace a queen. You’re lucky if you make $200 a year through the honey produced, so a lot of operators aren’t even breaking even. There are a lot who are really hurting.”
Environmental groups have called for a range of common pesticides to be phased out to help bee populations recover. The Environmental Protection Agency is investigating the risk posed by neonicotinoids, the world’s most widely used class of insecticides, with initial results suggesting they may pose a risk to honeybees and the $15bn in agricultural value they provide through pollination.
“These honeybee losses reinforce what science continues to tell us; we must take immediate action to restrict pesticides contributing to bee declines,” said Tiffany Finck-Haynes, food futures campaigner with Friends of the Earth.
“The longer we wait, the worse the situation becomes. If we do not suspend neonicotinoid pesticides immediately, we risk losing our beekeepers and harming important ecosystem functions upon which our food supply depends.”
Last year, Barack Obama’s administration created a taskforce to look at the issue of bee colony loss. The plan is largely based around restoring traditional bee-friendly habitat and analyzing the role that pesticides play in bee health.
23 Comments on "28% of US bees wiped out this winter, suggesting bigger environmental issues"
onlooker on Fri, 13th May 2016 2:07 pm
I heard that in a certain country in Europe they stopped using certain Pesticides and the Bee Colonies have recuperated. I just hope we can eliminate in the US some of the worse of the Pesticides because it seems clear they are mostly responsible for the Bee die-off.
penury on Fri, 13th May 2016 2:39 pm
As you all know the murder of all the other species on the planet continues unabated. Humans fail to understand that slow suicide works, but ends up as murder for your descendants.
Davy on Fri, 13th May 2016 2:41 pm
My bee hives did great this winter. I used 2 inch foam board and tvak for insulation. I allowed a small crack in the top cover for a very small amount of ventilation.
Onlooker, unfortunately reducing pesticides does not dove tail with maintaining food production. It is a trade off “bees or us” as an example.
I am lucky I am grazing animals. I use very few chemicals. There is no chance large monoculture can survive to produce the status quo industrial agriculture production we must have without all the various chemicals we use. Populations will have to drop dramatically without them. This population drop will likely happen anyway but the key question is how soon and how dramatic. I also want to know if you will volunteer to be one of the first to go. These are some of the difficult and unsavory trade offs facing us.
peakyeast on Fri, 13th May 2016 2:42 pm
Which country is that onlooker? This is the first I have heard of it.
But I have heard that the lobbyists has prevented the banning of Round-up. Of course they did that very quietly while keeping a ban on round-up sale for private citizens…
Just the normal way of showing the people how good and true the politicians are without actually doing anything since 95+% is used by commerical farming. A nightmarish disaster is what this EU mafia is.
onlooker on Fri, 13th May 2016 2:58 pm
I cannot find the particular country but found this link in which you can not the last paragraph which states ” However, the situation for bees has improved in Europe after the European Union banned neonicotinoid pesticides on April 29, 2013. The EU has also placed stricter regulations on genetically modified organisms, culminating in several GMO-free zones in Europe.” Here is link to article http://ashemountaintimes.com/news/bees-making-a-comeback-locally/article_2172905a-bd0b-11e4-a4a7-0366b38c0c02.html
peakyeast on Fri, 13th May 2016 3:10 pm
@onlooker: Thanks.
While I havent used much time – I cannot find any reliable information on the results from the ban.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/07/eu-scientists-begin-review-ban-pesticides-linked-bee-declines
quote:
It requires the ability to detect a 7% effect on honeybee colonies, which is below the natural variability you would see,” Peter Campbell, Syngenta’s senior environmental specialist said earlier this year.
peakyeast on Fri, 13th May 2016 3:11 pm
quote: “The European Food Safety Authority (Efsa) has begun a review that could pave the way for rolling back a pioneering EU-wide ban on three neonicotinoid pesticides, that are thought to have ravaged European bee populations.
In a letter to the European commission last month, which the Guardian has seen, the EU scientists said that they would finish their risk evaluation by the end of January 2017.”
But I cant find the results of that evaluation.
onlooker on Fri, 13th May 2016 3:30 pm
“But I cant find the results of that evaluation.” That would make sense as it says they would not finish till January of 2017
peakyeast on Fri, 13th May 2016 3:33 pm
Sorry I read it as 2016. 🙂
Anyway – I could not find any other evalutions or measurements. And as quoted it seems like its difficult to measure.
makati1 on Fri, 13th May 2016 6:36 pm
“28% of US bees wiped out this winter, suggesting bigger environmental issues”
Ah, ignorance is bliss. If only they taught real science and biology in schools so humans understood how it all works and how we are committing slow suicide as a species. But alas, that is not teaching to the test and would require teachers to actually be intelligent and not babysitters. Not to mention that the TBTF corporations don’t want you to know.
JuanP on Sat, 14th May 2016 8:58 am
Onlooker “I heard that in a certain country in Europe they stopped using certain Pesticides and the Bee Colonies have recuperated.” You answered your own question, but, yes, it is neonicotinoids that seem to be responsible for the current US bee troubles along with the Varroa Mite which was introduced to the USA through Florida in 1995.
The commercial bee industry in the USA is grotesquely inhuman and abusive to bees. Most bees are put on trucks and transported at high speeds on the highway for hundreds or thousands of miles several times a year.
I am very happy to report that I am in the process of buying three Langstroth and two African hives at a local organic farm, and will soon become a beekeeper. I am already working with them. I will also get one year of bee training from the farmer as the current owner of the hives is moving to Hawaii and the farmer has no time for them because he has a full time job, but he wants the hives to stay. It took years of trying to get my hands on them. I expect my bees to remain as healthy as they are since I will be truly spoiling them.
JuanP on Sat, 14th May 2016 9:00 am
I saw this a few days ago but there was no related thread at the time. https://www.rt.com/viral/342809-bees-massive-colony-collapse/
onlooker on Sat, 14th May 2016 9:01 am
Good for you Juan, Healthy Bees are something of true worth and value.
JuanP on Sat, 14th May 2016 9:06 am
Onlooker, I am very happy about it. Keeping bees is a lifelong dream, it is something I’ve wanted to do since I was a teenager. Carpe diem! Another link on the neonicotinoid thing, https://www.rt.com/usa/339359-neonicotinoids-ortho-bees-pesticide/
Kenz300 on Sat, 14th May 2016 10:02 am
The poisoning of the planet………
Pope Francis’s edict on climate change will anger deniers and US churches | World news | The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/27/pope-francis-edict-climate-change-us-rightwing
Head Of The Episcopal Church Says It’s ‘Sinful’ To Ignore Climate Change
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/26/katherine-jefferts-schori-climate-change_n_6949532.html?utm_hp_ref=green&ir=Green
Nuclear energy is poisoning the planet…………
5 Years After Fukushima, ‘No End in Sight’ to Ecological Fallout
http://ecowatch.com/2016/03/05/5-years-after-fukushima/
onlooker on Sat, 14th May 2016 10:05 am
Thanks Kenz for posting that link to Fukushima the worse Nuclear disaster to date. Stay tuned for more though. Silly monkeys thought they could control the atom.
GregT on Sat, 14th May 2016 11:13 am
Haven’t gotten back into honey bees yet, but plan to do so at some point. The biggest hurdle I see long term is access to medications. We have started up a colony of mason Bees though. Very good pollinators, easier to maintain, their sting is almost non-existent, but they do not store nectar.
http://www.masonbeehomes.com
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/queen-of-green/2011/10/how-to-harvest-mason-bee-cocoons/
Northwest Resident on Sat, 14th May 2016 12:02 pm
Let’s keep in mind that honey bees are not native to North America, but were imported from Europe. European crops also imported to North America probably do need honey bees for pollination, but there are still plenty of natural native pollinators in North America.
A few years ago here in Oregon they found an estimated 50,000 dead bumble bees tits up under a big tree that some idiot sprayed a bunch of pesticide on. Multiply that times an infinite number of idiots with full access to all kinds of poisons and pesticides, and we begin to understand.
But idiocy extends in all directions when it comes to honey bees. I was standing in line at the local bee supply store waiting to pick up a new nuc hive, and overheard a lady in line in front of me talking. She was explaining how she has a huge apple orchard that needs to be pollinated, so she buys 10 – 20 nuc hives every year, puts them out by her orchard and then forgets about them. Every year they all die off due to lack of attention/management, which she doesn’t care about, and every year she comes back to buy more.
Making queen honey bees is not difficult. I could make dozens of them, but where would I put them?
Varroa mites are definitely a problem. Those mites were imported from Asia and had a HUGE impact on beekeeping in America when they hit. But why didn’t the varroa mites wipe out the bees in Asia? Because, Asian/Russian bees developed natural defenses against them over the years/centuries.
In America, specialized beekeepers have been developing strains of bees that take some of their genes from Asian/Russian bees and have hygienic defenses against varroa mites — they clean them off of each other in the hives, even bite through them. My bees have that natural genetic defense. Last year my package hive started out with a fair number of mites, but as I kept checking the mite levels they decreased without treatment. Using a magnifying glass, I could see where some of the mites that had dropped to the floor board had been bitten through, almost cut in half. My nuc hive started out with a few mites but they disappeared after a few weeks — self hygienic defense against mites.
Commercial beekeepers are producing hundreds of thousands and probably millions of bees, selling them to non-committed amateurs who don’t do what needs to be done to keep their colonies alive. And that explains a LOT of the die-off.
BTW, you don’t need chemicals to combat varroa mites. Read about it. There are plenty of non-chemical treatments that work very well.
It goes without saying that if you live in an area surrounded by mono-crop farming practice, then you are not in a good area for keeping bees.
In one of my beekeeping books, I read that in nature, even without chemicals or varroa mites, nearly 50% of bee colonies die off every year. Think about it. A hive grows strong, splits, and a swarm of bees with the old queen goes off to live in a new tree or some other place. Other hives are doing the same thing. But then the competition for remaining nectar/pollen in the area becomes intense and resources are insufficient to support all the new bees. So die-off occurs naturally.
Just like with humans. Our population has grown to unsustainable levels. Only oil enables the current population level to be maintained, barely in many places. We’ve got a big naturally occurring die-off scheduled on the calendar and we’re just counting the days until our own big date with destiny. When that day comes, those who have learned how to keep and manage honey bees and who can produce quantities of honey will, I suspect, have a valuable survival skill and a product that will be in high demand as it was long before the age of oil began.
Northwest Resident on Sat, 14th May 2016 12:04 pm
GregT — BTW, I read your response to my question “how’s your self-sustaining food effort going?”
Sounds like you have made awesome progress!! Digging all the time? Sore? Tired? Worn out? Hey, join the club!!
🙂
GregT on Sat, 14th May 2016 12:16 pm
Things are coming along nicely NWR. Just having a bite to eat and a cup of coffee, then back in the dirt!
Open question for all;
Has anybody set up a cistern to gravity feed a drip irrigation system? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
JuanP on Sat, 14th May 2016 8:29 pm
Greg, I have never done that myself completely, but have been involved with different parts of the process at different scales.
On a very small scale, I have built raingutter gardens with main connection, buckets, or rainwater barrels connected to a float valve on the gutter. Very simple, works great on a small scale. Can be gravity fed. Raingutter gardens are very interesting for home gardeners. Practical, easy to use, effective, and low cost.
On a larger scale, my design was based on Permaculture principles, things like Ben Falk’s water system, and other systems like it. They are very typical in Permaculture setups. One of the basic principles leads to storing water high and using gravity to water, and trying to hold on to as much water as possible. If you have the time, click on the third image to watch the webinar on this page. The larger the scale, the more complex the system, but I have no doubt of your capabilities, and it is doable.
http://www.permaculturevoices.com/homestead-and-farm-resiliency-and-regeneration-10-years-in-a-cold-climate-principles-in-practice-presented-by-ben-falk-b021/
You pump the water up using pumps, you store it as high as needed or possible, and you direct the water down using swales, ponds, and pipes. Every design will be unique, but the principles are the same.
I have very little experience with drip irrigation outside of very small scale garden systems.
JuanP on Sat, 14th May 2016 8:41 pm
I have news for those interested in Permaculture and learning more about it. Oregon State University will be teaching a free Massive Open Online Course titled “Intro to Permaculture” beginning on October 31st, 2016. My wife and I have taken the course and liked it very much. It is free of cost and obligation, you only do what you want.
Things like this course are what made this country great. Thanks, OSU!
JuanP on Sat, 14th May 2016 10:34 pm
Greg, In this design the rainwater that falls on the property is collected at the bottom in a pond, and a windmill is used to pump it up for irrigation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4vZpdKYDgk