2023/01/05 by Selina Bruckner, Mikayla Wilson, Michael Wilson +5 · 2 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior #Insect and Pesticide Research #Plant and animal studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/00218839.2022.2158586
crossref issued 2023/01/05 · crossref published 2023/01/05 · crossref published-online 2023/01/05 · openalex publication_date 2023/01/05 · crossref created 2023/01/05 · crossref deposited 2023/05/18 · crossref published-print 2023/05/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/31 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Beekeepers in the United States have experienced high losses of managed honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies for more than a decade. Long-term, multi-year monitoring efforts are crucial to provide a temporal and spatial context to these losses. To document and explain these losses, the Bee Informed Partnership has conducted national surveys on managed honey bee colonies since spring 2011, continuing the work of surveys first commissioned by the Apiary Inspectors of America in spring 2007. Here we present survey results from three years – 2017–18, 2018–19, and 2019–20. Each year, colony loss rates were estimated and compared among three loss periods – summer, winter, and annual – and three beekeeping operation types based on their number of colonies managed – backyard (≤50 colonies), sideline (51-500 colonies), and commercial (>500 colonies). At the national level, we recorded the highest winter colony loss rates (37.7%) in 2018–2019, while 2019 marked the year with the highest summer losses (32.1%). As documented in past surveys, we observed that smaller scale backyard beekeepers experienced the highest winter loss rates when compared to the larger operation types. Similarly, commercial beekeepers experienced higher loss rates during the summer compared to the other operation types. Overall, our results highlight the temporal variability, specifically among loss periods and years, of colony loss rates in the United States, and suggest a strong effect of beekeeping operation size.