Beekeepers Lost 44% of Honey Bee Colonies Last Year

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/news/2016/05/12/beekeepers-lost-44-honey-bee-colonies-last-year/

On Tuesday the Bee Informed Partnership, in collaboration with the Apiary Inspectors of America and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), released its annual report on honey bee losses in the U.S. Beekeepers reported losing 44 percent of their total number of colonies managed over the last year—close to the highest annual loss in the past six years. These losses are considered too high to be sustainable for U.S. agriculture and the beekeeping industry.

“These honey bee losses reinforce what sciences continues to tell us; we must take immediate action to restrict pesticides contributing to bee declines,” Tiffany Finck-Haynes, food futures campaigner with Friends of the Earth, said. “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.”

A large and growing body of science has attributed alarming bee declines to several key factors, including exposure to the world’s most widely used class of insecticides, neonicotinoids. States, cities, universities, businesses and federal agencies in the U.S. have passed measures to restrict the use of these pesticides due to delay by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). However, these pesticides are still widely used despite mounting evidence that they kill bees outright and make them more vulnerable to pests, pathogens and other stressors.

[northernsouthern]

1. I do love Honey Bees...

I want to get a hive or a Bumble bee nesting box. One sad thing is that we seem to give more care for Honey bees when other may do more work to pollinate..I hope we are not also losing those bees as well.

So which bees are the best blueberry pollinators? It depends on how “best” is defined. Small native bees and bumble bees produce the most seeds in a single visit, but there are fewer of them in blueberry fields. Honey bees are abundant, but they are less active when the weather is poor and produce fewer seeds in a single visit. Southeastern blueberry bees are active early in the year and abundant across sites, and although they produce fewer seeds in a single visit, their visits are fast. Because no single bee species produces high numbers of seeds, is present in large numbers (either naturally or through man-made augmentation), is active under all weather conditions, and visits lots of flowers quickly, we need a diversity of bees to produce the most blueberries. Our future research activites will focus on relating bee diversity to crop value and production practices so that we can make recommendations to growers both as to what bees they should foster on their farm as well as what management practices to avoid and enhance.

https://entomology.ces.ncsu.edu/2013/12/which-bees-are-the-best-blueberry-pollinators/

[eridani]

2. Nice link and graphic n/t

[merrily]

3. Yet, I keep reading that there's no shortage of honey bees.

I don't suppose the manufacturers of these deadly products are financing that stuff? Much as cigarette manufacturers financed studies and articles about how safe smoking was? Nah. The bees are just fine--and totes plentiful!

When Doctors, and Even Santa, Endorsed Tobacco http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/business/media/07adco.html?_r=0

http://tobacco.stanford.edu/tobacco_main/images.php?token2=fm_st016.php&token1=fm_img2959.php&theme_file=fm_mt002.php&theme_name=For%20your%20Throat&subtheme_name=Not%20a%20Cough%20in%20a%20Carload

[progressoid]

6. What's the phrase? "Lies, damned lies and statistics"?

44 percent is a scary number. To be clear, any decline is worth noting and shouldn't be ignored. But 44% makes a better headline than this from the actual USDA report:

According to the survey released today, there were 2.59 million or 8% fewer honey bee colonies on January 1, 2016 than the 2.82 million present a year earlier on January 1, 2015 for operations with five or more colonies.

8 Percent? Pffft. What editor wants to use 8 when 44 sounds so much more dire.



Also, the reason you keep hearing that there is no shortage of honey bees is because there isn't. Of course there have been some problems (like CCD a few years ago). But all things considered, bees ain't doing too badly today.






The world’s bee population has been rising almost continuously for the past 50 years, according to FAO stats. There are almost 10 million beehives in the world now than in 2000 – an increase of 13.2 percent.

[progressoid]

5. According to the USDA report, "beekeepers reported Varroa mites as the leading stressor affecting...

Honey beekeepers with five or more colonies reported Varroa mites as the leading stressor affecting colonies.

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2016/05/0114.xml&contentidonly=true

It would seem beekeepers see this as a bigger problem regardless of the opinion of Tiffany Finck-Haynes, food futures campaigner with Friends of the Earth.