The USDA has released its annual survey on winter honeybee losses for 2010 and 2011. And it looks like total losses from managed honey bee colonies nationwide were 30-percent for all causes last winter.
Jeff Pettis is a USDA Agricultural Research Service Entomologist and says this is very similar to losses reported in similar surveys but still a concern with beekeepers.
According to beekeepers, losses of 13 percent would be economically acceptable. Of the beekeepers who lost colonies, 31 percent lost some colonies without finding dead bee bodies; a symptom that USDA’s Jeff Pettis says is colony collapse disorder.
The survey was conducted from October of last year thru April of this year and nearly 5,600 beekeepers who manage more than 15 percent of the nation’s estimated 2.68 million bee colonies participated.
Source: USDA
Posted by Northern Ag Network
