Seth Borenstein, Ap Science Writer
Updated.
FILE – In this Aug. 7, 2019, file picture, the queen bee (marked in green) and worker bees move around a hive at the Veterans Affairs in Manchester, N.H. less
FILE – In this Aug. 7, 2019, file photo, the queen bee (marked in green) and employee bees move around a hive at the Veterans Affairs in Manchester, N.H. The yearly survey released Monday, June 22, 2020, of U.S. … more
Image: Elise Amendola, AP.
Image: Elise Amendola, AP.
FILE – In this Aug. 7, 2019, file photo, the queen bee (marked in green) and employee bees move around a hive at the Veterans Affairs in Manchester, N.H. less
FILE – In this Aug. 7, 2019, file photo, the queen bee (significant in green) and employee bees move a hive at the Veterans Affairs in Manchester, N.H. The yearly study launched Monday, June 22, 2020, of U.S. … more
Photo: Elise Amendola, AP.
American honeybee nests have recuperated after a bad year, the yearly beekeeping survey discovers.
Beekeepers only lost 22.2%of their nests this past winter, from Oct. 1 to March 31, which is lower than the average of 28.6%, according to the Bee Informed Collaboration’s annual study of thousands of beekeepers. It was the second smallest winter loss in the 14 years of surveying done by numerous various U.S. universities.
Last winter’s loss was considerably less than the previous winter of 2018-2019 when a record 37.7%of nests passed away off, the scientists found.
While the summer losses are bad, winter season deaths are “actually the test of nest health,” so the outcomes in general are good news, Steinhauer stated. “It turned out to be an excellent year.”
Populations tend to be cyclical with excellent years following bad ones, she said. The scientists surveyed 3,377 commercial beekeepers and backyard enthusiasts in the United States.
” One would hope that a lower winter season loss suggests a better 2020 assuming that the weather cooperates and beekeepers do not wind up stinting colony management,” said University of Montana bee expert Jerry Bromenshenk, who wasn’t part of the research study.
Beekeepers in the U.S. also might be taking more of their nests inside in the winter season, helping them survive, said University of Georgia entomologist Keith Delaplane. New U.S. Department of Agriculture research study recommends putting bees in “freezer” helps them survive the winter.
For decades researchers have actually been seeing the population of pollinators– vital to the world’s food supply– diminish. Honeybees, the most easily tracked, are threatened by mites, diseases, pesticides and loss of food.
Loss rates now being seen “are part of the brand-new normal,” Steinhauer stated.
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