A recently released survey by BEE Informed has revealed that 31% of bee colonies in the United States died out in the winter of 2012.
Losses through natural causes such as cold and wet would have normally accounted for 15% of deaths.
Here are the highlights:
6,287 U.S. beekeepers participated in the survey
Participants managed 599,610 colonies as of October 2012
Survey represented 22.91% of the total estimated 2.62 million US colonies.
Initial survey results indicate that 31.1% of managed honey bee colonies in the
US were lost during the 2012/2013 winter; an increase in loss of 9.2 points or 42% over the 2011/2012 winter
Survey participants indicated that they considered a loss rate of 15% as “acceptable,” but
70% of them suffered losses greater than this.
See full report: http://beeinformed.org/2013/05/winter-loss-survey-2012-2013/
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