The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Apiary Inspectors of America have released their annual survey on winter honeybee losses for 2010-2011. Total losses from managed honey bee colonies nationwide were 30-percent for all causes last winter. Jeff Pettis – USDA Agricultural Research Service Entomologist – says this is similar to losses reported in similar surveys conducted the four previous years. He says the lack of increase in losses is marginally encouraging in the sense that the problem doesn’t appear to be getting worse for honeybees and beekeepers. However – if losses near 30-percent continue – Pettis says it could put tremendous pressure on the economic sustainability of commercial beekeeping.

According to beekeepers – losses of 13-percent would be economically acceptable – but the average loss for an individual operation was 38.4-percent. Sixty-one percent of those responding had losses greater than that 13-percent level. Of the beekeepers who lost colonies – 31-percent lost some colonies without finding dead bee bodies – a symptom of Colony Collapse Disorder. These beekeepers also reported higher average colony losses – 61-percent – compared to those who lost colonies and didn’t report the absence of dead bees – which was 34-percent.

The survey covered the period from October 2010 to April 2011. Nearly 56-hundred beekeepers – who manage more than 15-percent of the country’s estimated 2.68-million colonies – responded to the survey.