
Honey bee colonies down by 16 percent - conse_lad
https://www.strath.ac.uk/whystrathclyde/news/honeybeecoloniesdownby16/
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conse_lad
Paper Title:

Loss rates of honey bee colonies during winter 2017/18 in 36 countries
participating in the COLOSS survey, including effects of forage sources

Abstract:

This short article presents loss rates of honey bee colonies over winter
2017/18 from 36 countries, including 33 in Europe, from data collected using
the standardized COLOSS questionnaire. The 25,363 beekeepers supplying data
passing consistency checks in total wintered 544,879 colonies, and reported
26,379 (4.8%, 95% CI 4.7–5.0%) colonies with unsolvable queen problems, 54,525
(10.0%, 95% CI 9.8–10.2%) dead colonies after winter and another 8,220
colonies (1.5%, 95% CI 1.4–1.6%) lost through natural disaster. This gave an
overall loss rate of 16.4% (95% CI 16.1–16.6%) of honey bee colonies during
winter 2017/18, but this varied greatly from 2.0 to 32.8% between countries.
The included map shows relative risks of winter loss at regional level. The
analysis using the total data-set confirmed findings from earlier surveys that
smaller beekeeping operations with at most 50 colonies suffer significantly
higher losses than larger operations (p < .001). Beekeepers migrating their
colonies had significantly lower losses than those not migrating (p < .001), a
different finding from previous research. Evaluation of six different forage
sources as potential risk factors for colony loss indicated that intensive
foraging on any of five of these plant sources (Orchards, Oilseed Rape, Maize,
Heather and Autumn Forage Crops) was associated with significantly higher
winter losses. This finding requires further study and explanation. A table is
included giving detailed results of loss rates and the impact of the tested
forage sources for each country and overall.

[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00218839.2019.1...](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00218839.2019.1615661)

