Total summer (yellow bars; 1 April – 1 October), winter (gray; 1 October – 1 April), and annual (orange bars; 1 October – 1 October) honey bee colony loss rates in the United States across years of the Bee Informed Partnership’s national honey bee colony loss survey, 2007/2008-2019/2020. Results from the inaugural survey commissioned by the Apiary Inspectors of America and performed in 2006-07 are not included. Graphic: The Bee Informed Partnership
Total summer (yellow bars; 1 April – 1 October), winter (gray; 1 October – 1 April), and annual (orange bars; 1 October – 1 October) honey bee colony loss rates in the United States across years of the Bee Informed Partnership’s national honey bee colony loss survey, 2007/2008-2019/2020. Results from the inaugural survey commissioned by the Apiary Inspectors of America and performed in 2006-07 are not included. Graphic: The Bee Informed Partnership

22 June 2020 (The Bee Informed Partnership) – The western honey bee, the species used across the country to support food production, to provide a natural sweetener, and to quite simply contribute to our leisure and free time, is among the most important of pollinators.

To mark Pollinator Week, the Bee Informed Partnership (BIP) recently released the results of its 2019-2020 National Honey Bee Colony Loss Survey.

Results revealed some interesting insights into the experiences of our honey bee colonies, and their keepers, across the country this past year.

From April 1st, 2019 to April 1st, 2020, nearly 44 percent of colonies were lost. Losses during Summer 2019 marked the highest ever recorded by BIP during that season, whereas losses during Winter 2019/2020 were the second lowest on record.

To see the most up-to-date information of colony loss in the United States, please visit BIP’s Loss & Management Survey page.

Preliminary Results of the 2019-2020 National Honey Bee Colony Loss Survey