Commercial beekeepers saw well over 50% losses this winter. As California prepares for almond season, and for fruits like blueberries and cherries after that, not enough bees could mean higher prices at the grocery store.
Bees died off by the millions this winter in an unprecedented event that’s resulted in recent losses of more than 50% and financial losses of more than $139 million, according to a survey by bee industry groups released this afternoon. The new survey results, representing 234 beekeepers, come just as the California almond growing season is set to begin, a massive event that requires pretty much all of the country’s 3 million honey bees colonies to be trucked out so they can pollinate the trees.
“There’s a full panic right now to figure out what’s wrong and how bad it’s going to be,” said Danielle Downey, executive director of Project Apis m. (named for the Latin name of the Western honey bee, Apis mellifera), one of the industry groups involved in the survey. When the beekeepers opened their operations back up after winter, they discovered that half or more of their bees were dead or gone, and by late-January they’d reached out to researchers who might be able to figure out what was going on.
Almonds are the current, urgent problem. After that, bees are needed to pollinate other fruits, including blueberries, cherries, cranberries and apples. For consumers, the bee die-off – for which there is no known cause yet – may become apparent in shortages on the grocery shelves or higher prices of these beloved foods.
The winter losses combined with earlier losses this year decimated many beekeepers’ hives by 70% to 100%, according to the researchers, who represent the American Beekeeping Federation, the American Honey Producers Association and Adee Honey Farms, as well as Project Apis m. That’s left some beekeepers wondering how they’ll survive, and growers scrambling to get bees to pollinate their crops.
Blake Shook, a commercial beekeeper in Leonard, Texas, said he’s been getting phone calls from beekeepers around the country, some worrying that they may have to shutter operations.
“The industry is reeling trying to figure out what’s going on,” Shook said. “It’s pretty scary.”
The symptoms of loss are reminiscent of Colony Collapse Disorder conditions, which occurred in 2007-2008, when bees suddenly disappeared from their colonies, the researchers wrote. During recent inspections by field scientists, deceased colonies often died with ample honey stores, leaving only small patches of the eggs, larvae and pupae, with most or all of the adult bees missing, they wrote.
Beekeeper Shook said that the current losses are more concerning than the earlier Colony Collapse Disorder. “What makes it worse is that before Colony Collapse hit, our average loss rate was 15% and all of a sudden it went to 45%,” he said. “Now we are starting at a 45% loss rate and it’s gone up.”
Research by the USDA-ARS Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, and interviews by the beekeeping organizations determined that the losses were both nationwide and severe, but their cause has not yet been determined. The usual causes of bee death, such as a nasty parasite known as the varroa mite, do not seem to be the cause. The researchers plan further analysis of samples for viruses, parasites and pesticide residue to try and determine what’s going on.
Bees can suffer from numerous diseases, including a devastating bacterial disease known as American Foulbrood (for which startup Dalan Animal Health has developed a vaccine), pesticide poisoning, inadequate nutrition and the stress of traveling around the country to pollinate crops, as well as the varroa mite.
“There is nothing obvious that explains why so many colonies were lost,” Downey said, adding, “Every year we creep closer and closer to the edge of the cliff and we know that it can’t be sustainable. Honey bees are the cornerstone of pollinating our foods. We need to be better at protecting them.”
Whether there are ultimately shortages or higher prices of almonds and fruits ultimately depends on weather and other factors, but the reduced number of bees is a major risk. “There’s not enough bees to pollinate all the almonds,” beekeeper Shook said, adding, “It’s the first pollination of the season, so it’s not a great precedent.”
Tim Hollmann, a beekeeper in South Dakota who’s been in the business for more than 40 years, said that he spent a quarter-million dollars replacing bees last year after there was 70% die-off and he’s seen similar levels of die-off this year. He runs the business with his wife and two sons, and worries about the future. “We’ve seen tough times in the bee business before, but this one seems to be a different flavor than we’ve had before and I’m not sure all the family farms like me can survive this,” he said.
Adding to the difficulties, Hollmann said, were pressures from cheap foreign honey, which accounts for around three-quarters of all honey consumed in the U.S. “Even if we do find a way to keep the bees alive and make a honey crop, we are being beat up on a lot of different fronts,” he said.
As growers put out calls for bees that don’t exist, Project Apis m.’s Downey said that some beekeepers are resorting to desperate measures: Stealing others’ bees. In fact, the California State Beekeepers Association, which calculates that the state has experienced an 87% increase in hive thefts since 2013 with losses to beekeepers estimated at more than $3.5 million, announced a new effort this week to prevent bee thefts in partnership with a private detective agency specializing in agricultural crime. “They go into the orchard and load up with somebody else’s bees and go rent them,” Downey said.
Note: This story has been updated on 2/6/25 at 6:45 p.m. to add details from the California State Beekeepers Association.
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