Journal
JOURNAL OF APICULTURAL RESEARCH
Volume 57, Issue 3, Pages 452-457Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/00218839.2018.1460911
Keywords
Apis mellifera; overwinter; mortality; colony losses; monitoring; beekeeping; survey; citizen science
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Funding
- Republic of Serbia, MPNTR-RS [III46002]
- University of Graz
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In this short note we present comparable loss rates of honey bee colonies during winter 2016/2017 from 27 European countries plus Algeria, Israel and Mexico, obtained with the COLOSS questionnaire. The 14,813 beekeepers providing valid loss data collectively wintered 425,762 colonies, and reported 21,887 (5.1%, 95% confidence interval 5.0-5.3%) colonies with unsolvable queen problems and 60,227 (14.1%, 95% CI 13.8-14.4%) dead colonies after winter. Additionally we asked for colonies lost due to natural disaster, which made up another 6,903 colonies (1.6%, 95% CI 1.5-1.7%). This results in an overall loss rate of 20.9% (95% CI 20.6-21.3%) of honey bee colonies during winter 2016/2017, with marked differences among countries. The overall analysis showed that small operations suffered higher losses than larger ones (p < 0.001). Overall migratory beekeeping had no significant effect on the risk of winter loss, though there was an effect in several countries. A table is presented giving detailed results from 30 countries. A map is also included, showing relative risk of colony winter loss at regional level.
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