A national survey of managed honey bee colony losses in the USA: results from the Bee Informed Partnership for 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20

Beekeepers in the United States have experienced high losses of managed honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies for more than a decade. Long-term, multi-year monitoring efforts are crucial to provide a temporal and spatial context to these losses. To document and explain these losses, the Bee Informed Partnership has conducted national surveys on managed honey bee colonies since spring 2011, continuing the work of surveys first commissioned by the Apiary Inspectors of America in spring 2007. Here we present survey results from three years - 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20. Each year, colony loss rates were estimated and compared among three loss periods - summer, winter, and annual - and three beekeeping operation types based on their number of colonies managed - backyard (<= 50 colonies), sideline (51-500 colonies), and commercial (>500 colonies). At the national level, we recorded the highest winter colony loss rates (37.7%) in 2018-2019, while 2019 marked the year with the highest summer losses (32.1%). As documented in past surveys, we observed that smaller scale backyard beekeepers experienced the highest winter loss rates when compared to the larger operation types. Similarly, commercial beekeepers experienced higher loss rates during the summer compared to the other operation types. Overall, our results highlight the temporal variability, specifically among loss periods and years, of colony loss rates in the United States, and suggest a strong effect of beekeeping operation size.

Automated summary

Beekeepers in the United States have been experiencing high losses of honey bee colonies for over a decade. The Bee Informed Partnership has conducted national surveys since 2011 to document and explain these losses. The survey results from the past three years reveal that winter losses reached a peak of 37.7% in 2018-2019, while summer losses were highest in 2019, at 32.1%. Smaller-scale backyard beekeepers had the highest winter loss rates, and commercial beekeepers experienced higher loss rates during the summer. These findings highlight the temporal variability of colony loss rates in the United States, with a significant effect of beekeeping operation size.