3 things that concern me about the national hive losses
A few months ago, early reports showed more than 60% of hives were lost over the winter.
Recently, after a handful of conversations with non-beekeepers, I realized there’s an awareness deficit about the dramatic hive losses across the United States. In my beekeeping world, this omnipresent news feels unavoidable. If you missed it, the US lost more than 60% of its honey bee colonies over the winter. A CBS article anchored on a beekeeper’s sentiment that we’re facing the worst honey bee loss ever recorded.
Project Apis m (PAm), a non-profit dedicated to honey bee research, conducts routine surveys to monitor hive losses across seasons. I attended PAm’s hive loss webinar at the end of February. Their early 2025 estimates are based on survey data from more than 700 beekeepers. The survey showed that hobbyists lost half their colonies, sideliners lost 54%, and commercial beekeepers lost 62%. These are self-reported inputs, so consider the number of beekeepers who choose not to report, or who aren’t aware of the survey and don’t report. The losses could be far worse, or they could be better. (The survey officially closed yesterday, so final numbers will be released soon.)
While 700 beekeepers is a generous sample size, the scale of each respondent varies widely. The total number of lost colonies is estimated at more than 1.1 million. These numbers are alarming, but what rattles me more is that there is no known cause for the losses. Whether pathogen, virus, pest, climate, spore, nutrition, or something else remains to be seen. PAm reported that Cornell University collected 500 samples. Test results are still a few months out. If the cause is a contagion or a contaminant, all of this time is passing where it could be spreading.
Honey bee behavior observed in the hive losses
A colony generally never leaves the queen. With colony collapse disorder (CCD), honey bees were completely abandoning their hives all together. With the latest losses, the entire colony abandons the hive and leaves the queen behind with plenty of honey reserves. It’s an odd and haunting behavior. The other challenge that beekeepers reported is that there were no warning signs. By all accounts, hives looked strong and healthy going into winter. Beekeepers received no signals that something could be wrong.
Personally, I can’t comprehend how more people aren’t aware of these losses and the impact it will have on food this year and going forward. I feel it’s necessary to socialize these findings. Please share this post so that more folks learn about the hive losses. The Beekeeping Today podcast interview with the president of the American Honey Producers Association, and BeeFit Beekeeping’s hive loss video both help to give more perspectives on the scale of these losses.
I’m sharing my top concerns, which are underlying potential impacts that may not be immediately obvious. These are things constantly on my mind this season.
Are wax foundation sources safe? Foundation is a sheet of material that runs the center of a hive frame and can be made from wax or plastic. Foundation is generally stamped with the hexagonal comb shape, and provides a literal foundation for the bees to build from. Adding foundation to a hive helps reduce the resource burden honey bees have building wax comb, and also saves them time in building fresh comb. Generally beekeepers, like me, purchase wax foundation. The wax is usually sourced from commercial beekeeping wax cappings. Beeswax, while a prime choice for purifying air in candle form, and improving skin in body care product form, can store residues for long periods of time. These residues could be from pesticides, toxins honey bees were exposed to while foraging, or chemicals that the beekeeper used in hive management. I’m concerned that if the cause of the hive losses is transferable via wax, beekeepers like me are unintentionally introducing potentially fatal contaminants into our hives.
Will this happen to me? I’m looking extra close at all of my colonies, which is extremely challenging right now because I have more hives than ever before—15!—and I’m probably overanalyzing behavior, brood health, and general production more than I should. I had one colony struggle and fail this spring. They didn’t demonstrate the behavior noted in the national losses, but since I’m being extra cautious, I removed and discarded all of the frames their colony had contact with. Since the beekeepers who suffered the mysterious losses all were blindsided by the bees absconding, I’m concerned that at any moment my bees will be gone since there are no specific signs or symptoms to look for.
Was this intentional? Since we have no scientific cause for the hive losses (yet), it remains to be seen if the cause was natural, synthetic, an accident, or intentional. If intentional, was this a success in the eyes of the intendor, or a failure? Was it a test? I’m concerned about the root cause and if it’s controllable and identifiable.
Our neighbor was just telling us about this situation when he relocated our swarm.