A new survey says America's honeybee hives just staggered through the second highest death rate on record, with beekeepers losing nearly half of their managed colonies. But using costly measures to create new colonies, beekeepers are somehow keeping afloat. Thursday’s University of Maryland and Auburn University survey says that even though 48% of colonies were lost in the year that ended April 1, the number of United States honeybee colonies remained relatively stable. Honeybees are crucial to the food supply, pollinating more than 100 of the crops we eat, including nuts, vegetables and fruits. Scientists blame parasites, pesticides, starvation and climate change for large die-offs.
  • Turducken
    2·
    1 year ago

    Perhaps the commercial beekeepers should stop trucking them all to the desert to pollinate the water intensive net trees that are grown there.

    Let’s switch off the orphan crushing machine.

  • Coskii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    2·
    1 year ago

    Pesticides, parasites, and starvation are the leading causes of bee deaths.

    I would like to know how/why starvation is even possible in a managed colony.

    And the article throwing out massive negative numbers like 48% and then mentioning that the actual population is pretty steady due to people splitting and making new colonies. It is still alarming, but I’m pretty sure looking at any pure death statistic without factoring in growth is going to look bad.