Commercial beekeepers suffered colony losses of 62% between June and February, according to a nationwide survey.

“This is unprecedented and a crisis,” said Matt Mulica, facilitator of the Honey Bee Health Coalition.

In a typical year, beekeepers might see losses of 15-30%, he said.

The die-offs surpass historical trends and represent an estimated economic loss of $635 million to beekeepers through the almond bloom.

Food production

The hive losses also will impact the pollination of fruits and vegetables.

“There’s going to be a huge effect on all the specialty crops that come next. Your blueberries, your apples later on. … There’s going to be a trickle down effect,” Mulica said.

Zac Browning, a fourth-generation commercial beekeeper in North Dakota and board chairman of Project Apis m., a nonprofit supporting the beekeeping community, said the scale of the losses was unsustainable.

“If we continue to see losses at this rate, we simply won’t be able to sustain current food production. The industry must look inward and outward for solutions to chronic bee health failure,” Browning added, in a news release.

No smoking gun

Experts don’t know why the huge hive die-offs happened. Tests are being conducted for pathogens, pesticide exposure and other factors, but results will take several months, Mulica said.

“At this point, there’s no smoking gun,” he said.

Organizations are trying to work with scientists who specialize in animal diseases, but those researchers have been extremely busy with highly pathogenic avian influenza, which has killed more than 160 million birds and sent the price of eggs skyrocketing.

“The government needs to concentrate on that, but down the road, hopefully we don’t see a rise in food prices for all the specialty crops,” Mulica said.

Survey background

The survey, administered by Project Apis m., in coordination with other groups, was launched because of early reports of severe colony losses.

Data came from 702 beekeepers representing more than 1.8 million colonies, or nearly 70% of U.S. honey bees.

Hobbyists with less than 50 hives had about 50% losses, where “sideliners” with 50 to 500 hives lost about 54% of their colonies on average.

Data showed a reverse of typical trends — commercial beekeepers generally have lower colony losses due to their scale and resources.

Financial loss

Survey respondents lost about 1.12 million hives, a financial hit of roughly $225 million. With the lost income from almond pollination due to die-offs, the financial hit grew to more than $428 million.

Economic losses from U.S. honey bee colonies not included in the survey was estimated to exceed $206 million.

Financial impact figures didn’t include the loss of honey production and pollination contracts for any crops following almonds (which bring the highest rate for hives).

Mulica said residents can help beekeepers by buying U.S. honey, planting flowers to support pollinators and following pesticide labels.

Free seeds are available from organizations and federal conservation programs provide incentives for farmers to plant flower banks, Mulica added.