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.
Honeybees are a non-native livestock species. Their survival rates tell us nothing about the health of the ecosystem, only the agricultural practices.
The bees we need to save are the solitary native bees. http://xerces.org/pollinator-conservation
Thank you. It drives me wild that “save the bees!” campaigns seem to be all about domesticated bees and not the mason bees, bumblebees, and other native species. Also drives me wild: when folks recommend planting invasive species because “they support pollinators.” Yeah so do many native species; wtf do you think insects ate for millions of years before we showed up?