Honeybee deaths have hit record highs in the US, with the unprecedented loss of colonies pushing many beekeepers close to ruin as scientists scramble to identify the main cause of the huge declines.
Commercial beekeepers have reported losing more than 60% of their colonies, on average, over the winter, according to an ongoing Project Apis m. survey that covers more than two-thirds of America’s managed bees.
This enormous rate of decline is higher than record reductions seen last year and is on track to be the “biggest loss of honeybee colonies in US history”, according to Scott McArt, an associate professor of entomology at Cornell University.
McArt said that the extraordinary rate of loss became apparent during this winter’s mass movement of honeybee hives to California to pollinate the vast almond crop there.
