Vermont Beekeepers Refute State Claims of Honey Bee Well being
With many years of effort towards elevating public consciousness at the plight of pollinators, we the beekeepers of Vermont are deeply all in favour of fresh communications from the Vermont Company of Agriculture Meals and Markets (VAAFM), and we want to set the document instantly.
The VAAFM’s declare of document honey bee numbers in Vermont as proof of a “wholesome and strong beekeeping trade” isn’t just deceptive however serves to undermine our trade and ongoing efforts in Vermont to give protection to controlled and local bees, either one of whom are in nice peril. Opposite to VAAFM’s fresh communications, the beekeeping and medical neighborhood agree that the entire selection of honey bee colonies can’t be used to measure bee well being (a honey bee colony is a unmarried circle of relatives of bees housed in a hive.)
A extra correct estimate of our state honey bee well being is annual colony loss. In step with VAAFM’s personal statistics, Vermont beekeepers have misplaced a minimum of 25% in their bees right through the wintry weather months for the ultimate 3 years. The Bee Knowledgeable Partnership, a countrywide group that tracks U.S. honey bee colony losses, reviews blended summer season and wintry weather colony losses for Vermonters a lot upper at 35-85% each and every 12 months for the ultimate 4 years. Vermont beekeepers have maintained colony numbers by means of turning into bee-replacers as a substitute of beekeepers. When VAAFM takes their tally of Vermont hives each and every July, beekeepers have already created new colonies to interchange their losses. Alternatively, this can be a very pricey and exhausting procedure – one that’s not indicative of a “wholesome and strong” beekeeping trade.
No longer best is colony depend the unsuitable measure of our trade’s well being, the numbers themselves are deceptive. Non-beekeepers are in large part unaware that 1000’s of Vermont honey bee colonies counted by means of VAAFM are propagated within the south, trucked to Vermont in early summer season, after which moved south once more sooner than wintry weather. Those imported colonies greater than double the Vermont colony depend for a brief time period each and every 12 months.
The obvious build up in colony numbers from 2016-2023 used to be in large part pushed by means of beekeepers registering their pre-existing colonies due to the collaborative efforts of the Vermont Beekeepers Affiliation and the VAAFM. The rise in colony numbers right through the length offered by means of the VAAFM represents each a expansion in program participation and an increasingly more correct state database.
Throughout our whole beekeeping trade, annual colony losses are too top and unsustainable. All Vermont beekeepers, together with migratory beekeepers, fight with a top level of annual colony losses because of pests, pathogens, environmental affects, and pesticide use. As we proceed to confront those demanding situations, it’s disheartening to seek out that our state agricultural company has used erroneous numbers and oversimplification of a posh state of affairs to signify that bees are flourishing in our state. Those inaccuracies undermine the large efforts of Vermont beekeepers and the urgency of addressing the very actual threats to pollinator well being right here in Vermont.
Signed,
The Vermont Beekeepers Affiliation Board of Administrators
Since 1886 the VBA has promoted the overall welfare of Vermont’s Apiculture Business whilst maintaining a pleasant frame of cohesion some of the state’s beekeepers.