USDA NASS 2022 Ag Census Sparks Debate Over Honey Bee Inhabitants Reporting
The USDA NASS 2022 Ag Census reported a file top 3.8 million honey bee colonies in the USA, an build up of 25% over the past bi-decade census. Alternatively, those USDA numbers at once contradict the similar company’s personal annually honey file and honey bee file. The ones studies estimate honey bee inhabitants numbers between 2.5 and a pair of.9 million colonies respectively for the very same yr (2022), and feature persistently reported honey bee colonies in that vary for years.
Some media shops have urged that the most recent numbers consequence from a upward thrust in beekeeping reputation as a pastime in each rural and concrete spaces. The truth is that hobbyists make up roughly 95% of the overall choice of beekeepers however best set up 7% of the overall choice of colonies consistent with the 2022 Nationwide Colony Loss and Control (BIP 2022). Thus, this clarification isn’t most likely.
The discrepancies are much more likely because of a mixture of things. First, the 5-year Ag Census technique comprises surveying farms which “host” colonies, however don’t seem to be essentially beekeeping operations themselves. Beekeepers and their industrial honey bee colonies are migratory, which means they’re hosted on other lands and frequently by way of other land house owners all through the yr. Surveying host farms may due to this fact lead to double and even triple counting the similar colonies. For instance, it’s not bizarre for a beekeeper to iciness his honey bee colonies in Mississippi, transfer them to California for almond pollination in February and bring honey with those self same colonies in the summertime in North Dakota.
2d, USDA NASS showed that this Ag Census had a low reaction fee, leading to using adjustment components to extrapolate effects. Whilst it’s unclear how those changes impacted the consequences, it is going to give a contribution to the really extensive discrepancies relative to annual surveys that experience extra tough and dependable participation by way of industrial beekeepers.
Without reference to the explanations for those discrepancies, various issues stay true for industrial beekeepers. Colonies to be had for industrial pollination (the bees important to pollinate our country’s forte vegetation) have now not materially greater during the last decade in spite of really extensive financial call for for them. Honey manufacturing has additionally endured to say no in each absolute numbers and in per-colony numbers over the past 3 years (NASS Honey File 2020, 2021, 2022). But marketplace call for for honey has greater exponentially. And in any case and maximum relevantly, beekeepers proceed to lose between 30-50% in their colonies every yr for the reason that early a part of the century. That is showed by way of each the once a year USDA NASS honey bee file and the Bee Knowledgeable Partnership Nationwide Loss and Control Survey carried out since 2008. Put merely, if The united states’s beekeepers had been in a position to make bigger colony numbers by way of 25% in 5 years, they might have. The industrial incentive is there in pollination contracts and honey gross sales by myself. And if that they had certainly expanded honey bee colony numbers by way of 25%, wouldn’t the honey studies and pollination contracts knowledge display it?
“Over the last 10-plus years, maximum beekeepers’ industry technique has serious about making up for the former yr’s losses and getting forward of subsequent yr’s predicted results. It’s just about unimaginable to make up for the losses, a lot much less build up the colony depend”, says Chris Hiatt, President of the American Honey Manufacturers Affiliation (AHPA) and proprietor of Hiatt Honey Corporate.
Researchers have known more than one interacting components that give a contribution to top losses. They come with panorama use and loss of to be had forage, greater pesticide publicity, the Varroa destructor mite, and different pests and pathogens. Moreover, fresh local weather tendencies and excessive climate patterns lead to compounded opposed results on forage and/or bee task.
“U.S. beekeepers rebuild their colony numbers yr after yr, fighting expanding operational prices and occasional honey costs, in order that they may be able to pollinate vegetation and make sure meals safety for the country” provides Chris Hiatt.
As the controversy over honey bee populations continues to spread, it’s crucial to recognize the struggles and worthwhile contributions of beekeepers and prioritize efforts to fortify their important function in agricultural ecosystems.
American Honey Manufacturers Affiliation
For more information touch
Anne Marie Fauvel
Program Director
[email protected]
References
The USDA NASS 2022 Ag Census – https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/AgCensus/2022/#full_report
USDA NASS (2022) Honey (March 2022). ISSN: 1949-1492. To be had at: https://downloads.usda.library.cornell.edu/usdaesmis/information/hd76s004z/7m01cp956/df65wc389/hony0322.pdf
USDA NASS (2022) Honey Bee (August 2022) To be had at: https://downloads.usda.library.cornell.edu/usda-esmis/information/rn301137d/kh04fx05c/qb98nn582/hcny0822.pdf
Andrew VanDam, Columnist, Division of Information, Washington Publish, [email protected]
The Bee Knowledgeable Partnership, Colony Loss and Control Survey https://beeinformed.org/citizen-science/loss-and-management-survey/
Steinhauer, N., Aurell, D., Bruckner, S., Wilson, M., Rennich, Ok., vanEngelsdorp, D., Williams, G., for the Bee Knowledgeable Partnership (2021). United States Honey Bee Colony Losses 2020-2021: Initial Effects. https://beeinformed.org/wpcontent/uploads/2021/06/BIP_2020_21_Losses_Abstract_2021.06.14_FINAL_R1.pdf (Accessed Bastille Day 2022).
Bruckner, S., Wilson, M., Aurell, D., Rennich, Ok., vanEngelsdorp, D., Steinhauer, N., & Williams, G. R. (2023). A countrywide survey of controlled honey bee colony losses in the United States: effects from the Bee Knowledgeable Partnership for 2017–18, 2018–19, and 2019–20. Magazine of Apicultural Analysis, 62(3), 429–443. https://doi.org/10.1080/00218839.2022.2158586
Chris Hiatt, American Honey Manufacturers Affiliation President, [email protected]