Scientists identify culprit behind biggest-ever U.S. honey bee die-off

> U.S. beekeepers had a disastrous winter. Between June 2024 and January 2025, a full 62% of commercial honey bee colonies in the United States died, according to an extensive survey. It was the largest die-off on record, coming on the heels of a 55% die-off the previous winter.

Christ, do we even have any bees left at this point?

It would need to be put in the context of what a normal annual die-off is. I expect it's not 0%, and perhaps it's normal for keepers to need to re-establish some fraction of their hives each year.

Of course, 50-60% sounds alarmingly high, but I don't know enough to be sure.

Actually, I just followed the link in the article (good job detailing their sources!) and it looks like 40% is pretty typical, but with large error bars. 62% is definitely high, but not as earth shattering as it first appears.

AFAIK, this is only commercial bees, which have a pile of stressors (such as being shipped places frequently). Non-commercial bees are doing "better" (I remember hearing that they're doing fine, but poking around now that doesn't seem to be the case).

The other issue is crop pollination, which AFAIK has heavy reliance on commercial bees.

Most staples wind pollinate (corn, wheat, etc). Bees are needed for a lot of fruit and nut production though.

In the US, honeybees aren't native, and the bees we really need to protect are the native bees.

That said, most beekeepers expect to lose 30-50% of their hives every year. But most honeybee hives can be split into two hives every year. So if you can double (or even potentially triple, quadruple) each hive every year, a loss of 50% isn't catastrophic.

Framing of this fact is one you need to be careful with. Consider that your skin is replaced every 28 days. Stated differently, you completely lose all of your skin every month or so. Of course, it is replaced as rapidly, but if you only discuss the die off...

That is, you almost certainly need to know a lot more facts about bees before knowing the die off rate is useful.

you mean after the modern practice of truck shipping hives was commercially accepted, then "most beekeepers" expect that ??

Prior to the langstroth hive, European beekeepers destroyed the hive entirely to harvest the honey. Mites and disease were less prevalent and insects were FAR less stressed by the environment.

The Langstroth hive was invented in the 1850s, and the first migratory commercial hives started in the US 50 years later.

In the 1940s we saw a steady decline in hives, but the hives really started seeing massive die offs in the 2000s.

So no, the timelines are not really due to shipping commercial hives. There's other, stronger factors at play.

To a first approximation ~all honeybees in North America are commercial honeybees; the way it was put on EconTalk a couple years back is, "if you see a honeybee in your yard, somebody owns it."