Originally published 2020-11-14.
In August 2020 the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) published its annual Honey Bee Colonies report, and the headline number was good news: on 1 January 2020 beekeeping operations with five or more colonies managed about 2.88 million colonies, up roughly 8 percent from 2.67 million a year earlier. Some states rose sharply. Michigan went from 24,000 to 60,000 colonies, and California, the centre of almond pollination, from 1.14 million to 1.35 million.
That is a real increase, but it needs careful reading. It counts colonies kept by beekeepers, not wild bees, and beekeepers replace losses every year by splitting hives and buying new queens. The same report recorded heavy losses, and several states, including Maine and Texas, actually fell. This article explains what the figures mean, what they cannot tell us, the debate over neonicotinoid pesticides, and what actually helps bees.
What the USDA numbers actually show
The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service surveys beekeepers every quarter on how many colonies they have, how many they lost, how many they added and what stressed their hives. The August 2020 release covered January 2019 to June 2020. Its key figures:
- Colonies on 1 January 2020: 2.88 million, up 8 percent on the previous year.
- Colonies on 1 April 2020: about 2.98 million.
- Losses, January to March 2020: 399,570 colonies, or 14 percent.
- Colonies added: 477,200 in January to March and 596,860 in April to June.
- Top stressor: varroa mites, reported in 25.5 percent of colonies in the first quarter of 2020.
State changes were uneven. Michigan, California and others grew, while Maine dropped from about 7,000 to 1,300 colonies and Texas from 260,000 to 235,000. Some viral reports at the time claimed a nationwide rise of 14 percent and jumps of 73 percent in Maine and 38 percent in Texas. Those numbers do not match the USDA tables; the 14 percent figure appears to be the quarterly loss rate, not growth.
Why colony counts can rise while bees still struggle
A honey bee colony is something a beekeeper can rebuild. When hives die over winter, beekeepers split strong colonies in two, add purchased queens and packages of bees, and restock. That is why the report shows hundreds of thousands of colonies lost and even more added in the same months. A stable or rising count can therefore hide high death rates and a lot of costly work.
Seasonal patterns also matter. Many commercial colonies are trucked to California each February for almond pollination, and numbers swell in spring as beekeepers prepare for the season. Comparing one January with the next is fairer than comparing different months, but it still reflects business decisions as much as bee health.
Most important, honey bees are a single, domesticated species, originally brought to North America by European settlers. The United States has around 4,000 native bee species, from bumblebees to mason bees, and their populations are not counted in this report. Research summarised on Wikipedia’s pollinator decline page suggests the number of wild bee species recorded worldwide fell by about a quarter between 2006 and 2015 compared with before 1990. Good news for managed hives does not mean wild pollinators are recovering.
Why pollinators matter
Bees move pollen from the male parts of a flower, the anthers, to the female part, the stigma, which allows the plant to set seed and fruit. Around 60 percent of crop plant species rely on animal pollinators to some degree, and animal-pollinated crops supply a large share of the vitamins in our diet, including most vitamin C. The USDA attributes about 80 percent of insect crop pollination in the United States to honey bees, and a 2000 study valued their contribution to US crops at about $14.6 billion a year.
Staple grains such as wheat, rice and maize are wind-pollinated, so the world would not starve without bees. But fruits, nuts, many vegetables and oil seeds would become scarcer and more expensive, and diets would become less varied.
The main threats to bees
Scientists generally see bee decline as the result of several pressures acting together:
- Varroa mites are the beekeeper’s biggest problem. These parasites feed on bees and spread viruses such as deformed wing virus, and they top the USDA stressor list every quarter.
- Loss of habitat and flowers, from intensive farming and development, leaves bees short of food and nesting places.
- Pesticides, especially neonicotinoids, are a major concern, discussed below.
- Disease, poor weather and climate change add further stress.
Claims that mobile phone signals or radio waves are a main cause of bee decline circulate widely online, but they are not supported by the weight of scientific evidence and are not among the stressors beekeepers report.
Neonicotinoids and what regulators did
Neonicotinoids are insecticides chemically related to nicotine, introduced from the 1980s; imidacloprid became the world’s most widely used insecticide. They are often applied as seed coatings, and because they dissolve in water the growing plant takes them up, so traces end up in nectar and pollen. Research suggests the main harm to bees comes from chronic low doses that impair foraging, navigation and reproduction rather than from outright poisoning.
The evidence has been debated, partly because laboratory and field studies have given different results. In 2017 large field trials across several European countries added weight to concerns, and the bee ecologist Dave Goulson of the University of Sussex told New Scientist it would be unreasonable not to accept that these chemicals harm bees when used in normal farming practice
, at least some of the time. A 2018 review by the European Food Safety Authority concluded that most outdoor uses posed a risk to wild bees and honey bees.
The European Union restricted three neonicotinoids, imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam, from 2013, and in 2018 agreed a near-total ban on their outdoor use, still allowing them in closed greenhouses. The United States did not follow with a general ban. In May 2019 the Environmental Protection Agency cancelled the registrations of 12 products containing clothianidin or thiamethoxam to fulfil a legal settlement with beekeepers; more than 200 other products containing those chemicals remained on sale. Several states have since passed their own limits on neonicotinoid uses.
That timeline matters for the headline claim. The modest US cancellations came in May 2019, only months before the January 2020 count, and left most uses in place. There is no evidence that they caused the rise in colony numbers, which fits better with normal year-to-year swings and beekeepers’ restocking.
What helps bees
Individuals can make a measurable difference for local pollinators, especially wild bees:
- Plant a range of flowers that bloom from early spring to late autumn, ideally native species.
- Leave some lawn uncut, bare ground and dead stems; many native bees nest in soil or hollow stems.
- Avoid using insecticides on flowering plants, and follow label instructions strictly if you must use them.
- Buy local honey and support beekeepers who manage varroa responsibly.
- Join a citizen science project that counts bees and other pollinators.
The 2020 figures were a welcome sign that American beekeepers were keeping their colonies going despite constant losses. The bigger picture, for wild bees and for the beekeepers working hard to stay ahead, still depends on healthier landscapes and careful use of pesticides.
Sources: USDA NASS, Honey Bee Colonies, 3 August 2020 (full text); Beyond Pesticides, May 2019: EPA cancels twelve neonicotinoid products; Wikipedia: Neonicotinoid; Wikipedia: Pollinator decline.
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