Multi-country loss rates of honey bee colonies during winter 2016/2017 from the COLOSS survey
Date
2018-05-08
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Abstract
In this short note we present comparable loss rates of honey bee colonies during winter 2016/2017 from 27 European
countries plus Algeria, Israel and Mexico, obtained with the COLOSS questionnaire. The 14,813 beekeepers providing
valid loss data collectively wintered 425,762 colonies, and reported 21,887 (5.1%, 95% confidence interval 5.0–5.3%)
colonies with unsolvable queen problems and 60,227 (14.1%, 95% CI 13.8–14.4%) dead colonies after winter. Additionally
we asked for colonies lost due to natural disaster, which made up another 6,903 colonies (1.6%, 95% CI 1.5–1.7%).
This results in an overall loss rate of 20.9% (95% CI 20.6–21.3%) of honey bee colonies during winter 2016/2017, with
marked differences among countries. The overall analysis showed that small operations suffered higher losses than larger
ones (p < 0.001). Overall migratory beekeeping had no significant effect on the risk of winter loss, though there
was an effect in several countries. A table is presented giving detailed results from 30 countries. A map is also included,
showing relative risk of colony winter loss at regional level.
Description
Publication history: Accepted - 5 March 2018; Published online - 8 May 2018.
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Keywords
Apis mellifera, overwinter, mortality, colony losses, monitoring, beekeeping, survey, citizen science
Citation
Brodschneider, R., Gray, A., Adjlane, N., Ballis, A., Brusbardis, V., Charrière, J.-D., Chlebo, R., Coffey, M. F., Dahle, B., de Graaf, D. C., Maja Dražić, M., Evans, G., Fedoriak, M., Forsythe, I., Gregorc, A., Grzęda, U., Hetzroni, A., Kauko, L., Kristiansen, P., Martikkala, M., Martín-Hernández, R., Aurelio Medina-Flores, C., Mutinelli, F., Raudmets, A., A Ryzhikov, V., Simon-Delso, N., Stevanovic, J., Uzunov, A., Vejsnæs, F., Wöhl, S., Zammit-Mangion, M. and Danihlík, J. (2018) ‘Multi-country loss rates of honey bee colonies during winter 2016/2017 from the COLOSS survey’, Journal of Apicultural Research, 57(3), pp. 452–457. doi: 10.1080/00218839.2018.1460911.