Honey Bee populations declining nationwide

 Honey Bee populations declining nationwide

Buzzing and busy bees are now bustling to survive as honeybee populations nationwide continue to decline.

“About 50% of the colonies that we had in 2024 have not made it through the winter,” Ron Seymour, Nebraska Extension Cropping Systems Educator, said.

"You kind of have your own insurance. The time of year where you can grow by 300%, you try to as best as you possibly can, and you understand that, 'Well, I could lose 50% of my colonies this winter.' And you figure that every year, so you figure up how many colonies do you want in April and May, so then you go into winter with twice as many colonies which means instead of making a little extra honey the previous year, you make a few more bees, a few more colonies, you make a few more splits. Those kinds of things... Once you get over that 50%, it gets very, very, very hard to recover your own losses," Matt Lance, Lance Honey Farms owner, said.

Seymour mentioned that diseases and parasites contribute to this huge population decline, as well as "a lack of habitat which creates a decline in nutrition,” he added.

This is now a pressing issue for commercial beekeepers around the state.

“Some of the beekeepers around the state that go to farmers markets. They have seen these massive losses. You know, they’ve had 70, 80, 90% losses,” Lance said.

However, Lance added that for local beekeepers and hobbyists the impact is rather small, but did mention that as a nucleus colony supplier, he’s already sold out of his supply for the year.

“Because of the shortage of bees this year, in general, we sell out earlier than expected. Usually in the year, we’ll sell out in middle April to the first of May, but we sold out it was like middle March,” Lance said.