The Half-Empty Hive

“Acceptable” sits at the pale end of the strip

Beekeepers say losing about a fifth of colonies is survivable. Recent years have landed two to three times higher.

Sixteen years, never once inside the safe band

Annual losses have swung between 29% and 56%, with the three worst years in the last four.

Winter is the killer — and big operations were hit hardest

Every slice of the 2024–25 season overshot the level beekeepers themselves call acceptable.

One crop, one month, almost every hive

Each February, trucks carry colonies from across the country to California’s almond orchards — the single biggest paycheck of the beekeeping year.

A mite that stopped dying

USDA scientists traced the 2025 collapse to viruses spread by Varroa mites — mites that shrugged off the most-used treatment.

The bill for a bad winter

Colony counts recover because beekeepers split survivors and buy new queens — but every rebuild costs money, time and bees.

Almonds, apples, berries, melons — one insect underwrites them

Honey bees are livestock, and their keepers absorb the losses. A few things genuinely help.

• Plant for a long bloomMixed, pesticide-free flowers from spring to late fall ease the “poor forage” stress researchers keep flagging.
• Don’t spray open flowersIf you must treat plants, do it after bloom or at dusk when bees aren’t foraging.
• Keep bees? Count your mitesMonitor Varroa monthly and rotate treatments — resistance builds when one chemical is used alone.
• Answer the surveyAny US beekeeper can join the annual loss survey each April; the record above exists because they do.