In 2006 when Colony Collapse Disorder was first seen in large numbers of commercial migratory honeybee hives in the USA, Dr. Marla Spivak, world renowned Bee Researcher at U of MN coined the phrase "death by 1000 cuts" to describe what was wrong with our bees.
That large bee loss event was perhaps the first time the public realized that pollinators are fragile, limited, and in deep trouble.
Since then there have been countless “The Bees are Dying” media stories that have taken honey bee and pollinator news out of context, dulled the public's senses on this ongoing disaster, and ignored describing the real issues, some of which can easily be solved.
However a new disastrous honeybee loss has occurred again between late October and December of 2024 in the USA of over 1.25 million hives out of an estimated total of 2.6 million. A disaster from a confluence of events with bee health and economic factors. These hives had a value of $139 million and left many multi generational beekeeping businesses near bankruptcy. This time the news media has not picked up the story and most people are unaware.
The Apiary Inspectors of America released new data last fall that confirmed that annual losses for commercial beekeeping had moved to a new alarming level of 55% between spring of 2023 and 2024 which was a prelude to the Big Loss this winter. What is very interesting to me in the data is that the smaller backyard beekeepers’ losses had lower mortality rates for the first time then the larger operations that also do migratory pollination.
March and April is the time commercial beekeepers raise bees in California, Texas or the Southern USA to replace losses from the previous season and may have excess bees for sale. Other beekeepers, especially in the North, can't raise bees soon enough to then produce a honey crop. This interdependence between the commercial segment, the sideliner, and backyard beekeepers has gone on since the 1950’s.
This year with the huge losses there is now a bee shortage for many regional beekeepers that will translate into crops not being pollinated as soon as spring fruit trees bloom in the Pacific Northwest and gradually across the country.
Like other agricultural sectors post pandemic, expenses for equipment, trucks, parts, labor, and taxes, combined with a collapse of the spread between domestic and foreign honey, had shrunk the pool of commercial beekeepers to 2000 in the year 2020 across the whole USA.
Until a few years ago, domestic honey commodity prices enjoyed a premium over foreign honey, that is 85% of the honey consumed in the USA. For reasons I don't understand, the spread has disappeared and the current commodity price for honey in the USA paid by packers is $1.50 a pound, far below the cost of production. While Ames Farm does not participate in selling honey into that market, we support US commercial beekeepers and feel their pain as the industry faces significant contraction.
Here in Minnesota, beekeepers produced 20 million pounds of honey in 1998 with 250,000 hives. Given the recent losses our hive count is likely below 100,000 in MN making barely 5 million pounds annually.
This loss is the Big One, the loss that will shape beekeeping in the USA forever. The industry is in the throes of an economic collapse already, the worst perhaps they ever faced. A perfect storm of accumulated problems. But honey bees are here to stay in the USA and so is beekeeping. It's about to get more expensive and specialized as migratory beekeeping evolves and stationary beekeepers become more independent and important. Unfortunately the honey packing industry, not beekeepers, have embraced a business model of maximum profits with no apparent concern for the beekeepers, which is effectively shutting the door on the viability of the commercial honey bee industry.
Like in the original 2006 loss, samples of dead bees, beeswax, and pollen will be tested and I suspect, like in 2006, the results will not confirm anything specific we don't already know. Pollinators in general don't have a safe place to live. Conventional agriculture as well as federal and state laws and policies assume that somehow pollinators and beekeepers can live or make a living on the periphery of a system that leaves nothing for pollinators to live on from spring to fall, instead often just a few weeks of flowers.
Robot drone pollinator bees are not far away that can take the place of honey bees and can operate with no concern around pesticides.
Habitat losses fueled by subsidized planting of corn and soybeans at volumes that have depressed the market are also the responsibility of rural landowners whom I don't believe have realized the impact they can make. This is a massive opportunity for our country and state of MN to leverage and educate landowners, set expectations and explain the value of pollinator habitat. This seems like a perfect fit for a state agency to undertake.
I'm not sure most people realize the concept of plant diversity in the pollinator world. Spring, summer and fall all have unique trees, shrubs and plants that bloom in succession. The exceptions are non native species like clover or chicory and alfalfa that can bloom multiple times if they receive enough moisture and fill in the empty spaces we have lost in habitat. I have written about this before, the loss of some of our major nectar sources in MN.
A recently completed Minnesota Statewide Bee Survey 2014-2023 by the MN DNR of native bees shows what I call the Pollinator Death Zone in the south-western ⅓ of the state. The area is shaded in light yellow with low numbers of native bee species and two counties in white where there are zero….. That's right, zero native bees left.
Most people would reasonably expect that the MN dept of Agriculture would be on top of this slow rolling disaster. But from my perspective they have done nothing to move the needle and produce any notable successes in pollinator habitat and population restoration.
Neonic Seed Coating and Residential Neonic Use
Another area of grave concern for MN wildlife, songbirds, and pollinators are the neonic systemic pesticides that have become ubiquitous across most of the state's landscape.
These products are used extensively on agricultural crops but also are available for homeowner non agricultural use and dominate the shelf. The are based on nicotine an which while an improvement over the more dangerous organophosphate insecticides.
Its mode of action is for the chemical to be absorbed into the plant tissue and presents itself in small doses in the leaves, flowers, nectar and fruit of the plants causing death or sublethal harm to the pest. Many studies show sublethal and lethal impacts on native pollinators and honeybees. The European Unions has banned or restricted usage and this issue is widely known.about here in the USA.
In MN and the Upper Midwest the use of neonics as corn and soybean seed coatings creates a loophole in the enforcement and even data collection on usage at the state level. Somehow the EPA label law for usage and risk suddenly does not apply. My understanding is the MN State Legislature has avoided creating their own laws to take control of this loophole and create laws to restrict the use of these chemicals.
Agriculture use of these seed coatings is so deeply rooted that uncoated seeds for corn and soybeans are hard to find. The MN DNR sampled hundreds of deer during the 2021 deer season and found 96% of the deer with levels of neonics in their spleen ⅔ of which had levels that could create birth defects. The Star Tribune link has a paywall, here is a snippet of the problem that is not being addressed.
“The pesticides linked to bee, butterfly and pollinator deaths across the nation are being found in the organs of far more of Minnesota's wild deer, and in higher concentrations than previously thought. State biologists found neonicotinoids in nearly all 94% of deer spleens collected from road kill and sent in by hunters last fall. Alarmingly, roughly two-thirds of those deer had higher concentrations of the chemicals than a threshold found to potentially lower fawn survival and cause bone and genital deformities in a captive deer study.”
Purdue University and others have published scientific papers showing that the $300M farmers spend on these seed coatings return $300M in increased crops. Why are we letting this class of systemic chemicals first absorbed into the plants and flowers, then encountered by pollinators often at sublethal levels, be a contributor to the Death by One Thousand Cuts?
Several states have gotten a spine to take on the agro-chem complex and restrict the use of these chemicals in their state for residents and agriculture.
“Seven states restrict outdoor, non-agricultural use to persons licensed or supervised by licensed pesticide applicators: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Washington state. New York and Vermont are leading the way in restricting neonicotinoid-treated seeds in row crops”
In fact we have a bill introduced in 2023 in the MN legislature, bill H2805, that would prohibit the use of these kinds of chemicals for non agricultural use, but apparently has no support to move forward. This would be a large step that would move the needle by creating some bold protections for pollinators!
On a personal note: at one time I took over an apiary from Harry Stewart, life long beekeeper in Winnebago MN in 2002 right when the neonics were just starting to take over the seed market. One of his bee yards was a native wildflower seed grower. Fast forward to 2020 years after giving up the location, I called him to chat and he told me how they quit using beekeeping veils to harvest wildflower seeds around 2010 after neonic coated seeds took over the landscape as there were no local native bees left. He’s in the Pollinator Death Zone I described earlier.
In fact here's my challenge: come July in midsummer drive out to the pollinator death zone west of Wilmar, Glencoe and Albert Lea MN and drive down a lonely gravel road surrounded by soybeans and field corn and park your car and roll the window down. Count the number of pollinators you see or hear. Listen to the silence…..
Minnesota Dept of Agriculture Leadership is Needed
Public awareness: how committed is the MN Dept of Ag to help pollinators? They could show pollinators and beekeepers some love by rolling out a public service message and effort to educate rural landowners that hold the key to replacing lost pollinator habitat.
In fact I have a mascot that can be use in the spirit of Smokey The Bear. Rusty the Homeless Bumble Bee Says ”Only You the Rural Landowners in MN Can Save The Pollinators!”
Make this a priority like ethanol and become a leader in pollinator habitat inclusive agriculture, not lagging behind other states. Admit that our state is currently actually pollinator unfriendly as the SW ½ of the state is a pollinator death zone where pollinators have no place to live. Stop the charade that we have made any measurable progress because we can't show any metrics that prove it.
Create Pollinator First Ag Policies at the State Level
Providing state incentives for farmers to create habitat seems like a logical place to start.
I like the idea of a “pollinator habitat tariff” system that engages the corporate buyers like Cargil or General Mills who are the main users and beneficiaries of government subsidized crops like corn, wheat, and soybeans. The idea is to get them involved in a long term solution to try and replace a fraction of the pollinator habitat that has been eliminated by the expansion of cropland.
The tariff could be a ratio of tons of crops purchased versus acreage of pollinator habitat to be planted and maintained. Like 1000 acres of habitat for every 20,000 acres of cropland disrupted. The idea is to create a responsibility for planting and maintaining pollinator habitat rather than the current situation where the pollinators and beekeepers are left with nothing and no real future.
Minnesota had 20 millions acres of native prairie in the mid 1800’s, currently we now have 250,000 acres and growing, but having corporate involvement would be a really good way to get a large pollinator habitat restoration movement going.
The idea is the corporations (many are international or foreign owned) that benefit from our agricultural policies that have destroyed pollinator habitat and deliver cheap ingredients pay farmers to include some small ratio of pollinator habitat.
Public: Use your buying power to become pollinator-centric in your food purchases
Stop relying on corporations that promote unsustainable practices. That's unfortunately probably 85% of the food in the larger grocery store chains and 99% of the food in convenience stores. Buy local, especially from organic and regenerative farms, farmers markets and direct if you can afford it. If not, plant a garden and reduce relying on these corporations that don't have our environment or public health in mind beyond profits.
There are many problems in this world, but planting flowers, trees and plants for pollinators is something we can do as a society and make pollinators a priority. It's not “Save The Bees” anymore. It’s more specific “What are you doing to Support Pollinator Habitat?”
Because habitat is everything, you can't kill a native bee or honey bee with a pesticide if they had nowhere to live in the first place.
In closing our bees are well and survived the winter. We firmly believe that diverse habitat is critical and we have put our own resources into replanting our own land, as well as for those we can collaborate with in our circle of landowners who let us keep bees on their land.
Check out our Land For Bees program where you can support our mission by purchasing our Land For Bees Honey Subscription, the funds of which go back into the ground as seeds, transplants, and habitat management.
