U.K. Honeybees Suffer Worst Winter Losses Ever Recorded

Honeybees suffered major losses in the United Kingdom this past winter, according to the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA), amounting to more than twice those experienced during the winter of 2011 and 2012.

On average, the organization’s annual report stated, 33.8 percent of colonies did not survive between 2012 and 2013 compared with 16.2 percent the previous year.

The losses, the group explained, are largely the result of “poor and changeable” weather during 2012 continuing into the present year; the late arrival of spring in the region further exacerbated colony loss.

All told, 2013 marked the coldest spring on record since 1962, the U.K. national weather service said, with temperatures between the months of March and May averaging just 6 degrees Celsius, or 42.8 degrees Fahrenheit.

For this reason, the BBKA said, it’s possible that colony losses continued to rise even after the survey was taken.

The impact of bad weather on the lives of bees takes many forms, the institute explained, including an inability to forage, scarcity of pollen and nectar, inadequately mated queens and especially poor nutrition during the late summer when the specialized bees designed to carry the colony through the winter are born.

In addition, beekeepers have reported a rise in isolation starvation during times of bad weather, which happens when the bees lose contact with their food reserves during the winter. Because bees cluster close together to maintain hive temperature, they are quick to consume the stores of honey closest to them. Once those stores are exhausted, they must venture farther away from their hive; however, if the weather is too cold, or if the cluster moves and regroups after moving in the wrong direction, the colony may starve.

What’s more, should the bees survive even in the face of a limited food supply, poor nutrition renders the bees more vulnerable to disease and other stress factors.

Finally, the report explains, most of those hives who did survive the winter did so largely in thanks to beekeepers rather than their own capacities.

“Those honeybee colonies which have survived the winter and are now prospering have done so in the main due to the careful nurturing through the winter by beekeepers who have spent much time and effort feeding and carrying out frequent checks on hives, incurring significant additional expense meeting the need to continually feed their hives,” BBKA Chairman David Aston said.

Going forward, the group called for increased training and education in order to help beekeepers better aid their bees in coping with the period of changing weather patterns.